The Full Moon Party

The date we have been long awaiting: 2nd December 2009. The Full Moon Party. This takes place in Haad Rin, Koh Phangan, and the celebration revolves around the moon. Well, any excuse for a party more like; they have a half-moon party too! Ha ha. Got to love it. So we herded ourselves onto the back of a taxi/pick-up truck with the rest of the party-goers. Took about half an hour to get the other side of the island; the most hilly island I have ever visited, didn't know if the truck was going to make it up a few of them. And then we were there; the sudden hustle and bustle of backpackers hits you and you know you have arrived. The atmosphere is electric; thousands of people all migrate to the same spot, and the beach becomes the hub of it all. Being an annual festival-goer, this reminded me very much of the music festivals back in England. A festival on the beach! What more could you ask for? It may not be live music, but the beach is lined with bars that play their own style of music, and you find the genre you 'bop your beat to' and have a dance there for a bit. Ha ha I am so ghetto. Oh and you have to get yourself painted up in neon glow paint, great stuff. There are numerous stalls lit by black/UV light, beautful designs scrolled on the fabric walls, and you pick the design you'd like painted on. Amazing! So we all had a little bit of art done, and then we went and bought some paint of our own and just went a little bit crazy with the stuff. We looked like human glow-worms; but it's the full moon party!

And so we danced the night away; bit of reggae, bit of dance, not so much of the trance. Ha. I love that everyone was just there to have a great time, happy dancing away to their own little beats. Some people a little more off-centre than others, but generally just a fantastic party on the beach! And we danced until the sun came up! What a great feeling, watching the sun rise, knowing that you have nothing to worry about, just getting totally caught up in the moment of it all. That's what makes the experience so great; in that moment you simply be. And enjoy. And smile. "Don't worry. Be happy."

We left the beach at about 7.30am and got our taxi ride back over to Haad Yao. The journey is not as fun the next day; those hills are not party-friendly at all. Another trek back up to our hillside bungalow. Had to shower to get rid of the neon paint and then straight to bed. What a night.

Having had a sleep and a hearty breakfast, Izzy and I decided to go and pick up our laundry. Oh yeah, that's another thing I love about Thailand- the laundry service! There are signs everywhere stating ridiculously cheap prices to wash, dry and iron your clothes for you. This place is just too good to be true. Anyway so our laundry was done. Only problem was that on our way back up to Tantawan we got caught in a massive thunderstorm! The heavens do literally open up and once it rains, it pours out here. We got caught in a similar storm in bangkok actually. And we were sat in the back of a tuk-tuk! Now just imagine a fairly flimsy style of transportation, exposed to the elements on all sides, and a thunderstorm strikes. Ha ha it is not pretty. Was great fun though, except when we were nearly struck by lightning. But here I am writing this blog, so I survived to tell the tale. Such a drama queen eh.