Bryan and Rich were staying at Had Chaophao, while Josh and I were staying at the infamous Had Rin: the beach where the full moon party is held. As a consequence, we would be taking different ferries from Koh Samui to Koh Pha-Ngan.
Still hoping for the best in regards to weather, we sat and waited for our ferry, but it started to rain so hard that you couldn't see 5 feet in front of you.
When the rain did subside, we boarded the ferry already brimming with shirtless guys with backwards caps already drinking their fifth beers, and girls wearing bikini tops and those lovely daisy dukes with the pockets hanging below the shorts themselves.
We were in for a sloppy 5 days!
Our hostel, the conveniently located yet borderline sleazy 'Om Ganesh', was just a few meters from the pier. We checked into our surprisingly well air-conned 14-bed dorm and decided to walk around.
Koh Pha-Ngan, the original backpacker island on the Gulf of Thailand, has been holding full moon parties since the idea was first conceived there. It started off as a small gathering of dread-locked beach-bums and has now become an avenue for 15-50 thousand party-goers (depending on the month) who descend onto sunrise beach and party from moon-rise until the tide washes away the beach. The parties have become legendary on the backpacker circuit of South East Asia and a must for anyone visiting Thailand and wanting to party.
I don't know what Had Rin looked like 10 years ago, but Josh and I were surprised by the level of filth on and around sunrise beach and the full moon party hadn't even happened yet! We even walked down sunset beach and were equally disappointed by its level of decay.
Bryan and Rich caught the surprisingly long tuk tuk ride down from their resort and Alexa, who was staying in Thong Sala, the main town of Koh Pha-Ngan, also came to join the rest of us for dinner.
It was approaching party time so we started sharing buckets of Sang Som and bought some florescent singlets to fit into the crowd. We then went to Om Ganesh to use their body paints to give ourselves some pizzaz.
With the artistic abilities of Bryan and Alexa, we all ended up looking pretty amazing.
To be honest, the preparations for the full moon party, with our dancing and picture taking was probably my favorite part of the night.
I mean common. The pictures speak for themselves!
The streets leading to sunrise beach were lined with tons of stands selling buckets and bottles of beer.
Once on the beach, there were even more stands with touts shouting hilarious things at you to get your business; along with fire-shows, people dancing on elevated stages and thousands of party-goers at various levels of intoxication dancing along the beach.
What was nice was that the beach was long and wide enough that despite the number of people, you could still find ample personal space to enjoy yourself without feeling cramped.
The downsides were that the lighting was really poor so you couldn't see anyone's body paint and there were tons of empty buckets and beer bottles in the sand making the walk dangerous and disgusting at times.
We actually managed to stay together until the wee hours of the night: dancing, drinking and joking around until we all headed back to our respective accommodations.
A great time was had by all!
The next day, Josh and I went to check out the full moon beach and were surprised to see that the tide was so high that all signs that there had been a party or even a beach for that matter had been washed away. Unfortunately, this also means that a lot of the garbage on the beach including glass and buckets gets washed into the sea. So sad.
During the day we had made friends with some guys from our hostel and joined them for a barbecue dinner at Om Ganesh. From there we went to watch a Muay Thai fight where we questioned the authenticity of the fight because the fighters themselves placed bets just before they entered the ring! Talk about rigged!
Once again, Josh made me look like an asshole by kicking my chair out from under me just before I sat down, which sent the crowd of foreigners into hysterics while I sat on the ground.
We then went to Cactus bar, the liveliest bar with arguably the best music. As the music continued to get better and better, it started to rain harder and harder.
At a certain point, and I will never forget this moment for the rest of my life, Million Voices by Otto Knows comes on and people are dancing on picnic tables as the rain is pouring down on them, everything seeming to move in slow motion. Girls in their underwear, guys in board shorts just going ape-shit under this torrential downpour.
I can still see the bodies moving to the pounding bass, hands and faces raised towards the sobbing skies and the sheer, unadulterated energy generated by the crowd. Better than the most surreal music video.
Absolutely mind blowing!
At a certain point I couldn't contain myself and I ran outside to join them, rain and all.
This is what Had Rin was meant to be!
After some ferocious dancing and partying we went to another bar to relax. As we were about to leave, a group of around 30 people started coming up the stairs. We thought awesome, the party is coming to us.
However, it turns out that just shortly after our departure from Cactus, two Thai men got into an argument and ended up shooting each other inside the bar. Not only did both die, but one was shot in the head and it was witnessed by some of the people entering our bar.
From bliss to carnage.
With the mood understandably sombre, we all decided it was a good time to call it a night.
The next day, Muz, Will, two other guys who I don't remember their names, Josh and myself took a boat to Had Yuan beach, which is not accessible by land. We spent the day there and tried to enjoy the mediocre beach despite the cold winds and teeming rain.
Josh and I had grown tired of Had Rin and its dirty beaches and even dirtier people, so we took a 45-minute tuk tuk ride to join Bryan, Rich and Alexa at Had Chaophao, the beach they were staying at.
After a delicious pizza dinner and a dip in their glorious infinity pool, we made our way to Pirate Bar for a post full moon tribal dance party.
The following day we finally found one of Koh Pha-Ngan's beautiful beaches, Had Yao, and enjoyed our first sunny, cloudless day in Thailand. It was about time!
We enjoyed the tranquility and beauty of Had Yao so much that we returned the following day.
Alexa had left for Koh Tao and Bryan's stomach did not agree with the Korean Barbecue we had for dinner; so Josh, Rich and I went back to Had Rin for some debauchery on our last night. However, it seemed like everyone else had become fed up with Had Rin and the place was a veritable ghost town devoid of any parties. Even our 14-bed dorm room was occupied only by Josh, myself and this British guy John.
It was finally time to head back to Koh Samui, and with the weather finally being in our favor, I couldn't wait to lounge around on the beach all day.
We checked into Bryan and Rich's hotel and immediately made our way to Lamai's beautiful golden beach.
One would think that with all the rain we had been having that there may have been power-outages, but there wasn't. Somehow on our second day back in Lamai, a power cable was cut on mainland Thailand, resulting in the entire island of Koh Samui to be without power for 3 days!
So not only were our rooms hot and dark, but for some odd reason our toilets and showers didn't work either. If it isn't one thing, it's another!
Spending the days on the beach wasn't an issue, but at night it was a challenge to find places that had generators and any sort of ambiance other than that of a candle-lit dinner.
Luckily the outage didn't disrupt our night at Swing Bar, where we witnessed an absolutely incredible dub-step infused fireshow.
After just one night without air conditioning and plumbing, we asked for a refund and returned to ibed which had an arsenal of generators and consequently the amenities which we were paying for, unlike our previous place.
One day we decide to check out Chaweng beach, which is the most popular and developed beach on Koh Samui. After walking down its narrow, dirty beach with fat, old European tourists, we decided it wasn't worth our time and we returned to good old Lamai.
Unfortunately it was already time for Bryan and Rich to fly back to Bangkok before returning home to Montreal. Although the time past incredibly quickly and their trip was wrought with frequent delays, rip-offs, some stomach issues and some minor bad luck; we still had an amazing time with these boys and it was great to hang out and party with some friends from home.
Bryan, being a gifted filmmaker, made a short film about our time together in Thailand. Really superbly done and most of the time I didn't even know he was filming.
Three Weeks in Thailand from Bryan Wilkat on Vimeo.
As their luck would have it, as soon as Bryan and Rich left, the power came back on. Josh and I needed a break from all the partying so we were heading to Koh Tao, the smallest and most laid-back island on Thailand's gulf coast. We welcomed some early nights and it also didn't hurt that Koh Tao is the gulf's premier scuba diving spot.
I couldn't wait to get back into the water!
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