Day 19: Full Moon Party at Ko Phangan

-Marco and I spent the day relaxing in order to be fully prepared for our Full Moon Party experience. A little bit about the Full Moon Party: I've heard it's numbers range from 8,000 to 30,000 depending on the month. It supposedly started as a birthday party that was so much fun the friends came back every year and it just grew and grew. Supposedly. It takes place on Haad Rin beach on Ko Phanang, which isn't very big.

-After a big dinner a pick-up truck/taxi came to pick us up around 7pm for our 8pm speedboat over to Ko Phangan. We didn't end up leaving Ko Samui island until around 8:30pm but we talked with some British people we met. The speedboat was so much fun. It was just so ridiculous. We were all sitting with beers and lifejackets propelling over huge ocean waves. We were lucky enough to get a seat in the front.

Pre Full Moon:

On the pick-up truck/taxi:

On the speedboat:

-Once on the island the madness began. There were people everywhere along with food stalls, tattoo painting stations, and the infamous bucket stalls. We bought a bucket and a US flag tattoo (for July 4th) then wandered around just taking in the madness.

Tattoos for sale:

Our US flag tats for July 4th:

Laughing gas for sale:

The infamous buckets:

Food, everywhere:

-We walked down to the beach, which was even crazier. There were stalls upon stalls of buckets. We walked down to one end of the beach with fire jump rope. Exactly what it sounds like with no safety measures at all. Imagine drunk people trying to jump rope over fire. Of course Marco had to try, but he only came away with a slight burn on the arm.

Fire jump rope:

Marco mid-jump:

-Since I was too scared I decided to go down a slide further down. You had to climb up a rope ladder to get up there and then went down this steep, wet slide, through two sticks of fire, only to end up on the ground covered in sand. Of course I was all sandy after so braved the ocean. I hoped it was early enough that it hadn't turned into a public urinal yet.

The slide:

-We spent the rest of our time wandering around the beach and dancing at a couple places. We bought some food and just people watched mainly- highly amusing. I hit a wall of exhaustion around 2am so we tried to get the 3am speedboat back, only that took forever. We also saw about three people bleeding from their heads, one from their foot, and one girl just being carried. Casualties of the night.

Where the party originally started almost 30 years ago:

Marco paying attention:

-The speedboat ride back wasn't nearly as fun but we got back safely, wandering into the hotel around 4:30am.