Howling at the moon Day 1

One of the quintessential South East Asian travel experiences is the monthly full moon party on Koh Pha Ngan in Thailand. Several groups lay claim to the first full moon party but the origin is unclear. One thing is for sure though, the popularity has grown exponentially.

Day 1: I had just finished a five-day live-aboard scuba diving trip in Khao Lak, a touristy beach town an hour North of Phuket, when I decided to head to the full moon party with a friend of mine from the Muay Thai camp. I’ve had my fair share of long travel days, but this was one of the most tedious. It started with a four hour long ride on a local bus which we had to catch Thai style. Khao Lak doesn’t have a proper bus station, so instead you simply wait alongside the main road in town with all your belongings in tow and flag down the bus you want as it passes, which is roughly once an hour with no precise time-line. We had a lucky start to the day and had to wait a mere two minutes before the bus we needed came bustling along. We hopped on for a generally uneventful bus ride, the exception being the slightly overzealous ladyboy who kept “accidentally” brushing against Greg as she walked past.

We arrived in Surat Thani, the port town gateway to the islands and, once again Thai style, got dropped off at a tourist agency instead of a proper bus station. We were ushered into a cramped office with an ample pile of backpacks and their accompanying backpackers, when out of pure laziness, we were already tired and hungry, we purchased package bus/boat tickets for the rest of the journey to the island. We wandered off to grab a quick bite and hurried back only to wait around for another half hour unsure of what exactly we were waiting for. Eventually, the bus meant to take us to the port arrived. It was something akin to a converted school bus with extra seats put in to maximize capacity, all of which were filled, in addition to the greatly reduced aisle. A forty-five minute bus ride ensued with our knees jammed into the seats in front of us and a soundtrack of Aussie backpacker slang playing in the background.

We were dropped off at the pier and instantly confronted with an irritated Thai man exclaiming “you’re late, we’ve been waiting for you!” Perplexed as to how the tardiness was our fault, a collective disorganized disembarkation unfolded with people attempting to reunite themselves with the proper backpack. We then boarded the small ferry and once again deposited our bags into an even larger disorganized pile than the one we had just retrieved them from. Sighing, we hunkered down in belly of the ferry to wait out the 2.5 hour ride.

Upon arriving at the pier on Koh Pha Ngan we realized our second stroke of luck of the day; because we were some of the last to board, our bags were at the top of the gargantuan pile. Thankful to be able to avoid the unfolding chaos, we hurried off the boat, only to be accosted by a wall of yelling Thai people trying to entice us to their hotel, guest house or tuk tuk. We had already decided that we wanted to avoid Hat Rin (described by lonely planet as full moon party ground zero), so we hopped in a tuk tuk and headed to Ao Mae Hat which was described as one of the nicest beaches on the island. Our driver was apparently in a rush and set a blistering pace for the twenty minute white knuckled ride (For those who don’t know a tuk tuk is a converted pick-up truck with benches in the bed, a canvas roof, and several metal poles holding it all together). We were more than relieved to be standing on solid ground again after being deposited in front of a guest house on the beach. At that point, too tired to be scrupulous consumers, we conceded to stay there after a mere glance, scarfed down dinner, and passed out.