Full moon magic

at the risk of sounding like a broken record, because i know ive said this several times before, one of my favourite aspects of traveling is meeting all sorts of interesting, fun, travel obsessed people from all over the world while on the road...sharing experiences, advice and a beer or 10...you can meet the world while seeing the world... And, since i have a very special talent for keeping in touch with new friends, it's not unusual for us to stumble across people we know again and again...if we're lucky each time in a new, exotic location...

and so it is with Em....a brissy gal who we met in Greece and who is now traveling with her mates Emily and Katie for 6 months round south east asia and india. Like all good backpackers they had heard of the magic of the Full Moon Party in Koh Phangan and made tracks there pronto....

so on Monday, FMP eve, we all got together over pad thai to plan our attack on the party the next night before preparing our muscles for a full night of dancing with an energetic thai massage. fully cracked and pummeled we moved on to relax our brains back at the amsterdam bar....famous for it's chilled out vibe and breathtaking sunsets over the ocean...it was, we all decided, important to have an early night so we would be on our best form for the party. so we went our separate ways for pre-party sleeping. it cannot be said that we didn't strategise to the extreme for optimum full moon party enjoyment...!

FMP-day dawned on Tuesday and I was one very excited party animal. so excited, in fact, that I couldn't relax for my final planned afternoon sleep... Finally night fell, the full moon rose and our party night began. We went first to Em, Emily and Katie's resort and invited Mike, a swedish backpacker (the place was swarming with swedes who are prolific travellers) who we had met on our snorkelling tour a few days before. We had had a beer and a chat with him, discovered he was traveling solo and was a fun and funny guy and so included him in our plans. The resort had an 'all you can drink' deal which we made the most of...slurping down sang son, a potent thai rum, before moving on to 'buckets...the famous drink of choice at FMPs....basically a bucket like one a child might take to the beach, filled to the brim with alcohol....adults only thank you! Hanging out with another group of swedes who were staying at the resort it was aussie vs swede in an intense drinking game which took us close to midnight....and finally it was time to hit the beach...

Sensory overload...music pumping...bodies crashing past, dancing wildly....fire twirlers and fire rings....neon body paint...and a very full moon...

we tried to stick together but we had a big group of 10 including all the swedes and with thousands of revelers moving around on a small beach in the dark it was hard to even keep up with one friend....a few of us stumbled down the beach, making friends along the way before finding a bar playing music we liked and dancing, dancing on the sand...heading back up the beach again we miraculously ran into our friends the swedes, now covered with body paint and dancing ecstatically under the stars...the party was everything I had been hoping for and I had the time of my life...

but today we paid the price for our excess as we joined the hoards of hungover travellers, still in their sand coated party clothes and their neon paint, being herded onto the ferry and back to wherever it was they came from...our destination was bangkok...away from paradise and back to city smog...we could not have been in more different worlds....

It was sad to leave koh phangan...we had a great time there and I believe I have fallen in love with thailand. I could quite happily exist for the rest of my life on pad thai, chang beer and banana, chocolate and coconut pancakes that cost 30 baht(60p). But there is still a week left in thailand and many more adventures are just around the corner...

Stay tuned. xx