The infamous Koh Phangan Full Moon Party supposedly started in the mid-1980’s and has since gained fame throughout the world of travellers. An experience to be remembered (at least through the photos on my phone), the party now draws somewhere between 5,000 and 30,000 people to Haad Rin Beach. The bars stay open all night and the party stops sometime after sunrise (if you can make it that long). It’s a hot travel spot for many travellers (especially young party-goers) and while Dan and I missed it last time we were in Thailand, this time it was part of our itinerary.

And here’s a quick summary of what happens at the Full Moon Party on Koh Phangan:

…the night starts like many others (while in Asia) with a ride in the back of a pickup truck (if you are not staying in Haad Rin)

…everyone drinks “buckets” – they consist of a ‘mickey’ of liquor, a soda and a can of the Thai equivalent of Red Bull mixed quite literally, in a bucket. My drink of choice was SangSom (Thai Rum) mixed with Soda water. Note that if you can bother to walk just slightly off the beach buckets are much cheaper.

…friends laugh together. We were lucky enough to be joined by two friends (Dan and Cory) whom we met in Manitoba at work!

…the beach party is about as wild as beach parties get. I mean, what do you expect when you cram thousands of people onto a beach!

…the giant, bright full moon lights up the beach (the reason behind the start of the party) and to add to the ambiance, every bar shines black lights in every direction – hence why everyone tends to wear colours that glow in the dark!

… many people get “tattoos” drawn on them with glow in the dark paint

….and they look nowhere as good as in ‘advertisements’.

*Missing photo of terribly drawn dragons on peoples arms that they paid a mini-fortune for*

…strangers become friends. And strangers take photos of strangers being friends, obviously.

…Christmas and New Years seemingly never end. I mean why take down the nicely lit up sign, right?

….shocking things happen.

…such as, people think they can play with fire and not get hurt…watch the video!

…the ocean becomes a giant urinal (and sadly, the beautiful sandy beach becomes a giant garbage can).

…the Thai girls dancing with you turn out to be hookers, no joke.

….And that pretty much sums up the night, at least via the photos I laughingly scanned through in the morning (and by morning, I mean late afternoon when we finally crawled out bed)!