FULL-MOON PARTY----Koh Pangan

On March 19th Des and I took the late afternoon ferry over to Koh Pangan island (about 2hours from Koh Tao) where the big full-moon party is held each month. We arrived off the ferry and went straight to the Irish pub where I had a beer and made friends while Des found us a guesthouse--and what a brilliant job he did! We stayed at a little bungalow that was on the beach and with a beautiful view of the turquoise water.

Beach Bungalow

View from our deck

Des sitting at our local bar where we stayed

The beach in front of our beach hut

We met 3 very lovely English folk (Danielle, Smudge and Matt) who we had drinks with at the pub and then a meal before sharing the full-moon shinanigans with them!

Full-Moon Gang

The full-moon party was a blast. Apparently the moon was a "super-moon" the biggest there has been in 18 years. Walking down to the beach where the massive party was (tens of thousands of people) we came across glorious street food (which we definitely indulged in later in the wee hours of the morning), shops selling neon colored clothes and paint. We bought some florescent paint and sat on a curb painting eachother while drinking buckets! (Literally sand buckets filled with Thai whiskey,coke and redbull--rocket fuel that was strong enough to send us right up to that super-full-moon!)

Street Feast

BUCKETS! 

Getting festive

Mad beach crowds--thousands

The beach was jam packed and great craic with each bar playing differnet music, a fireslide that Danielle and I went down which we found out was ALSO a water-slide...a little too late, and people dressed up in all sorts of strange but hilarious gear! Had a fab night but was definitely sufferning the next day!

The fellow Canadian--showing our pride!

Glow glasses! 

Des obviously saying something hilarious--can't quite remember what it was

The water-fire slide 

Cracking open the glow sticks

Des getting "light" headed ; )

We were prepared to leave the island the next day but decided to stay and explore the island and ended up staying for 3 nights. We rented a scooter and explored the very large island going out to different waterfalls and viewpoints overlooking thousand of palm trees and several distant islands. We passed elephants and monkeys (not in the wild which in the case of the monkey was disturbing to see. It was going crazy being leashed up to a tree) and found a place whre we tested out our archery skills.

Chillin in our hammock 

Des and puppy

Waterfall

Archery

Cleaning out our ears with wax candles

Petrol from glass bottles that we fill our scooter up on

We decided to give the third island on the gulf coast a miss as Koh Samui is meant to be very expensive (for Thailand)  and full of resorts---And so---we left for the west coast where we have been having an amazing time on the islands and in the Andaman sea!

Island Hopping-- First Stop Koh Tao!

Just as it started to downpour with rain, we took a long bus journey from Bangkok to Chumpon and then a boat to Koh Tao on the Gulf of Thailand where Des spent 4 months doing his dive masters several years ago. We arrived at the ferry around 5 am and watched the sunrise as we waited for our departure. Pulling up to Koh Tao (turtle island but sadly, no turtles were seen) we could see the fish through the crystal blue water. Des says it has changed loads and is much busier with now over 40 dive shops and loads of expansion with restaurants and guesthouses. Koh Tao is well known for the brilliant and cheap scuba diving and we both hoped to get a few dives in but the weather (and lack of visibility, apparently always an issue around the time of the full moon as the coral is spawning) made us refrain.

I thought it was a very charming, laid-back and beautiful place but it was quite a shock to be surrounded with mostly foreigners rather than locals for a change! We spent 3 or 4 days on Koh Tao exploring the island on scooter and snorkeling amidst the beautiful neon fish, sea cucumbers and other little creatures (got a few stings from tiny invisible jelly-fish--small but slightly painful!)We also traveled some very dodgy, bumpy and gravelly roads on scooter and went out to Shark Bay and Mango beach.

Digger that helped by pushing our scooter through the mud

Crashing waves on windy day

We got showered on a bit while we were there, but nothing compared to what we experienced on the South-West islands! We celebrated St. Patty's day in true green form after finding a little pub that served Bulmer's and had the gaelic football and hurling on!

We left the day of the full-moon and headed out to Koh Pangan where the original full-moon parties are held. The morning before we left I sliced by big toe open on cracked bamboo which was extremely painful and there was lots of blood. Des dragged me to the nurse where funnily enough he had a giant piece of glass removed from his foot years before. She healed my toe up with a big funny bandage and it is only really starting to heal now (nearly 3 weeks later).

After the visit to the nurse

Next Stop....Full Moon Party! x