To save energy for the Full Moon, I had a lie in until 10ish, and just spent the day reading in the shade.
At 3.30ish I had a shower and got changed for the party. I had originally planned to wear a dress but I had been told to wear something you don't mind getting ruined, so I put on denim shorts and a bikini top and went down the road with Vicky to buy some Red Bull and a 'ravey' t-shirt with sunglasses on it which I could get dirty. We bought four different bottles of energy drink, including M150, a Thai drink which is apparently way stronger than Red Bull.
Our taxi came to take us to the pier at 4.30pm, but when we got in, it wouldn't start! After about 15 minutes the driver changed the flat battery and we were off. There were loads of people at the pier going to the party.
We got onto the catamaran (aka party boat) and waited to leave. They were playing dance and electro music on the boat and everyone was really excited so there was a good atmosphere. The sun set whilst we were on the boat and looked amazing.
When we arrived at Koh Pha-Ngan, we were taken in taxis to Haad Rin, where the party is. Our taxi driver was a bit mental and was driving ridiculously fast for no reason other than to impress the guys in his cab, but luckily we made it there alive.
We had some dinner and a beer whilst watching the football (Chelsea vs. Everton). It was quite comforting to hear the English commentary, even though I didn't give a monkeys about the outcome of the match!
After dinner I ended up buying a luminous orange full moon crop top which I will never wear again, and we used my original sunglasses vest as a paintbrush wiper whilst we were painting eachother with UV glow paint.
We all had dots on our faces as well as a bunch of designs on our arms and legs - I did a particularly good one involving palm trees on Vicky's back. It felt like being at uni again and going to a rave night.
It was gone midnight by the time we made it to the beach! It was crazy! We saw people passed out, people groping eachother (including unsuspecting drunk guys groping ladyboys), people dancing on picnic tables, people climbing up beacons, people lighting fireworks etc. I saw one guy in the recovery
position and whilst one person shouted 'get an ambulance!' another person painted some more UV glow paint on him. Very necessary. I also saw a couple of people potentially break their ankles, or at least sprain them.
There were loads of bars along the beach playing different music, as well a water slide with a crash mat at the end and a fire torch halfway up - a health and safety nightmare. We saw quite a few people we had met before including Fi and Magz from the Chiang Mai trek, Jordi from Siem Reap and a guy we met on the bus from Bangkok to Chumphon, amongst others.
Vick and I decided to share a bucket as we didn't want a whole one to ourselves, but thought seeing as we were at a full moon party we should probably involve ourselves in a bucket of cheap Thai alcohol. At 2.30ish Vix went to Katie and Hayley's, who we met on Koh Tao, to sleep, and Vick and I stayed partying. I had a really good time, it was better than I had expected!
We just did lots of dancing really, unfortunately, as it does at all of the major events (trekking, Angkor Wat), my camera ran out of battery, but I did get a few photos earlier in the night.
We met Vix again at 5am for some more dancing, and then went to get our taxis back to the pier. The taxis were meant to come at 6am but they were a bit late, and we were stuffed into a full one so we didn't get a seat. It was properly light by the time we got to the pier, so it was funny watching the drunk/drugged up people attempt to get onto the boat. I'm glad we didn't drink (apart from half a bucket), I would have hated to be hungover today or to not remember everything from the evening.
On the boat the ravey music was originally playing, but they have turned
it off now - the atmosphere is much more subdued than it was on the way here!
It is 8.40am now and we are still on the boat - we are supposed to check out f our room at 10am but I think they mentioned we could check out later if our boat got in quite late.
One more day in Koh Tao and this evening we're off to Krabi!
xxx