Koh Pha Ngan
Koh Pha Ngan ís most famous for its legendary full moon parties. These days though, they’ve supposedly become too mainstream and lost the reveller spirit they once had, now a place for people to try and drink as much as possible rather than simply to have a good time. I wasn’t too disappointed then when my schedule didn’t line up with the full moon, but such a party island is Koh Pha Ngan that almost every night there’s some form of big party going on not too far from you.
The first night I arrived I was fairly tired after having woken up at 6am to go scuba diving on Koh Tao, but after meeting some fun new friends at the hostel and having some drinks I headed with them to a psytrance beach party just across the road. It took me a while to get in to the intensity of the music, but I did and my energy somehow carried me until around 3am, when I collapsed in to bed.
I hadn’t planned on this island being solely a party destination - there are also beaches, waterfalls and various healing and wellness events going on every day. The combination of a brilliantly social hostel and very expensive transport on the island (thanks to the ‘taxi mafia’) however led to a natural focus on the parties. After much nature and culture elsewhere, I was happy to lean in to a few hedonistic days while here.
The next night then was the Eden party, which I’d heard good things about from other travellers since the start of my journey, with many saying it embodied the spirit of what the full moon parties used to be before everyone knew about them. Just getting there was quite the adventure. Having made friends with the others on our shared taxi to Head Rin, the main party centre, we then had to get on a small boat from the beach, over very choppy waves, through the black of night and around the coast. We were dropped off at a dark beach, from where we walked around 10 minutes through jungle to reach the venue, all made from wood and built on to a cliffside. The vibe was exactly as described by those who had recommended it to me, with the focus on dancing and having a good time rather than just getting drunk. The place was bouncing and everyone was open to interacting with each other. We stayed for hours, and around 6am decided it was time to leave. After the group getting on the boat having to push it in to the water, and getting very wet in the process, we were taken back around the coast and treated to a beautiful sunrise over the water as we did. By the time I made it back to the hostel it was broad daylight.
The next days were marked by torrential rain and storms. It’s no longer rainy season, so the constant, heavy rain surprised everyone and flooded several parts of the island. We, luckily, were near the sea, so avoided the flooding, however the hostel did lose electricity and water for a day. There wasn’t a huge amount we could do with the rain that heavy - even boats to and from the island were stopped due to unsafe conditions - but luckily there was an excellent group of people in the hostel, and we hung out in the dark, drank beers and chatted about all kinds of rubbish. After in many hostels finding mostly people a fair amount younger than me, it was refreshing to spend time with a mix of ages, including some people my age and some older. What could have been a wasted couple of days actually became quality time with lovely new friends, some of whom I expect I’ll meet up with again.
I also can’t close this blog post without mentioning Thai Mama. She was recommended as an option for cheap food on an expensive island, and she delivered in so many ways. The chairs and tables were basic plastic ones, if you wanted drinks you had to walk to the shop across the road and buy them yourself, and the the food arrived incredibly slowly as she cooked one dish at a time, but for only fifty baht (£1.25) for any Thai meal, no-one complained. On the days of torrential rain, big groups of us turned up together, and the more business we brought her, the grumpier she looked as she took our orders, but at the end of every meal she gave a warm smile as we left. Delicious, cheap and made with a combination of love and anger.
On my last day I was really sad to leave - not something I expected from party island. But the excellent hostel, the brilliant group of friends, the local places I’d frequented and the self awareness of the island really charmed me. It’s also called sticky island for the number of people that come for a few days and get stuck there for years. I can really see why.