Party Time

Koh Phangan

Warning: Many Sunset pictures follow...

I guess you could say I 'let my hair down' when I arrived on Koh Phangan. Its not that I hadn't been partying previously, its a case if the partying increased ten-fold when I arrived!

Koh Phangan is a small island out in the Gulf of Thailand. It is home to the famous full-moon party, which coincidentally happens every full moon of the year. I was there in time for the March one. The original plan was to go to the party, recover and then leave a few days later. How silly Lucas and I were in thinking that would happen.

I got a room with Lucas, spending a whole pound sterling everynight for the pleasure. We were lucky to get the room, as everything sells out around full moon.

I began my obsession with taking photographs of Sunsets. How my addiction grew from here on is something that remains to be seen.















Koh Phangan's action is centred around Had Rin. A peninsular on the southern tip of the island has a beach on either side. Aptly named sunrise and sunset beach. Sunrise beach is the party beach, packed with bars and more bars. Each one selling Samgsom buckets by the shed-load. You pay 100 Baht (1.50 GBP) and they put a whole half bottle of Samgsom in along with the statutory Redbull and Coke.

This is sunrise beach at night. You can see it looks quite lively.















I didn't take the camera out for the full moon party. There is no way it would have survived, so I didn't take my chances. The party was awesome. I went to one in 1999 when I came to Thailand for a month after my first year at uni. Drank Sangsom at the bungalows before heading out to the beach. Every club and bar is on full steam ahead. Music at ear shattering volume. Techno, House, Drum & Bass, Trance and everything else. We partied all night, literally, watching the sunrise the following morning. Daylight was the signal for bed. A jolly good time was had by all!

Most nights were spent at the beach. Most days were too, come to think of it. Everynight was a big night here. It really is a party island.

Fire-spinning is a hobby that every man and his dog do on the beach at night. Mainly Thais, but the occassional try-hard tourist has a go. Some of them have immence skill, throwing the burning tapers to eachother across the beach.















Whilst in Bangkok we met an American dude called Steve aka Captain America, due to the chiseled face and long blonde hair. He travelled with us to Koh Phangan and the three of us hung out for the duration. There was a bit of an American theme going on with the company I kept whilst on the island. There was a guy from Rhode Island staying in the same bungalows, plus a great girl, Cindi, from Chicago.

Steve got a night playing some Trance at one of the clubs on the beach, Zoom was the name, if my memory serves me correctly. This is Steve playing at Zoom!















Lucas and I ended up spending two whole weeks on Koh Phangan, a little longer than planned. Everyday was too much fun to even think of leaving. The reason we had to leave in the end was our visas were almost up and needed renewing fast!

We had to make a 'visa run' to Ranong, Bhurma for the night before continuing on the tour.