Monday, February 10, 2014

Koh Phangan, Full moon Party and tropical paridise adventures

After Bangkok, I went straight to Ko Phangan to experience it's world famous full moon party. A party that happens on full moons on the beach, and the one in January gets an average of about 20,000 people attending. I got on a bus at 5pm (didn't actually leave until 8pm...) and went overnight to Surat Thani (ended up there at 5am). Then we took a bus for 25 minutes (took the VIP room) to the pier. After another hour I got on a boat, and at about 2pm the next day finally arrived at Kho Phangan! On the bus ride I met some really cool people including a guy who went to high school a twenty minute walk from where I grew up, and he was traveling around Asia performing in circus shows.
Full moon partying fire jumping

Walking to where I thought my Bungalow was supposed to be along the beach, I ran into a french Canadian guy. We ended up talking a while, he was renting a bungalow in the jungle for a few months, and the rest of the year he worked as a butler in different places around Canada. He ended up giving me a tour of part of the island, and showed me everything I needed to know. He even showed me his bungalow in the jungle which had a coconut farm on it (a bunch of palm trees). He suggest that if I am staying in Thailand a while to make a home base and rent out a house somewhere to do trips from, that way I can meet more people and develop local friends to learn more about Thailand, and also not get burnt out from being continuously on the move. Currently I want to be on the move and see a lot, but will take his advice if I extend my travels.
Walking along the beach looking for my hotel

I ended up staying at a guest house in the main city in Koh Phangan, which had a tattoo shop downstairs, and about 6 rooms, but there was usually only about one other guest upstairs. I ended up hanging out with another Canadian from Montreal for the whole week and had some awesome times together partying, going on adventures and exploring the island.

Things you can do on Koh Phan Ghan:


  • Meditate
  • Go Elephant trekking
  • Party twenty four seven
  • Take on the wipe out course
  • Go hiking
  • ride motor bikes
  • Learn to cook Thai food
  • Take Muai Thai training
  • Relax on a beach and do nothing but relax
  • Go Jet Skiing, para sailing, wake boarding, etc
  • Go to wisdom talks
  • Get a thai Massage and learn Thai Massage
  • Become an expert pool player
  • Get tatoos
  • Learn Thai
  • Volunteer at the animal shelter
  • Many more things I have not mentioned (Yoga, Scuba diving, etc)
A pet monkey at the restaurant we were eating at

There was so much to do on this island, I am not going to get into detail about what I did everyday, as by the time you finish reading it you will call me an asshole and swear to never again read my blog. Basically everyday I would go on an adventure, whether with my rented scooter, for a wisdom talk, a hike through the jungle or on the coast, a thai massage, or taking a course or watching a live show. One of the coolest things I did was taking a half day Thai cooking course. The instructor was a Thai lady, and she brought me and four others to the local market, we bought food, and then she taught me to make Spring rolls, Pad Thai, and coconut soup, and of course after we got to eat! The food was so good, and it felt really good to learn to cook new things, I would highly recomend taking a cooking course if you love to cook back home, in what ever foriegn country your in to expand your cooking skills and your mind!

I posted some pictures with captions of some of the stuff I got up to.
The beach at the resort I stayed at the second half of my stay ($15 a night)

















Are own private beach, didn't see anyone all day, there just was no sand






Eating dinner after are epic hike

60 cents a chicken leg!





Cooking school

Made my own Spring Roll






The lady opened the door beside this one and there was a king cobra standing up hissing, I told her to shut it!

The Full Moon Party:

In 10 words: Nuts, awesome, inspiring, happy, inclusive, huge, fun, exciting, energetic, crazy!!! Brief overview: The full moon party is held on a beach about 600 meters long. All the bars on the beach are open, and dance floors are also set up on the beach. In Thailand the rules are very lax (that's an understatement) and pretty much anything goes, which can create an epic party! More than just a bunch of clubs and people getting drunk and dancing, this party went much further. For starters you can get your body painted anyway you want. There is tons of food for sale (I like to eat). On the beach there are tons of dangerous activites including fire skipping (a jump rope set on fire and you don't want to get hit), jumping through rings of fire, fire limbo contests, jungle gyms to swing on, a water slide where you have to climb up a pirate rope ladder (as many as you want at a time), and you fall about 1.5 meters above the ground onto a blow up cushion, and then hopefully bounce from that onto the beach feet first (doesn't always happen). There were also to many dance floors and stages to count. Fortuntatley I survived the night with only a burn on the back of my neck from the jump rope. A lot of people say this party is overblown and over rated, I say come experience it. It only costs about $4 to get in (clean up fee), and most of the activites are free, and drinks are not over priced. The best part about the night is all the people you will meet from all over the world, it is the biggest international party I have ever experinced, and it was a great time!




Overall Ko Phan Ghan is an awesome island where you can do anything from going treking and not seeing a person all day, becoming a yoga teacher, or partying your face off! This is a great place to come and live life and have a great time, if you know of a better island please tell me, otherwise go experince it for yourself! Oh yes and you can also shoot big guns here :)