Part 22 : Full Moon Party

Full Moon Party

Dont Det > Bangkok
well where to start. Travelling from 4000 islands on Lao new year to Thailand for the Full Moon Party is just insane and intense. Nina and Sissel were staying and heading up to Vang Vieng for tubing because Nina hadn't dont it yet. So it was Richard, Cally, Alex and myself all heading to Ubon in Thailand and only Richard not heading to Bangkok.

I had prebooked my flight from Bangkok to Surat Thani and it was leaving @ 9:50am on the morning of the 17th so I needed to be there by then. When I had booked my ticket to Dont Det I asked if there wouldbe any issues going to Bangkok on this day and the guy assured me it would be fine. Dont listen prebook. The bus from Don Det was 2 hours late and so instead of arriving in Pakse at around 1:30pm we arrive there @ 3:15pm and the bus from Pakse to Bangkok was leaving @ 3:30pm. We had no money because there are no atms on the island and so we had to Tuk Tuk it to an ATM. The guy literally didnt understand what we are in a fucking hurry means and drove us miles away from an atm and dropped other people off too. We got back in time to see the full bus leave and us miss out on a ticket.

After some arguing we asked if we can hire a mini van and so the four of us and some locals all took the mini van to the border. Actually the mini van was quite nice and I was thinking at this point in time this is a good way to travel if you dont wanna be one of the masses and that I actually got to Bangkok to catch my flight. We got to the border and the Lao Kip we had taken out to pay for travel wasnt what he want and so we had to pay in Baht. :( no I had 300,000 (30AUD) worth of useless money. The Visa stamp was easy, 15 free days travel for Australians when you enter via land crossing and 30 via airports.

Then we Minivan'd it again to Ubon and minivan to ourselves this time. After we got to the Bus station we soon learnt how dismal our chances were of getting any kind of bus to Bangkok. As richard looked after our packs we found that every single bus was booked out. All the Thai people were heading back to the city after Songkram and Lao new year. Thing were not looking up. I thought hey maybe we will do the minivan thing again. There was a really nice thai girl that helped translate for us and soon we heard those magical words. "Special Seats" hmmmmm…… I thought wondered what they could be.

Special seats as they turned out were seats in the aisle. We all sat in between the other seats but they had nice fluro coloured plastic chairs for us to sit on. Other then the high premium that we were paying and the fact that we had to sit like this for 10+ hours I was quite relieved that we were on the bus and that I was going to make my flight. We left richard and Cally, Alex and myself headed on to Bangkok, laying down in the aile and going to sleep. Me and Cally decide to go halves in some Lao Valium and 8 hours later woke up in Bangkok. ooh yeah. travelling in style.

Bangkok airport > Koh Phangan
I finally made it to the airport in Bangkok and found I was 3 hours early. The first thing I did was kick back into westerner mode and found myself buying a burger from Burger King. Silly mistake. It ended up being the biggest fattiest burger ive ever eaten and in the end I had about a 1/4 of the whole thing and at 6am in the morning after 2 months of Pad Thai and noodle soups it made me feel a little ill. It was also more expensive then m last 10 meals combined. Afterwards I slept in the airport across 4 chairs while I waited for my flight, waking up finding people surrounding me and my flight ready to board.

The flight was easy enough, then a bus to the ferry dock which took an hr but was ridiculously hot, lucky I brought my fan :D and then the 2 hour boat ride across to the island. This is where I met Vadim, An american russian guy who ended up teaming up with me as we ventured into the great unknown of Koh Phangan.

Total travel time (Approximately 32 hours)

Koh Phangan
17th, After finding the Dancing elephant and going through the Initiation by david the french owner, me and Vadim headed out to meet up with his friend Kim who owned a bar called seaview sunrise and her friend Kelsie who were semi working the bar there. a few drinks later and a massive discussion on what was the best film to come out since the matrix and me and Vadim decided to head off to the pool party at coral bungalows. Good times, buckets, a girl named jenny which neither me nor Vadim will go into details about but the pool ended up being quite hilarious a night, Also ran into the british guys I met in Nha trang and Vang Vieng. its a small world in the south east asia backpackers world. After the pool party we ended up at the beach and then on to the mushroom mountain where joints were 250 Baht :P way too much and alot of people getting stoned. I hung out with 2 aussie girls and stayed up to watch the sunrise. quite beautiful in reality and quite sad that that beach was being so abused by so many tourists each month.

18th. Full Moon Party
Hmm well what to say. we started back down at the Seaview Sunrise and had a few drinks with the girls. I suppose we were going to hang out with them all night but Kelsie passed out around 10 and so we bailed and moved on to the bulk of the festivities. Im sure I snuck a bucket in here, and at some point I sat down and with some girls on the beach and got all painted up with gow in the dark paint. This I think went for an hour. Then Vadim convinced me to go on the fire rope at which I found really easy for the first 20 swings then thought id up the anti and start spinning ??? and ended up getting burnt on my leg. sucks balls. Then we partied for quite a while and it felt like it was getting late. Around 2-ish I think. I then thought I was really tired and left Vadim and went home, on the way home at which we called the Chicken Corner due to the chicken shop there I ran into my friends Lily, Ben and Emma from Vang Vieng. Omg finally I thought but was the worst time as I was all ready to pass out and sleep. I ended up heading back out and downing another bucket, probably the one I would regret later. Ended up shooting my blog around this time and after watching the video I realise how drunk I was. At the time I didnt think I was drunk at all and just though I was tired. hmmm, its amazing what the video camera truly reveals.

Sleep….well so I thought. the next thing I know after laying down peacefully in my dorm was me standing in the dark and spewing while holding myself up against the wall. At some point someone turned the light on and I saw the devastation I had caused. My bed was strategically located at the front of the dorm at the top of the stairs. I had somehow managed to cover the entire floor of the entrance, the top of the safety boxes (2), a small part of my bed, the bed below and some of the stairs. The worst thing is that I was still drunk and that I now had to clean up this monstrous mess. 2 hours later and with a little help from one of the girls in my dorm ??? (sorry I cant remember you very much but you were a great help) the mess was cleaned and I was ready to pass out. thanks FMP, great night, crappy morning.

19th. The surviving people managed to chill out all day watching mainly movies and catching up on the internet and FB. At night we all ventured back to mushroom mountain for a chill out session involving some pricey 500 baht mushroom shakes. I had half and pretty much just got a little happy and a little tired. me Shaunie and tom??? I think who reminded me alot of phil, headed back for food and ended up crashing out early after watching about 5 minutes of harry potter.

20th. As everyone started to some what recover we soon realised that most people were heading to Koh Tao for some kind of after party/diving and that myself and Shaunie had pre paid for 5 days at dancing elephant, a little scam to make money after the FMP, and that they're were no more boats available any how. In the end it was Shaunie and myself and about 3 other people that stayed on with a quiet eerie feeling coming through the dorm as it got quieter and quieter.

Mission: Shakes, Sunrise. very very cool start to day. Results: failed. lol. I had a great time but I think we definitely shouldnt have had that second whiskey bucket before the shakes.

22nd. Chill out day and rest, was a great day. Kinda like the calm before the storm. Little did I know that I was in for another 30hr epic travel adventure.