Full Moon Madness on Koh Phangan

Every month, thousands of backpackers flood the beach of Haad Rin on Koh Phangan for the infamous Full Moon Party. We, were no exception – if you're in Thailand, you must experience this overhyped night of lunar celebrations.

Since the island is synonymous with partying, we had low expectations for Koh Phangan and its beaches. However, we were pleasantly surprised with the how nice everything was – our hostel, Om Ganesh, was fantastic, the food was amazing, the beach was gorgeous, the people were welcoming and the buckets were cheap cheap.

Backpacker Blowout

We arrived two nights before the main moon event, and had a great time bouncing between the many parties hosted on the island – the nightly pool party, beach party, jungle party, waterfall party, etc.

Basically, it's like an international college spring break during the week leading up to the full moon – each day, more and more like-minded travelers filled the beach adding to the air of excitement.

One night, the girls bravely got bamboo tattooes, which was really cool to watch. They said it felt like bee stings over and over and over again, but the end results were perfect Thai souvenirs, only costing about $30 each. (Even with a bit of Chang courage, I couldn't commit to a bamboo branding.)

'The Full Moon Party is an All Night Beach Party'

The most fun part of this massive celebration is dressing the part. Everyone wears tacky t-shirts, brightly colored nylon shorts, headbands, UV jewelry and most importantly fluro body paint.

With ridiculous painted tattoos and buckets in hand, we joined the neon zombie walk heading to the beach debauchery.

Once on the sand, it's extremely easy to loose your friends, step on glass or be soaked by sloshing Sangsom buckets. But the mayhem is all part of the fun, and it was amazing to see so many people in such a small area – during holidays like New Years, around 30,000 people attend!

Shockingly, I found the Phi Phi parties to be much more dangerous than Koh Phangan. Sure, here you're surrounded by way too many backpackers and there's a few death slides on Haad Rin, but we saw no pole of death for folks to climb or fire obstacles for tourists to tackle.

Our visit to Koh Phangan was a great success – we had so much fun, ran into lots of friends we met on other islands and got great sun on our last Thai island of the trip.

While I may be too old to attend another Full Moon Party, I definitely would return to Koh Phangan.

 

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Birthweek Abroad

As each year passes, I find myself less enthusiastic to celebrate and bring attention to my steadily increasing age. Sure, age is just a number and I’m frequently told I look like I’m in my early 20’s, but it’s still a shock when I admit my age out loud. This year was no different, but instead of letting the birthday blues take over, I embraced my 27th birthday with a full week of acceptable self-centeredness.

Monday

One of my French friends I met during my first few months in Australia was traveling through Sydney from Bora Bora on her way to Thailand (are you as green with envy as me?), so we met up with another good friend for a catch up dinner. We went to an adorable wine bar in Darlinghurst and indulged in savory and sweet crepes, delicious wine and stories from our time apart.

One sip of red wine, and I have purple teeth, sigh.

Tuesday

On my actual birthday, I woke up to a sweet birthday surprise from my roomies. They left some flowers, gummy babies and card on the table that made my day as I was off to work at 5:15 am.

The rest of the day was pretty low key – I spent the afternoon skyping with my parents, catching up on emails with friends and enjoying $5 Domino’s with my roommates. Sadly, I was asleep by 8 pm – I’m 27 going on 72 apparently.

Wednesday

As a former Bondite, I clearly had to include the beach in my birthday bash. Some friends and I visited the North Bondi RSL for steak night, followed by some birthday drinks at Beach Road Hotel.

Steak night is a big deal

Back in Bondi for some birthday beers

Thursday

All you can eat Indian

My roommates and I sold one of the extra mattresses taking up room in our apartment, so we treated ourselves to Govinda’s – a hybrid Indian vegetarian restaurant and movie theater. This is probably one of my favorite spots in Sydney – the buffet is tasty and the movie watching experience is so unique. The small theater has different levels of large pillow beds for your to lazily sprawl out on. After gorging ourselves with curry delights, we went upstairs, took off our shoes and surrendered to the cushions as we watched Looper.

Friday & Saturday

I went wild at Coles (local supermarket) thanks to my awesome birthday gift card from my brother and sister-in-law. After a month of primarily eating oats and noodles, the chance to splurge on things like, say cheese and cereal, warmed my heart and belly – best. gift. ever.

The rest of the weekend was spent celebrating Kings Cross style – doing a bit of bar hopping with friends for some final birthday hoopla!

Overall, it was a wonderful, fun week! So excited for what year 27 has in store for me. 🙂