On January 16 we flew From Hanoi to Bangkok, but missed the last flight to Koh Samui by about 20 minutes. Bummer! That meant we had to spend the night in Bangkok, and then catch the flight to Samui the next morning. We hadn’t been on a beach for weeks; our tans had faded, and we were craving some hot weather, white sand and blue sea. We spent the night at the Ebina House Hotel because it was only 10 minutes from the airport, with free shuttle service to and from the airport. The next morning we left our big box of souvenirs from Hanoi at the hotel for safekeeping, and departed for the airport.

The flight from Bangkok to Koh Samui (an island in the Gulf of Thailand) is just over an hour, and the airplane is a colorfully painted turboprop run by Bangkok Airways. The flight attendants are always beautiful Thai women. When you arrive at the Samui airport, there are no separate gates or anything - only an open-air thatch-roofed hut. There is free internet access, though, which is very helpful for checking flights and hotel info. We caught a taxi to the ferry pier and bought tickets for the 50-minute boat ride north to Koh Pha Ngan, Samui’s little sister island.

We arrived at Hat Rin, the southernmost tip of Koh Pha Ngan (pronounced pan-yan). It was Friday, and the monthly Full Moon Party was that night; the streets were buzzing with excitement. We surmised that the bungalows along the eastern beach of Hat Rin were booked up already, so we found a hotel room on the less popular west side, instead. In addition, we wanted a quiet place to crash in case we didn't stay up all night. Most of the partygoers were high school and college kids who could party like rockstars, and the beach music would be pretty loud. (Are we getting old, or what?)

After unpacking our bags, we set out to get the lay of the land, so to speak. Hat Rin has one main road, only part of which is actually paved. The side roads are rocky dirt roads. As we walked around the neighborhood we saw plenty of restaurants and bars offering bucket drinks and happy hour specials for the pre-party crowd. Every shop and street vendor was selling glow-in-the-dark bracelets and body paint. We walked around the main (eastern) beach and watched the resorts and restaurants set up their sound systems, beach bars, and decorations for the big event. Soon the sun started going down, and we fueled up with some Mexican food at the Frog Bar; it was actually very authentic and delicious - even the tortillas were homemade. As we ate, we watched a stunning full moon rise up over the beach. No wonder they started this party tradition...the moon is amazing here! It literally illuminates the entire beach, it's so bright.

We returned to our hotel room to rest up and watch a movie on Mike's laptop. After that we were ready to party! Now that it was completely dark, the crowds were amassing and the music was thumping from the various places along the beach. The crowds at Full Moon Party can reach upwards of 8000 ravers, although this one was rather small at only 5000 attendees. The party was sponsored by Shark soda (a highly-caffeinated drink, similar to Red Bull) although most people opted for straight booze. There was a variety of music represented, with trance (a genre of electronic dance music) being the most popular. There were also a few chill-out spots with downtempo music, for those who needed a break from dancing. A couple of bars even had mainstream, top-40 songs on tap. We meandered up and down the beach, drinking Shark and taking in the awesome display of partying. We saw people dancing, drinking, making out, stumbling around, climbing up burning scaffolding, peeing into the ocean, passing out. We saw pairs of undercover police officers, usually a scruffy one and a clean-cut one, attempting to catch would-be drug buyers. Luckily we aren't drug users, so we didn't have anything to worry about.

There were several entertainers twirling fire batons or spinning flaming balls on chains. They took turns dancing with the fire props until they burnt out, then soaked them in fuel again for another round. Some of them were amateurs who lacked smooth dance moves; they constantly dropped the baton in the sand, but laughed it off and started again. Others had clearly been practicing their routine for months - or even years - and never missed a beat with their groovy dance moves and fast fire spinning. Mike took many photos of these people using a slow shutter speed to capture the movement of the fire spinning...see the gallery for pictures.

After a few Sharks and plenty of walking around, we settled down on our beach mat and relaxed for awhile while the crowds became rowdier. (We were just glad to have stayed awake past 1am!) We noticed a French girl passing out in the sand, her inebriated boyfriend attempting to revive her by pulling her upright and slapping her face. She was so drunk (and/or drugged) that her legs were like spaghetti. Any attempt to stand her up resulted in an immediate face-plant into the sand. It was hard not to watch the scene -- like a car accident on the freeway, you just couldn't help but stare. Finally we gave them our beach mat so she wouldn’t have to lay face-down in the sand anymore, and we started back towards our hotel. It's too bad that some people just don't know their limits. Luckily there are several small clinics/pharmacies around Hat Rin, so at least those in need had some assistance. In the days following Full Moon Party, we saw all sorts of party-induced injuries; one guy had his arm in a sling, one guy had stitches in his arm, and another guy was on crutches.

We spent a couple more days on Koh Pha Ngan after Full Moon because it was a nice place to chill out and enjoy the beach. Prices were pretty reasonable, although I did some damage shopping at an upscale clothing boutique. We wanted to do some scuba diving, but the wind and choppy waves really limited the visibility; we didn't think we'd see anything underwater. We just took some time to renew our suntans and catch up on our reading. It was the perfect place to recharge for a few days.