First, I went to Koh Phangan (pronounced Ko-Pan-yang) for a week to go to a full moon party. Wikipedia it if you must. From what I hear, it's one of the biggest parties in the world, and 15,000 people pile onto this beach called Haad Rin on the south of the island to drink buckets of booze and dance all night to djs who fly in from all over the world. Should have been awesome, but I didn't get to go.
The actual full moon was on Friday so I left Tuesday night on an overnight train to arrive in Koh Phangan by Wednesday at noon. I left a little bit earlier than a lot of my friends because I had to be back a bit early, too, for a midterm Monday. The train was amazing. I went with my friends Jake, Katie, Shelley and Sophie on a sleeper, which meant that instead of the grueling bus seats I couldn't tolerate before, I got an actual bed. It was 400 percent better than the bus, especially since it was only about 200 baht, or $6, more. What a deal.
When we got to Koh Phangan we got one piece of bad news after the other. Fortunately, in the spirit of Thailand and mai pben rai and the fact that things always seem to work out, they did. First, we found out that our bungalow, which we had felt so lucky to be able to book for 12 people, was on such a secluded beach that once we got there we wouldn't be able to travel to Haad Rin... the whole point of our trip. Although beautiful, the beach our bungalow is on, Bottle Beach, is only accessible by ferry or an hour-long hike. If we had wanted to travel into Haad Rin for the night we wouldn't have been able to get back until the next day.
Once we found out about the inaccessibility of our bungalow, we followed another group of Thammasat kids to "J. Seaview," a bungalow buried deep in the jungle:
Our second piece of bad news was the that full moon party was postponed until Sunday night. Friday was an election day in Thailand, and not just on elections days, but on entire elections weekends, the king orders that it's illegal to sell alcohol. The island kept that fact mum I'm assuming so as not to dissuade any tourists from coming to the island. In fact, they probably made more money than usual because most people who came for the party on Friday stayed through Sunday.
No matter, we did as best we could and went out every night we were there. In preparation for the full moon party, the beaches were humming with people from everywhere. Neon lights lined the beach, and buckets in hand, everyone crowded in circles to watch the most talented fire spinners I've ever seen. This one guy was tossing his cord of fire probably 50 feet in the air and then catching it by the unlit tail. I told my friend Brad I felt like I was at home, but really I don't know anyone who can do that.
My favorite night was the night of the full moon, Friday night. We all hoped that something would be happening, so we painted ourselves with body paint our house-mom (the owner of the bungalow) happened to have. Kyle, one of the guys on the trip, played guitar and sang while we painted. It was really wonderful.
Meris painting me:
Other than those nights out, we spent our days lazing around the beach. Twice in a row we tried to ferry to Bottle Beach - the secluded beach on the north side of the island we had thought we would stay at - and twice we were told that the waves were too choppy for a longboat to make it. Imagine if we had stayed there! We wouldn't have been able to leave.
This is the beach we stayed at instead. Shelley catching a frisbee Jake so wisely invested in:
One of the beaches on Koh Phangan, which means "long shore" or something:
From left: Jake, Andy, Sophie, Katie, Shelley
At the risk of sounding absolutely like an ignorant American (I still am), Thailand is BIG! I never thought it was until I got here, and realized that even though a lot of countries are smaller than the US, that doesn't mean that traveling through them doesn't take a while. Traveling to the southern island in Thailand by bus or train usually takes around 17 hours, which was longer than my flight from Seattle to Taipei. And yet, I'm willing to do it every weekend, just to see all of what I won't have an opportunity to see again for a very long time.
Being here has made me realize how small the world really is. Not in terms of people (although I did meet a Thai girl, Foil, who lived in my Houston neighborhood for a year when she did an exchange in high school) but in terms of actual distance. What seemed so exotic to me before now seems possible, and I want to see them. It's got me thinking more and more about seriously doing the Peace Corps, or at the very least traveling until I go absolutely broke.
I met a girl named Shelley (in a picture above) who doesn't go to Thammasat but is staying with us here in my condo through an indirect connection. Her story (and I could get this a bit wrong) is that she was in school, not really caring about it, when she heard about couchsurfing.com. Couchsurfing.com - check it out - is this nonprofit that links people up with other people around the world who want to travel. Basically, if you sign up for the sight I think you're obligated to offer your couch at some point (although you get to meet the person online beforehand and say if you want them to stay or not), and in exchange you're linked to thousands of people offering you their couches. So she found out about this, made an appointment with a travel agent who got her somewhere around 8 flights for close to $1200, dropped out of school and left three weeks later. She's racking up some debt, but I can't imagine that it wouldn't be worth it. She just spent 4 months in Europe and will spend another four in Asia before she heads back.
The point is, this kind of travel is entirely possible. Europeans seem to understand that, and I see them goddamn everywhere. But I NEVER see Americans - how strange! I really want to break free of that cultural norm of only ever getting to see our North-American counterparts and Europe.
Thailand is incredible, for more reasons than just its full moon parties and 33 baht to the dollar exchange rate.
3 comments:
hey abs, i completely internet stalked this. you're almost right, except i actually didn't decide to do couchsurfing until literally a few days before i left. though thank god i did, otherwise the before mentioned debts would be something like a bajillion dollars more (i did some mental calculations) and i probably wouldn't have had half as much fun. and really, everything is just always all about fun.
shelley!
Sounds awesome, abby. Bummer you didnt get to go the party, though. Oh, well. I got my wallet stolen from there and had my bike crash the next day if that makes you feel better about missing it. Maybe bad karma on that island? Anway, agree with all your views on travel. Good to hear something from you. Oh, yea- im in south america..
david
hi abby! i didn't make it to a full moon party either (i didn't think it would have been my thing anyways), but i did go to an electronic music festival, or what i am now calling a rave, in melacca. we met some scottish girls who had just gone to one and used some of their florescent body paint.
i absolutely agree with you about the "thailand being bigger than it looks" statement. i feel that coming from texas we have this mindset that "everything is bigger in texas", and thus, everything is smaller elsewhere. i definitely realized that southeast asia is much bigger than it looks and that traveling there requires A LOT of patience- slow boats, buses on bumpy roads going only 35 mph with constant honking, being squished with 15 other people in a minivan, etc.
i too met so many europeans and aussies doing extended vacations and gap years. i felt that as americans, southeast asia is seen as still somewhat "untouched" and "undeveloped for tourism" because few people i knew had traveled there, but once i got there, i saw that it is way more touristy than i had ever imagined and that everyone goes to the same places because all travelers/backpackers are using lonely planet. people are always so shocked when i tell them that i traveled in parts of thailand, cambodia, and vietnam by myself since the stereotype is that it is so dangerous.
anyways, this is probably the longest comment ever. have a wonderful rest of the time there, and i want to go back to SEA asap!!!
tiffany
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