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#7 - Ko Phangan
Sally
deFina -
March 21, 2002
Mike and I arrived on Haad Rin beach on Ko
Phangan after a 36 hour marathon consisting of an overnight
train, a couple of jumbo taxis, a minibus, an overnight boat,
and a small hike along the beach burdened down with our backpacks.
Ecstatic that we had finally reached our destination, we changed
into our bathing suits right on the beach and ran laughing into
the surf. We didn't even mind that the reception for our chosen
hotel wouldn't open for another hour (at 7am).
You know that dream state that you find yourself
in when you have had almost no sleep for a couple of days?
Add to that the feeling of cool water against your skin, a warm
breeze lightly lifting your hair, the early morning sunlight
dancing off of the wavy water, and the gorgeous scenery of white
beach, light blue water, dark green trees, and brown cliffs
along the shore, and you have some idea of what I was feeling
at that moment. I felt so supremely happy that I was tingling
all over. Wallowing in our happiness, we sat where the waves
were gently lapping the shore, and gleefully plastered wet sand
on each other like little children.
 While
playing on the shore, we were approached by two obviously very
high Brits who had apparently mistaken our childishness for
a like state of mind. They asked us casually if we had enjoyed
the party the night before on Haad Rin beach. "No, we just
arrived. How was it?" we asked. "Aaaah. Good.
Very good" one of them, who we later learned was called
Paul, answered with a sly smile. It was evident from the redness
and largeness of Paul's eyes that not only had he been up all
night, but that he had also ingested something to aid him in
this task. He then proceeded to give us the lowdown on life
on Ko Phangan.
 Basically,
there was a techno party every few days or so, to celebrate
various stages of the moon: there were full-moon parties (the
most famous, drawing about 10,000 people to Haad Rin beach),
no-moon parties, half-moon parties, and parties just for the
heck of it. The parties were held on one of the various beaches
on the island, lasted all night, and were usually followed by
an after-party that lasted all day. The parties involved great
trance music, fire twirlers, jugglers, fluorescent decorations
lit by black lights, and copious amounts of drugs. During our
stay on the island, we went to 3 parties in 6 days, and were
offered ecstasy, LSD, hashish, magic mushrooms, and other various
drugs that I have now forgotten the name of. The fact that taking
drugs in Thailand can land you in jail for months without a
trial, and that trafficking in drugs can present you with the
death sentence if caught, seemed to have escaped everyone's
mind. Either that, or the police were paid off to look
the other way. Considering that many of these drugs were
taken out in the open in full view of all who passed by, the
most likely scenario was the second. Anyway, we met Monique
(the fire-twirler in the picture above) on our second day who
managed to stay up all night "high on life", as she
put it, and so we hung out with her the rest of the week we
were on the island.
 During
the day on Ko Phangan, people usually emerged from their
huts around noon, lounged around on the beach, got massages,
played in the water, listened to chill-out music, watched free
pirated movies in one of the Thai restaurants close by, went
to after-parties (if there were any that day), watched the sunset,
and/or went scuba diving. Overall a very relaxed location to
hang out for a few days. Problem is, Ko Phangan is one of those
places that you get stuck in because you get too lazy to move
on. Paul had come for one week, and had stayed 3 months
by the time we met him. We planned on staying for 4 days,
but stayed for one week. But we did manage to scuba dive,
take a boat tour around the island, and rent a scooter for a
day to drive up to the northern beaches in addition to attending
three parties. Overall, a good waste of a week.
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