Flashback Entry - Experiencing Hadd Rin and the Full Moon Party

We finally left Thong Nai Pan on the 1st of February and traveled to Hadd Rin, the biggest city on Ko Phangan and the site of the Monthly Full Moon Party, a celebration that usually entails 10,000+ party goers dancing the night away on a beautiful beach underneath (you guessed it) the full moon. We figured that since we were missing out on Carnival in Rio, we might as well see what all of the hubbub was before we left the island. Tale-tell signs began several days before we left Thong Nai Pan when we began to notice lots of new people snooping around our up-till-then quiet and private beach.

With that in mind, we arrived in Hadd Rin to witness the spectacle. When we arrived at Coral Bungalows, the place we would be spending the next 4 nights, we thought we had mistakenly stumbled onto Padre Island or Daytona Beach during Spring Break. Countless 19-22 year olds were swarming the complex, with every single guy looking like the lead singer of the Strokes (for those of you who don't follow mediorce pop-punk bands, picture really big sunglasses and a spiky, unkempt haircut that probably cost over $100). Unfortunately, this trend was larger than just our hotel, as the average age of the entire city's population while we were there was probably no more than 23.

Upon checking in, we set off to see some of the town. Try imagining a place where no business exists EXCEPT for various service providers catering to the twenty-something traveler, and you got Hadd Rin down. Bars, restaurants, hotels, clothes stores, minimart, scooter rentals, and Internet cafes only filled the 8 or 9 roads that comprised the city. One cool aspect of the town that we did enjoy was the existence of 8 or so restaurant/bars that had 2-3 large screen T.V.s and good sound systems that would play 4-5 2nd run movies a day for free. This was illegal, or course, and every so often you would see a message at the bottom of the screen stating the copy we were enjoying was for the express screening of Oscar voters, or some such nonsense. I guess the market in Hadd Rin is beneath Hollywood's concern, though, so we enjoyed the first real movies we'd seen since we left home (Blood Diamond and Borat, in case anyone cares).

The town itself quickly got to us, despite the fact that neither of us ever got to go to a "classic" spring break back home. It seems like we may have simply missed our chance, because now the entire scene seemed a bit lame. Every dude generally talked way too loud while swaggering about and punching his buddies, and the girls seemed to be eating it all up. Surprisingly, the twenty year olds seemed to not want to have anything to do with us. Regardless, we had come to see the Full Moon Party, and we were going to party with the kids even if it killed us (as we told ourselves, anyways). (BTW, the pic to the right is not representive of the entire scene, as it was taken before most of the kids had woken up).

The night of the party started great, as we had dinner at a very delicious Indian restaurant (to be fair, the food in Hadd Rin was better than in Thong Nai Pan, as we had some of the best Mediterranean food we've ever had and good Mexican there as well). The Indian restaurant was perched right at the intersection where all the party goers poured through to get to the beach, which allowed us to play a very fun game of "best costume", as the many freaks were evidently trying quite hard to take home the booby prize. Our own version of the red carpet show, I guess (but don't you dare call us Joan and Melissa).

At dinner, we ordered a Bucket of Fun, which is the official drink of the Full Moon Party. They take an entire pint of whiskey and then add a can of red bull, a can of coke and ice. Viola! Instant party! Now just imagine drinking these all night long and you can get a taste for what the wee hours of the Full Moon Party look like. Luckily, we opted out of the red bull for the 2nd and 3rd buckets we shared after the night carried us on down to the beach.

We apologize for not having any pictures of the Full Moon Proper, but our guide book had warned against taking cameras or other valuables along. Alas, as many, many, great photo ops would present themselves that evening, in no particular order; (1) the giant, 30' metal structure with burning letters that read "Thailand is great", that at any given point had 15 people perched somewhere on it (at least one party goer took a header of it; much different notions of liability apply over here), (2)the 10 or so fire dancers, who were all trying to out-fire each other, (3) the mobs and mobs of people flailing about to rave music (although we were very glad to see people older than us present and partying), (4) the sleeping area, which was mostly full around 9:00 p.m.. 5) and much, much, more.

Notwithstanding the three shared buckets, we still could never shake the feeling that we were observing the party instead of participating in it. I'm sure the fact we're old and no fun has something to do with it, but I imagine if we had a crew of friends there with some live music it would have been different. Regardless, we couldn't help feel like we were passing the torch off to the Strokes look-alikes when we vacated the beach around 3:00 a.m.

The following day, we (not-surprisingly) took it easy by sleeping in late and catching an afternoon flick. After that, we decided to skip out on our final day of Spring Break, so we made our travel preparations to depart the following morning for the city of Krabi, which is the launching pad for the various Railay beaches. Before we left, though, we were treated to a fantastic sunset at our cabana. A nice little silver lining in an otherwise lackluster part of our trip. (of course, any of our younger readers should start saving their money now, because both of us agreed that we would have LOVED this place when we were the right age to enjoy it properly ;)