oh buckets!
before the flair
3 hours later, still getting our flair ready :)
12.31.09 - today we woke up late after being up late for the wedding festivities and had a casual brunch (still fitting in as many courses as possible!) and Marisa Jill and I had a casual day by the pool/on the beach as everyone else went on a 4 hour hike to see a waterfall.
We packed up our stuff up and for ready for our full moon new years eve party. There is an island near koh samui (island we were staying at) called koh phagan which is famous for crazy all night full moon parties everytime there's a full moon. Usually this about-monthly event attracts over 30,000 people for a one of a kind party scene. Since the full moon fell on nye, some said they were expecting 50,000+ for this party. Not really sure what to expect, we got on our minibus shuttle and headed to the port to take a boat to the other island. There were hordes of people and music blaring at the port and there were crowds and crowds of people wading in the water hoping to elbow and push their way to the front of the pack to get onto the next speed boat. This was by no means a particularly enjoyable experience but an interesting one for sure.
Finally aboard our ferry to the other island, I started talking to the stranger next to me who happened to be a Michigan alum and current harvard business school student, small world huh? There was a group of them traveling together during hbs's winter break. The guy I was talking to actually knew one of my friends from high school, Duke Campbell for you Port Huron people, because their cottages were next to each other or something like that. After our boat docked we started making our way to the party entrance. There were vendors everywhere selling buckets of booze (about 10$ for pint of smirnoff red bull and sprite, sharkbowl-esque, apparently the thing to do in Thailand in general), tshirts, neon body paint, beads, wristbands, and tons of other flair that apparently goes with the full moon party theme. Everyone around us was getting half naked to paint their bodies in neon greens blues yellows and pinks and adorning themselves with beads and bands as they boozed and danced to the blaring music, getting hyped to enter the beach where the party was. So naturally we all jumped right on that band wagon and did the same. After at least an hour of this (we got super into it and had a great time doing) we finally were ready to jump in the flow of masses of people going from the docks through the town to the beach where the full moon party was.
We finally made it to the beach and it was nothing like anything I've ever seen before. Masses and masses of happy, ecstatic, drunken, body-painted, flaired out twenty-somethings from all over the world, on one beach all to celebrate the same occasion. There were rows and rows of tiki type bars selling buckets to the masses plus bars lining the beach as well. There were random stages where groups of people were dancing like a club as well as various dj booths and other platforms to help turn the beach into a party scene. The full moon blazing in the sky over the ocean and island was awesome too. There were also fire dancers and incredible (def USA illegal type) fireworks and tall lit up signs and general nye flair everywhere. We danced and partied the night (/morning)away with our flair, buckets, new friends and old. It's truly a new years party experience I will never forget and one that will be very tough to top. Ferry and minibus ride noneventful unless you count passing out and falling asleep but we were all happy to finally return to our plush comfy beds that morning.
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