We stayed in Koh Pha Ngan the longest of all the places we were in Thailand, mostly because we were quite far from Haad Riin (where the Full Moon Party takes place) and had this view from our little cabana:
…and breakfasts that consisted of this every morning…
Ironically, though, I relaxed a little bit and wasn’t so snap happy, so there are the fewest pictures of this part of our excursion. So I’ll focus on the big things we did there: Bottle Beach and a few parties.
First, the more constructive activity: a beautiful (and pretty darn difficult) hike through the jungle to Bottle Beach. The trail is scattered with bottles that you follow right down to a really gorgeous beach.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t warned about just how difficult this little trek was. We were dropped off at a random beach and had to scramble up coral-encrusted rocks to find the trail head.
Yes, I scrambled that. Pretty proud if I do say so myself, although V did not escape unscathed.
Battle scars from our scramble.
And so started our hike…
I will say, it was quite the exercise and there were some extremely amazing views, so it is worth it if you ever go. Just make sure to bring lots of water and a good attitude!
Bottle Beach
We made some new friends prior to the hike, and dragged them along with us. I think afterward they were wondering why they had agreed to come along, we were all so stupendously exhausted we basically collapsed back on to our water taxi!
Luckily, the views on the way back woke us up a little, because we had a big party to get to!
I’m not the world’s biggest party animal, but I do like to have a few drinks and set loose on the dance floor. The Jungle Party, the night before the Full Moon, was a way to get in the right attitude, which wasn’t too difficult after such a hard trek through the jungle earlier in the day.
We grabbed a taxi with other people from our beach and headed to the party. Only a few pictures survived the night, but it should give you some idea of the fun had by all!
The next night was Full Moon. Jungle Party was good for getting a few drinks, dancing and watching people do a few tricks with fire. Full Moon was much more intense. Haad Riin was packed with people doing fire limbo-ing, going down water slides, dancing to tons of different types of music, riding mechanical bulls…you name it, someone was doing it. I loved the energy! Unlike a night out anywhere else I’ve been, I felt like I was just joining thousands of other people from all over the world who had just one goal: to have a great time!
Because the details of the night are a little blurry, I’ll let the pictures do the story telling for me!
Just one more place to take you vicariously and then my Thailand trip really is done…I’m getting sad just thinking about it!
