Full Moon Party

The Full Moon Party in Haad Rin, Ko Phangan, brought mixed emotions. I was looking forward to a huge beach party, sure, but before I even went there was some aspect of it that was bothering me.

Jasper and I began by having a few drinks with 2 Australian guys in the Bungalow next to us. We played Kings then Jasper and I went down to the beach for the party. It was pretty much as we expected... thousands of Europeans in their twenties power drinking on a beach.

As we walked from one end to the other, we continuously drifted into overlapping techno and house beats. The worst was being between two different bars because you'd be in a mush zone of loud musical confusion. After one full run of the beach we realized weren't going to find "our" place. Neither of us seemed to be able to get into it so we did what we do best: we people watched.

We saw fire spinners, hundreds of people peeing in the water, some puking, drunk people, high people...people. people. people. The ones that won over our attention most were the prostitutes. There were hundreds. We actually watched a complete "transaction". A Thai girl of roughly my age was dancing with her cigarette. Just dancing. These girls didn't need to pick up guys, guys would pick up them. A drunken man came over and they talked for a minute. The two headed off into the water and "embraced" each other for a few minutes. They returned hand-in hand. The man walked off and the girl went back to dancing with a new cigarette.

I couldn't help but feel ill after seeing all of this. At least, with all the sex tourism in Thailand, these girls seemed to be doing this by choice. There are thousands of girls in situations a thousand times worse.

We stayed up until the sunrise then headed off to bed.

My final synopsis is that I don't like the full moon party. I'm glad I went because It really was a life experience, but I don't like it. It just seems to me like a bunch of people pooping on Thailand. It's a shame that so many people come and use the country for its beaches and its beauty, and leave their garbage, their puke, and their stink.

Thailand is beautiful. It needs to stay that way.