Koh Phangan: How We Spent the 20 Hours We Had There

We had to take a ferry to Koh Phangan and it didn't suit either of us very well. I felt nauseous while Rick spent his time vomiting. Lovely start to Koh Phangan. We arrived there and it was beautiful. Upon arriving to our hostel, we really wished we had more time there. It was great. We had our own hut with a hammock out front. The hostel had its own little beach, a beach bar, tons of lounge area. It looked awesome. 

The Half Moon Party is a party that happens once a month in Koh Phangan. These parties started with just the original Full Moon Party, also once a month, but I have no idea why it started or who started it. But as I said, they have expanded to the Half Moon and also the Black Moon Party. I think that they're just looking for any reason to have a party. Regardless, everyone we talked to who had been to Thailand and one of these parties said we had to go. Lucky for us, the Half Moon fell right in the middle of our trip so off we went.

Koh Phangan was where we had planned to meet up with a former teacher from Gloria, Emily. She finished her contract a month ago and thought she would be travelling Thailand alone so we were all really excited to meet up for the Half Moon Party. An even better part of it was that she ended up traveling with Amber, Ashley (two more former Gloria teachers), and their friend Kelly. Since the Half Moon Party was closer to our hostel, they would be coming there later. So we headed to their beach for the afternoon.

They were staying on Haad Rin beach which is the main one. This beach is where the Full Moon Party usually is and I could see why. It was a massive beach, and it was beautiful. It was really nice to see some familiar faces! We relaxed on the beach, ate lunch, and caught up. Rick and I were pretty exhausted from our major day of traveling so we headed back to our hostel to take a nap, and have dinner and planned to meet back up with the girls later.

They came to our hostel at around 10 PM and we had lots of fun drinking and painting each other with some crazy designs. The Half Moon Party is full of black lights so everyone paints neon paint on themselves. Another thing I thought was funny was that all throughout the town, stores were selling shirts that said, "Half Moon Party!" or "Full Moon Party." And I thought to myself, no one would actually wear that shirt TO the party! Boy, was I proven wrong. I couldn't even count how many people were wearing those shirts, to each his own I suppose. 

The party was very cool and I am really glad we went. The atmosphere was really cool. Lots of black lights, lots of people wasted. So many European bros were there, shamelessly hitting on any girl in sight. One of them just walked up to one of my friends and started kissing her, no hello, nothing. Rick saw it and pushed him off of her. So that was an interesting experience. Another interesting part was that they sold laughing gas for $200 Baht for one balloon, we didn't partake in this.

About halfway through the night, we lost two of the girls we were with. Cue panic. So many random people. We searched for them for over an hour and were starting to stress out but finally, they came back. They had found some guy passed out behind the bathroom and got him sent to the hospital. After that, the party felt over for Rick and I so we headed back to the hostel. Taking a taxi back was a challenge, the driver wouldn't leave until he had a full van so people kept leaving to look for another ride. So frustrating. Eventually we made it back to our hostel, slept for two hours, and woke up in time for our 7AM ferry ride.

Wasn't feeling too great about this 7AM ferry ride

This guy was sleeping waiting for the ferry, it was clear he had been at the party as well

We had a ferry ride, a bus ride, another ferry ride and we arrived. Ko Phi Phi was our next destination.

While in Koh Phangan, we stayed at Coco Gardens. It had its own beach, their restaurant was amazing, a beach bar, each hut has its own hammock, more hammocks near the beach. Would have been amazing to stay longer. The staff was really nice, answered all the questions we had and hooked us up with a taxi to take us to our early morning ferry. If you are going to Koh Phangan and don't want to stay on Haad Rin Beach, this resort is perfect for you.