I am on Koh Samui, an island off the east coast of southern thailand. I came here to attend the Full Moon Party which was last night. As a self-proclaimed international party connoisseur, I felt I needed to add this experience to my repertoire. I slept all afternoon both today and yesterday on the white sand beach.
Last night for dinner I had fresh basil and tomatoes with spicy tofu. I have decided to mostly stick to mostly fish and vegetarian dishes to avoid eating dog and other peculiar meats. A thai guy came over and introduced himself as Joel, or whatever the thai version of that may be. He's from Chiang Mai and running a tour down here. He invited me to go camping in the forest tomorrow. I told him my few beach days were precious to me. Soon we were hanging out in hammocks drinking Mai Thais and he told me he'll show me around in Chiang Mai when I go there in a few weeks. I am so excited to have a thai friend! Then he starts talking about his ex girlfriend and reaches for my hand and asks me to take a walk on the beach with him. Damn, so much for a thai friend. Annoyed, I got up and decided it was time to go to the party.
At midnight I took a speedboat to Koh Phangan, another island, to attend the party on Haad Rin beach. Above the speedboat motor, you could hear the beats from the shore. The party stretched across the crescent-shaped beach. Areas with DJs spinning various types of music attract different nationalities. The Israelis danced to trance. The Aussies and Brits liked dance(how I would classify the house music version of Top 40s). The Koreans preferred drum n bass. Then I wander down the beach to find one guy spinning Beyonce. As much as I love Beyonce, she does not belong at the Full Moon Party. The music is not great; no one notices when the DJ mismatches a beat. But everyone--let me repeat--EVERYONE is dancing their hearts out. The energy is electric and alive. I stop watching the DJs make mistakes and let go.
In the land of smiles, they have a word for this fun, sanuk. Playfulness is embraced in everyday life and the foreigners have adopted it for the night. People are covered in paint that glows in the dark and drink for plastic buckets, the kind you used to build sand castles as a child. I am informed that the King outlawed drinking from glass bottles after midnight so the buckets have become a marketable success for thai entrepreneurs.
The scene reminded me of San Fran's version of love parade with many more ladyboys, or transgender/transsexuals. Spotting ladyboys in a crowd is like looking through a Magic Eye book. At first you only see the picture on top, then you change your focus to see the hidden picture underneath. From that moment on, you can only see the hidden pictures. Everywhere I look there are ladyboys. Sexual Reassignment Surgery here is world renowned but costly. Many cannot afford it and only take hormones. At the party, I watched a ladyboy lick the sand off a passed out drunk boy's face.
I met lots of people in the crowd: Swedes, Colombians but wound up dancing with a group of Israelis. Soon I was introduced to their whole group of friends and they became my friends for the night. "Israel would be nothing without America's aide!" Soon we are covered in sand, so we dance in the water. At one point, someone handed me an iguana so I dance with the iguana who was very handsome.
I made one friend from Tel Aviv, Jacob, who was a paratrooper in the army. When I told him I was a medical student, he told me that he fractured his vertebrae when jumping out of a plane and getting his foot caught in the parachute. L4, L5 and S1. He couldn't walk for eight months and now he is dancing at Full Moon.
In the Israeli army, they call nights they do not sleep "white nights." Jacob taught me to find north by three sets of constellations in the stars. It is important to know at least three since the sky moves as you are navigating through the darkness.
I walk through Haad Rin's village with my new friends and realize all of the shop signs are in Hebrew. This month is a school holiday in Israel and so they all come to Thailand. One guy told me that the thai store and restaurant owners here speak Hebrew better than English. Who would have thought?
I watched the sunrise on the beach and the party was no where near over. It is quite possible that it is still going on as I type. At many parties I have been to, most people look like zombies at 7am, dancing because they are determined not to fall asleep, not because they really want to be there. Not so at Full Moon. The crowd is still bouncing up and down, people are laughing and running up and down the beach, the glow paint smeared all over their bodies and clothes. There is a first aid area and many people have bandages on from various party-mishaps but they continue to dance. The water is full of dancers as well, splashing about with the energy of anime schoolgirls.
I got back on the boat at 7am, tired and happy and with an invitation to visit Tel Aviv. But the highlight of the night may have been watching the ladyboys scramble in and out of the boats in heels and miniskirts.
Last night for dinner I had fresh basil and tomatoes with spicy tofu. I have decided to mostly stick to mostly fish and vegetarian dishes to avoid eating dog and other peculiar meats. A thai guy came over and introduced himself as Joel, or whatever the thai version of that may be. He's from Chiang Mai and running a tour down here. He invited me to go camping in the forest tomorrow. I told him my few beach days were precious to me. Soon we were hanging out in hammocks drinking Mai Thais and he told me he'll show me around in Chiang Mai when I go there in a few weeks. I am so excited to have a thai friend! Then he starts talking about his ex girlfriend and reaches for my hand and asks me to take a walk on the beach with him. Damn, so much for a thai friend. Annoyed, I got up and decided it was time to go to the party.
At midnight I took a speedboat to Koh Phangan, another island, to attend the party on Haad Rin beach. Above the speedboat motor, you could hear the beats from the shore. The party stretched across the crescent-shaped beach. Areas with DJs spinning various types of music attract different nationalities. The Israelis danced to trance. The Aussies and Brits liked dance(how I would classify the house music version of Top 40s). The Koreans preferred drum n bass. Then I wander down the beach to find one guy spinning Beyonce. As much as I love Beyonce, she does not belong at the Full Moon Party. The music is not great; no one notices when the DJ mismatches a beat. But everyone--let me repeat--EVERYONE is dancing their hearts out. The energy is electric and alive. I stop watching the DJs make mistakes and let go.
In the land of smiles, they have a word for this fun, sanuk. Playfulness is embraced in everyday life and the foreigners have adopted it for the night. People are covered in paint that glows in the dark and drink for plastic buckets, the kind you used to build sand castles as a child. I am informed that the King outlawed drinking from glass bottles after midnight so the buckets have become a marketable success for thai entrepreneurs.
The scene reminded me of San Fran's version of love parade with many more ladyboys, or transgender/transsexuals. Spotting ladyboys in a crowd is like looking through a Magic Eye book. At first you only see the picture on top, then you change your focus to see the hidden picture underneath. From that moment on, you can only see the hidden pictures. Everywhere I look there are ladyboys. Sexual Reassignment Surgery here is world renowned but costly. Many cannot afford it and only take hormones. At the party, I watched a ladyboy lick the sand off a passed out drunk boy's face.
I met lots of people in the crowd: Swedes, Colombians but wound up dancing with a group of Israelis. Soon I was introduced to their whole group of friends and they became my friends for the night. "Israel would be nothing without America's aide!" Soon we are covered in sand, so we dance in the water. At one point, someone handed me an iguana so I dance with the iguana who was very handsome.
I made one friend from Tel Aviv, Jacob, who was a paratrooper in the army. When I told him I was a medical student, he told me that he fractured his vertebrae when jumping out of a plane and getting his foot caught in the parachute. L4, L5 and S1. He couldn't walk for eight months and now he is dancing at Full Moon.
In the Israeli army, they call nights they do not sleep "white nights." Jacob taught me to find north by three sets of constellations in the stars. It is important to know at least three since the sky moves as you are navigating through the darkness.
I walk through Haad Rin's village with my new friends and realize all of the shop signs are in Hebrew. This month is a school holiday in Israel and so they all come to Thailand. One guy told me that the thai store and restaurant owners here speak Hebrew better than English. Who would have thought?
I watched the sunrise on the beach and the party was no where near over. It is quite possible that it is still going on as I type. At many parties I have been to, most people look like zombies at 7am, dancing because they are determined not to fall asleep, not because they really want to be there. Not so at Full Moon. The crowd is still bouncing up and down, people are laughing and running up and down the beach, the glow paint smeared all over their bodies and clothes. There is a first aid area and many people have bandages on from various party-mishaps but they continue to dance. The water is full of dancers as well, splashing about with the energy of anime schoolgirls.
I got back on the boat at 7am, tired and happy and with an invitation to visit Tel Aviv. But the highlight of the night may have been watching the ladyboys scramble in and out of the boats in heels and miniskirts.
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