Over the last week, every night the moon has become rounder and rounder and on the night of the 15th it was time for the Full Moon Party!
After dinner we all went to change into our full moon neon clothes and headed to one of the rooms in order to get painted up! I immediately became the designated artist, and ending up painting everyone’s faces, backs, legs, arms, literally any bare skin, in fluorescent swirls and flowers. After about two hours we were all painted up, with the addition of neon flowers in our hair, and we were ready to go! The party started off in the Coral Bungalows, with even more paint and lots of drinks. It was our friends birthday so all of us girls got the dj to stop playing his music, stood on the table and sung Happy Birthday to him, and everyone in Coral Bungalows joined in!
At midnight there were supposed to be taxis waiting to take us but they were no where to be seen! Soon enough though we found a taxi slash open boot truck to take us and about 15 of us piled in. Soon we were stuck behind the crowds of people walking to the full moon beach and so we jumped out and joined the walking parade. There are different entrances into the party, some of which you have to pay but you also receive a Full Moon Party wristband, as we all decided that for 100baht (£1.75) we would love a wristband and so we paid for our entrance.
On arriving onto the party beach it was nothing like I expected, I imagined a party and nothing to the scale of what was I front of me. This was a whole stretch of beach covered by thousands and thousands of people, bars, stages, stalls and huge speakers playing all different types of music. Within a 200m stretch you could walk for the house music section of the beach, crazy dancing in the sand to the drum and base section, jumping on top of a stage and dancing there! There were tables on stilts in the water, a water slide down from a rooftop bar, a giant skipping rope on fire and even a gated section in the middle for napping! Everything you can imagine and more.
We started out as a group of 8 girls and within about ten minutes we were down to 6, but us 6 managed to stay together the whole night which I thought was a great achievement! It’s easily done if you’re like us and did everything together: if someone wants to move along the beach, we all go, if someone wants to buy a drink, we all go, even if someone need to pee, we all go!
The night was filled with dancing, drinking, eating, more dancing and chatting to the most random of people about their travelling experiences and adventures. It was also boiling hot so it didn’t matter when the tide came in a bit and our shoes got wet (I had converse on) because within 5 minutes they’re dry again! It was a great night and it was easy to spot our group (newly named the a team) because of the glowing flowers and swirls all over us!
The night ended in perfectly for us travellers, as while we were busy dancing on a stage, the sun rolled up from the horizon and lit up the sea in a beautiful orange colour. Soon what had been a party beach, covered in neon lights, became a beautiful beach lit up by the rising sun.