full moon

So I don't know if you've heard about the Full Moon party but its, for lack of a better word, a balagan. For about, say, two weeks before, people warm up. That is, they practice getting retarded in anticipation of the real thing.

You have crazy animals running around, downing buckets that are filled with a pint of alcohol (from cheap thai rum, Sangsom all the way up to the classier liquors) and dancing and raving like madmen. You have people wasted on the beach, dancing, like this fool. Notice the time of day. This is 11am in the morning. Even the bucket people have bounced. But theres still music, and though theres barely anyone to dance with, my man is still going strong.



I wish I had taken a video of him. Anyways, like I mentioned (or maybe not), Ko Phan gan is like Israel away from Israel. The beach below, called Coco Hut is like a haven for Israelis. The next two pictures are of my Israeli crew -- I met Chen (below) and Shani (striped bathing suit) on Ko Phi Phi. We were all chillin at this place called Hippie Bar -- nice and they were sitting behind me. I turned around and said in Hebrew, "For sure you're Israeli" (at that point, still a novelty to me). I spent the night practicing my Hebrew (who would have thought I'd get more practice here than in Israel? Weird.), met their crew and went our separate ways. Imagine my surprise when we ended up randomly meeting on Ko Phan Gan. Basically we'd spend our days chillin on the beach, playing backgammon (SHESH BESH!), learning to play Taka (I think that's what its called) and just lounging and trying (in my case mostly unsuccessfully) to get tan.


Chen


From left to right: Shani, ? , Casper the friendly Ghost, Tal and Asaf.

I'm passing out right now, but since I'm going on a three/four day jungle trek tomorrow, I wanted to give you all something to look at. Enjoy, text to follow in a couple of days.


Gus, Kirk, Sven

I met Kirk on the boat from Ko Tao to Ko phan gan. There we were, squeezed in sardine-style, legs dangling off the sides of the boat -- we were either going to love or hate each other. Luckily, it worked out nicely. I met Gus and Sven through Kirk -- real chill Swedish guys that he had chilled with in Cambodia. Needless to say, buckets + beer + beach = silliness.


Random half-naked Swedish Hotties

So one night leading up to the full moon, I run across these girls dancing, skirts barely covering barely there thongs. So obviously, in the interests of accurately recording the matters of acute historical significance... yeah, I took a picture. Sorry boys, didnt manage to capture any of the (lack of) thong. My bad.



Full Moon pregame/crew. From left to right: Me, ?, Charlotta (Charlotte in Swedish), Booki, Hajdin, Tina, Mattias, Tina, Mike, Tobias

Though I was staying in a ridiculous bungalow overlooking the water, it was a little far away from all the action, and I definitely wasn't loving the whole motorbiking to party and then walking back at night and then struggling to find the bike the next day thing. So I went to snag a room at Kirk, Gus and Sven's place, only to find that they had just filled up. At the same time, hajdin and Lars (pronounced Losh) rolled through. We ended up following this woman to the same spot, snagged two of the last bungalows and started a reign of terror.


Full Moon Munchies: Mike, Heiden, Myself, Tobias

So fuck what anyone says -- the highlight of ko phan gan is not the full moon, not the daily parties, not the shroom shakes -- its Mama Schnitzel's homecooked goodness. Fried to artery-clogging goodness in front of your eyes, this 50 baht snack is worth the price of airfare alone. Especially if perchance, for some reason or another, you have the munchies.