Koh Pha-Ngan and the Half Moon Party

Ko Pha-Ngan, home of the infamous Full moon Party. I wasn't there for it unfortunately, I was thinking about sticking around but by the time I got through the Half moon Party I was ready to be sober again. I say this because there is very little to do on the South end of Ko Pha-Ngan (Hat Rin) except lay on the beach and party. Sounds nice, and it was, but it defiantly takes a toll on you. The first night I was there I was remained sober, I wrote and posted my last blog and turned in early to recover from a full day of traveling (it so odd that traveling, even if it is just sitting in boats and buses, takes so much out of you). The next day it all started.
I went out the next day, did some laying about in the sun and reading, then Dalin and I went over to The Treehouse Bar for a BBQ. The Treehouse Bar is a really small and chill bar literally built around a giant tree right on the West beach of Hat Rin, it was also just 20 meters up the beach from the bungalow Dalin and I were staying. Now Dalin had met a bunch of guys the night before and went over there, apparently they were having so much fun and buying so many drinks the owner (a really great local named Moo) invited everyone over for a BBQ the next night. I ended up over there for it and met a great group of people. The guy that had brought everyone together through sheer charisma was a great and fun guy named Rohan from New Zealand. There was also Alicia, Tim, Mickey,Ashleigh, Lucy, and others, most were British, a few from Australia. We had a great BBQ with chicken, whole fish, and the biggest prawns I've ever seen, cooked whole, then shelled yourself. We had some drinks, I even tried pot for the first time from some joints provided by Moo, but the quality was so low (probably 90% was tobacco) that nothing happened to me. That night I went to the East beach for the nightly beach party that is always going on. Every night there was a party at two separate bars on the beach, and you could go, hear the same techno remix CD, dance in the same foam, play the same beach games, watch the same fire dancers, every singe night if you wanted to.
In fact that was what I did for the next three nights as well. I'd wake up in the early afternoon, recover for a bit, then go hang out, about 9:00 you'd start to drink with whoever you were with, then you'd end up at that same damn party that you were at the night before, dancing to the same music. On the 3rd night, on my way back to the bungalow, I had some massively tattooed local Thai guy try to pick a fight with me or something. I'm not to sure what was going on, but here is basically what happened (I'm sorry for the language, but this is what he said):

"Hey you! Mother fucker! Yeah! You!"
"Hey, what's up?" At this point I just though he was trying to be cool, not aggressive, you know, just throw in profanity to be cool or whatever.
"Hey! (insert Thai for "fuck you")! That's how you say fuck you in Thai, you know how you say fuck you in Thai (insert Thai for "fuck you")! Yeah, (insert Thai for "fuck you")!"
"(insert Thai for "fuck you")?" Now I didn't really what to be around him, but I was in the middle of buying some food for the walk home, and was just trying to humor him.
"Fuck you! Where you from mother fucker?"
"America."
"Fuck you America!"
"Seriously man, whatever, I've got to go" I finally got my food and just wanted to get away from this guy.
"Hey! Mother fucker! Say thank you!
"I did."
"Say it again!"
"I already did."
"SAY IT AGAIN!"
Turning to the now fairly uncomfortable lady that I got my food from, "(insert Thai for "thank you")."
As I started to walk off Mr. Angry Pants started up his Kawasaki motorcycle and started to follow me, which put him out of the aggressive asshole category, and into the dangerous category, my hand immediately went to my knife in my pocket and I went into defensive fight mode, even though fighting a strange Thai guy is not what I wanted to do on this trip. "Hey! Mother fucker! You think you are tough because you are from America! Hey! America, fuck you! You fucking ass hole!" At this point he stopped along side me, I kept walking but still replied sternly and seriously.
"I'm an asshole? I'm not saying anything mean, you're the asshole."
"Hey! Fuck you you asshole! Hey!" I just kept walking and held my tongue, I'd said enough to show that I wasn't finding him amusing, I was tired of him, and that I wasn't going to put up with it anymore, I figured anything else would've been provoking. Eventually he drove past yelling out more of the same and I made it back home without anymore problems.

Now on the 4th night (Sunday, October 25th, 2009) I going to try to stay sober, but I started hanging out with our next door neighbors (Argentinian if I remember right) and of course started drinking, and ironically that night I got to the same party (again), played a few beach games (again), then suddenly woke up back in my bed. Now I think it was not quite 2 am when I still remembered what was going on, and Dalin didn't notice when I returned home, so I'm not sure how much later I partied, but I did have everything still, except for a couple hundred Baht, which meant I wasn't robbed, so I guess I bought a drink or something. Hopefully I had a blast.
Now for the grand fanale to this fairly embarrassing chapter of this trip (one that no doubt has disappointed some people, as well as made others proud). The Half moon Party! The party was the night of Monday the 26th, October 2009, and I began my night with another BBQ with the same group of people (only slightly bigger) as the first BBQ, and again it was at Moo's Treehouse Bar. After the good food and a few drinks we headed to our bungalow's restaurant (we were staying at The Coral Bungalows) and had more drinks and danced until the taxis started for the Half moon Party, which was about 20 kilometers away in the jungle. This part of the night will go down in history as Dalin's first time drinking. He had decided his first time drinking should be the Full moon Party, but because we didn't want to stay for another week he figured the Half moon was near as good. Of course he thought that all the drinks were nasty, but drank them anyway (welcome to the world of drinking). After midnight everyone taxied their way up to the party, where everyone had to pay 300 Baht to get in (about 9 US dollars), everyone except for me that is! Some guy pulled me out of the line and over to the gate, simply telling me that dreads got in for free, which I think is the first time my dreads have ever worked in my favor (except for making me a hell of allot sexier of course).
The party itself was in a huge cleared out area of the forest lined with bars and a huge stage on one side where there was the DJs, as well as some fire dancers. Most everyone was in a drugged up/drunken state (I just stuck with alcohol) and basically it was your basic rave. Everyone danced around, either by themselves or with others, I danced all over for hours, however never really met up with anyone that really held my attention, Dalin however did find himself a Bear. For those who are unaware, a Bear is a manly gay man, think lumberjack, and you've got a Bear, and that is Dalin's type of man. This particular Bear was from Germany and was very hot, however, since Dalin is a stud like that, he just danced with the guy and left him longing for more.
The next day we left Koh Pha-Ngan, I needed to be sober for a change, and that defiantly was not going to happen on this island, so as much fun as I had, it was good to get off, I took the night boat back to the mainland, and headed off to Kao Sok National park, where I could frolic about in the jungle for a change. You will hear about those adventures soon.