Full Moon Party Ko Phang Ngan Thailand

The Bucket People
Full Moon Party on Ko Phangan

Part 1

I am a cat,” the girl slurs. She doesn’t look like a cat. She’s wearing a skin tight see-through bodice over a bikini that went reasonably well with her high heels when she started the night. Her two best friends are providing physical support and guidance as she twirls aimlessly from reveler to reveler on Hat Rin Beach, Ko Phangan, Thailand.

She is not alone. The beach is littered with thousands of young people consuming each other and the world to the sound of Techno music.

Welcome to the Full Moon Party, one of the most celebrated and long-running dance culture (this term should be applied loosely) events on the planet.
Since the early 1990s, Ko Phangan, a small island in the Golf of Thailand, has been part of the Axis of Techno that stretches from Mallorca and Ibiza to Goa and Thailand. Over the years hundreds of thousands of young people from the West have flocked to Hat Rin Beach to party.

The girl, who’s Swedish, 19 and not quite ready for anything, has collapsed and her friends are chattering excitedly about the excessive amount of alcohol she has consumed. When she comes round, she’ll be able to take comfort in the fact that she will feel like thousands of other revelers when they wake up – she will remember nothing about the music, the lights, the fire jugglers or the eight thousand or so other party people gathered for this beautiful night in the tropics. Everybody gets wiped out at the Full Moon Party.

Continued...

Read Part 2 of The Bucket People

Read Part 3 of The Bucket People

Photographs by Aroon Thaewchatturat (www.onasia.com) If you would like to read more about festivals in Thailand, check the following stories:

The Illustrated Kill Convention - The Phuket Vegetarian Festival,

The Chonburi Buffalo Race

Phi Ta Khon - Thailand's Halloween

Fat chance for the (Heineken) Fat Fest