Full Moon Parties

[IamMaiC]

It is a night of fun filled debauchery and excess occurring a day before or after the official full moon (usually) at Koh Phangan mostly Haad Rin.  Because the full moon is a Buddha Day (no alcohol from bars) as I unserstand it.

As noted before I have never been there and done that.

Coffee!!!

Oh ok I never did it either i think my partying days are over i guess when you think about going to bed as soon as you can yes i think it's over

[Neeranam]

Is it worse than the 'good old days'? What 'good old days' would that be? Before the police started policing? Days of people dying on the beach, girls getting raped (regularly)? Or would that be the 'good old days' from the farang who actually started the party all those years ago? My understanding was they got kicked out of Goa so decided to start over again on Haad Rin. Oh yes, I knew them too, lovely people, selling drugs to fund their travels, they, too, got wasted and had sex on the beach. So, how does that make them better?

Very good post I remember some horrific things happening when I was there 12 years ago. When did the full moon party start?

People being beheaded, and as you say many raped.

I saw the head of the police watching over a little drug deal, and guess what doing absolutely nothing. Controlling it, I presume.

My mate got his bungalow burned down when he was in it, and arrested, after suffering bad burns and a broken nose from jumping through the door.

Cost him 150,00 baht to get out.

[Insight]

You like a rave? Try the Black Moon party on Ban Tai beach, hardcore trance and not too big, until, of course, you tell all your like minded raver friends and they all come and commercialize it too. Get real, that is life. There is no next "undiscovered" party, beach whatever. Because once you "Discover it" it is on it's way to be developed. Instead of abandoning Koh Phangan to a dirty polluted fate after sucking it dry perhaps it would be better to contribute something back and try to fix the problems you see instead of just transporting them to a new place?

SBK, Quality response - thanks.

The rubbish on the beach not (or not only) being a farang problem was interesting - one look at the beach at Bang Saan, predominantly visited by Thais, will tell you that.

Guess the problem is far too obvious: I’m looking for a secluded, quiet beach, where I can enjoy good music in good company with little restrictions. Trouble is, hundreds of thousands of other people also have the same goal. When a crowd develops all looking for a party, all the troublesome attributes that come with it also emerge. The way of the world and always will be I guess…

[Girlfrombar]

But seriously, GFB, do you think that if Thai people had the same amount of buying power as Westerners, they would not go on holiday to other places and waste them? Sorry, I somehow doubt it. It is a human thing and a ptoduct of buying power. In 15 years you'll see Thailand overrun by hordes of Chinese instead (or more likely together with the Westerners and other nations with higher buying power than the local community.). Please come back to this forum and tell me if they behave so much better than the farang...

Cheers,

Meadish

it's not of about 'buying power'

u know.. thais have the world record of 'buying habit'

we buy even sometimes we're broke!!

we don't have power but 'eager' to buy

'go waste' is just about us --human behaviour

go waste...

ironically, i personally think --for sure this gonna be out-of-track argument

the westerners (farangs --white ) always have more the curiousity and the explorer blood than any others

why i said so..

just noticed from the past history (except Mongol)

who first went out to discover the world outside there --farangs

who first invented the flying machine --farangs

who first hunted for the colonism --farangs

who first grounded to the moon --farangs

who first caused world war 1&2 --farangs

who first started world war 3 --maybe GFB !!

most of the revolutions were ahead from the west

sorry but it's just myself's own point of view from -- A thai, asian, blackhead & GIRL

from the past of thai history

the contemporary revolution started from the GREAT King Rama IV era

after the wave of westerns hit to thailand

many thais were sent to the west for education.. to be more 'westernised'

to avoid being seen as 'far east foolish'

derived & influenced so far,

some groups of thai people who got western education, REVOLTED into democracy system --and drived themselves to rule thailand in the GREAT King Rama VII era

i myself called it --REBELLION --in thai textbook called it --DEVELOPMENT

they themselves just wanted to rule the country on their own

and there's where the corruption is always classic story in thailand

i'm not blaming anything anyone or whatsoever,

this just taught me about 'adapting & adjusting' according to one's self nature.

--------

to be continued.

Edited September 8, 2004 by Girlfrombar

[Girlfrombar]

GFB: the biggest polluters on this island are not the farang, it is the Thais. The beaches are much cleaner now than they were 16 years ago when I first came (long before the start of the party and before any kind of serious tourism). Thai people have no compunction about tossing their plastic rubbish everywhere. I have had local people tell me not to bother picking up the plastic rubbish off the beach as "it is dirty and more will just come back tomorrow". This rubbish accumulated from fishing boats from the mainland tossing their rubbish overboard, locals dumping their rubbish on the beach etc. For many years I, a farang, was the only one cleaning the beach around here. No Thai ever lifted a finger to help. Sorry if you don't like the truth, I just say what I see. Maybe you blame westernisation, but personally, I find that a cop out from people who just don't want to deal with the problems they already have, they find it easier to just lay the blame elsewhere.

As for the party itself, yes, it is full of rubbish but that is probably because no bar, restaurant or bungalow puts out bins for rubbish.  Yes, it is full of drunken, drugged out farangs having sex on the beach. It also full of katoeys pickpocketing drunken people,  drunken Thai guys beating up each other, farangs etc.

Is it worse than the 'good old days'? What 'good old days' would that be? Before the police started policing? Days of people dying on the beach, girls getting raped (regularly)? Or would that be the 'good old days' from the farang who actually started the party all those years ago? My understanding was they got kicked out of Goa so decided to start over again on Haad Rin. Oh yes, I knew them too, lovely people, selling drugs to fund their travels, they, too, got wasted and had sex on the beach. So, how does that make them better?

You like a rave? Try the Black Moon party on Ban Tai beach, hardcore trance and not too big, until, of course, you tell all your like minded raver friends and they all come and commercialize it too. Get real, that is life. There is no next "undiscovered" party, beach whatever. Because once you "Discover it" it is on it's way to be developed. Instead of abandoning Koh Phangan to a dirty polluted fate after sucking it dry perhaps it would be better to contribute something back and try to fix the problems you see instead of just transporting them to a new place? 

Rant over.

Dear sbk:

pls read my reply above to 'meadishy' also

frankly, u r one of farangs who i'm glading to 'welcome to thailand'

whoever come with their self-consciousness, not seeing the country as 'toilet'

not EVERY THAIS are unaware of environment preservation

nor EVERY FARANGS are conservative

to be existing on this planet, we can't avoid wasting 'something'

but the point is that we should know to recycle, reuse, or preserve our mother-earth to be 'less' wasting or harmless

instead of blaming to the westernation, i myself would rather blame to me --as one of those thai people who don't know how to 'order' the country 'wisely'

we open the country,

we start dreaming of

--the civilisation that we used to see from the western guests

--money that comes from the guest's spending

--being one of the world leaders in order to have more power to rock n roll the world, and the country will be known worldwide

--economy rising & rising sharply

we start (day)dreaming of the 'only' positive future

meanwhile we forgot that everything has always 2 sides of the substance

there's the historic note,

telling that no more the battle from neighbour enemy (Burma by that ancient time)--it would no longer be as much dangerous as the attack of the new wave hitting from the west

this is sad but true happening to my lovely country-- Thailand

so what

here is TIT!!!!!!!!

This IS Thailand

but i DO give a hoooootttttttttttttttttt

GFB. 'beseen thailand'

ps. i heard about 'black moon' party at baan tai last time when i visited KPG this summer (april) --didn't get the the party tho

[Pudgimelon]

You know, I think I'm beginning to understand these "Full Moon Parties", "sex tourist bars", and other so-called "highlights" of Thai tourism (in the minds of some people).

Think back for a moment guys. Way back to the days when you were twenty-ish and you'd be partying up with your friends at the local pub or whatever passed for a Rave in those days.

Do you remember there always used to be some old guy hanging around at the bar? Everyone else in the bar would be twenty-ish, but there'd always be some 40 or 50 year old guy hanging around, dancing like a chicken, and trying to flirt with girls half his age.

Didn't you laugh at that guy? Didn't you think he was a bit "weird" for coming to a "young, hip" bar??

And then one day, you woke up and realized that YOU were that guy. You looked around the bar and saw that all your old friends from your party days had moved on, but there you were, still trying to cling to some vague memory of your youthful days.

Didn't you feel a bit embarassed when some girl asked you your age? Did you start lying and try to convince her that you were 30 or 35, and not 40 or 45? Or did you try to go the "sugar Daddy" route and pick up girls with serious emotional issues and get needy-f'cks out of them??

But then suddenly, you hear about this magical place, Thailand. A land where every guy is the oldest guy in the bar, and all the girls want sugar Daddies, so they won't care (at least not to your face) about your expanding belly and balding, grey hair.

So I think that's where these full moon parties come from. They come out of a desire to recapture lost youth. I can just imagine a bunch of fat old men running around the beach like drunken retards, trying not to notice that they are not twenty anymore.

I find it quite sad that a grown man would actually consider Raving to be a "good time". Raving IS a great time, but come on guys, are you twenty?? No. Most of you are well past thirty. Don't you think it's time you found another hobby?? Just how much fun can getting sh-tfaced and passing out on a beach be?? Sure it was great fun when YOU WERE TWENTY, but after twenty years of the same old thing, doesn't it get a bit old??

You may think that by acting young, you're somehow going to stay young, but we all know what effects a lifetime of hard partying will have on your body (or is that beer gut just "temporary"?).

The truth is, the only way to stay young is to continue to grow and develop as a human being. Branch out, try new things, and GROW UP. If you're still stuck in the same drunken rut you were in twenty years ago, then you're just that sad, "old man in a bar" you used to laugh at when you were young. And just because you surround yourself with a micro-community of other sad sacks in the same boat as you, doesn't suddenly make you "normal". You're still pathetic.

Grow up.

[sbk]

Actually, 95% of the people at the FMP are 18-25.

You do get your sad oldsters but they are definitely a very small minority.

The thing I don't like about the party is the use 'em and abuse 'em attitude it seems to engender in both Thai and Farang. We cease to look at Koh Phangan as a lovely tropical island with it's own local culture and look at it as a party place. Thai people view it as a money maker (hence the big influx of bargirls, katoeys and other people here to make a quick baht, never mind the consequences). The party doesn't need to cease but it does need to be made responsible. All those people making a fortune EVERY MONTH need to put some money back into their community and buy bins for the rubbish, build public toilets so people will stop using the sea, hire people to clean the beach FIRST THING in the morning not two days later. If the people living in Hadrin are unwilling to pay for this then the local govt should levy a 'party tax' and use that money to clean Hadrin up. It is turning into a disgusting dirty pigsty and it was once the most beautiful beach on the island.

GFB, I am not saying there aren't responsible environmentally aware Thais, just that they seem to be few and far between. I think there is a mentality in this country to lay blame on everyone and everything else rather than accept responsibility for ones own actions and try to remedy the problem. I love many things about Thai culture but I think people here take the "mai pen rai" attitude way too far and use it to give an excuse for doing nothing. My husband is usually given very strange looks when he brings up some problem that, with united action, can be solved. Everyone shrugs their shoulders and says, "oh we are just too small, why bother trying to fix it?" and looks at him like he is a lunatic when he points out a solution.

[Insight]

Think back for a moment guys. Way back to the days when you were twenty-ish and you'd be partying up with your friends at the local pub or whatever passed for a Rave in those days.

Do you remember there always used to be some old guy hanging around at the bar? Everyone else in the bar would be twenty-ish, but there'd always be some 40 or 50 year old guy hanging around, dancing like a chicken, and trying to flirt with girls half his age.

I'm still 24. Nuff said.

[Coffee Dude]

GFB

I always like hearing from people who think “outside the box”. There is always a little light shed for others out there no matter on which side of the box they happen to be. I have to say that, maybe because of limited experience, you are the most free thinking Thai I have ever heard (read). Keep your mind open but be aware, an open mind allows almost anyone to pour almost anything in.

sbk

I agree with both you and GFB. I know a great many Thais and others who could care less about anything that doesn't benefit them directly and with immediate effect. And I know a few Thais and others who spend most of their physical and mental energy trying to make things better for everyone they meet spilling the benefits onto those they will never meet. There are still others that try to live without causing harm but spend only a little energy trying to correct the problems made by others. My lifestyle probably falls closest to the latter (can't save the world syndrome ).

Pudgi

At least look over the edge of the box and see what’s out there.

I agree however about the sugar daddy thing. Everyone is looking for something in their mate. Although I can’t know what your mate sees in you I am sure it is of some value. Don’t begrudge people for offering what they have and suggest that they become like your grandfather (or other older reference) because that’s the only right way for over 30’s to be.

Insight

Insightful

Coffee!!!

[royar2002]

You know, I think I'm beginning to understand these "Full Moon Parties", "sex tourist bars", and other so-called "highlights" of Thai tourism (in the minds of some people).

Think back for a moment guys. Way back to the days when you were twenty-ish and you'd be partying up with your friends at the local pub or whatever passed for a Rave in those days.

Do you remember there always used to be some old guy hanging around at the bar? Everyone else in the bar would be twenty-ish, but there'd always be some 40 or 50 year old guy hanging around, dancing like a chicken, and trying to flirt with girls half his age.

Didn't you laugh at that guy? Didn't you think he was a bit "weird" for coming to a "young, hip" bar??

And then one day, you woke up and realized that YOU were that guy. You looked around the bar and saw that all your old friends from your party days had moved on, but there you were, still trying to cling to some vague memory of your youthful days.

Didn't you feel a bit embarassed when some girl asked you your age? Did you start lying and try to convince her that you were 30 or 35, and not 40 or 45? Or did you try to go the "sugar Daddy" route and pick up girls with serious emotional issues and get needy-f'cks out of them??

But then suddenly, you hear about this magical place, Thailand. A land where every guy is the oldest guy in the bar, and all the girls want sugar Daddies, so they won't care (at least not to your face) about your expanding belly and balding, grey hair.

So I think that's where these full moon parties come from. They come out of a desire to recapture lost youth. I can just imagine a bunch of fat old men running around the beach like drunken retards, trying not to notice that they are not twenty anymore.

I find it quite sad that a grown man would actually consider Raving to be a "good time". Raving IS a great time, but come on guys, are you twenty?? No. Most of you are well past thirty. Don't you think it's time you found another hobby?? Just how much fun can getting sh-tfaced and passing out on a beach be?? Sure it was great fun when YOU WERE TWENTY, but after twenty years of the same old thing, doesn't it get a bit old??

You may think that by acting young, you're somehow going to stay young, but we all know what effects a lifetime of hard partying will have on your body (or is that beer gut just "temporary"?).

The truth is, the only way to stay young is to continue to grow and develop as a human being. Branch out, try new things, and GROW UP. If you're still stuck in the same drunken rut you were in twenty years ago, then you're just that sad, "old man in a bar" you used to laugh at when you were young. And just because you surround yourself with a micro-community of other sad sacks in the same boat as you, doesn't suddenly make you "normal". You're still pathetic.

Grow up.

It is sad that you are getting so old and can only criticise what music or what kind of place other happy people want to hang out. Please keep your pathetic comments for yourself.

[NedKelly]

QUOTE (royar2002 @ Tue 2004-09-07, 14:24:29)

Koh phangan will be better without full moon party.

actually

EVERY KOH would be BETTER withOUT FARANGS

Girl from bar aint welcome on a farang expat forum.........

[Insight]

Girl from bar aint welcome on a farang expat forum.........

She's fully mad. If she really is a girl, and she really is from a bar, it must be all that ya-ba, which is (let me guess) another farang-created problem.