We took a bus from Surat Thani to Donsak and then a ferry from Donsak to Koh Phangan. (I also suggest you buy everything as a package deal from Hualamphong Station or other travel agencies). We tried planning ahead for too many things, and it may have bit us in the butt, as we ended up paying for each leg of the trip individually.
We stayed at Bed n’ Bar right next to Haadrin Beach. I definitely recommend you look for a hostel right near the beach if you plan on attending Full Moon Party (FMP). And also suggest you try to book in advance as the rooms fill up quickly. Using Hostel World should be pretty sufficient.
We made quite a few new friends from the hostel, there’s Ruben, Tomas, Maya, and Sigort. Ruben is from Portugal, Tomas from the Czech Republic, and Maya and Sigort from Denmark. We mainly hung out on the beaches and walked around the shops near Haadrin Beach until the second night, when FMP occurred.
It’s insane. Everyone gets painted in neon paint, and is decked out in flower head wreaths and neon tanks.
Some designs you can get painted on you:
The entire beach was covered with human beings. Everyone wasted drunk from sketchy vodka buckets. By 3 AM everyone seemed to be making out with someone. I have many videos, but you can do a quick google images search to see just how crazy this party is. The party kept going on all the way until 9 AM. There were people from all over the world (mainly europe), and of all ages. We saw an old man pull out coke and another old man yell “ YOU CHEEKY BASTARD! ”. There was mushroom mountain, and there were ropes of fire. An epic party to say the least.
Oh! Another pro of living right near haadrin beach is that you don’t have to pay an entrance fee to the party, nor pay for a taxi or ferry to get to the location.
And it is here, that my fake Birkenstocks were stolen. I also lost a pair of shorts and sunglasses. …sigh, shit happens.
We left Koh Phangnan at 9 AM, meaning we only really got 3 hours of sleep, and spent the entirety of 2/4/15 on busses and ferrys getting to Phuket. We are finally in Phuket, and dismayed to find that things are super expensive here (relative to Bangkok). :(
Digressions:
I’ve also had a dandy time trying a bunch of unique Lay’s chips flavors here. There’s Scallops, Nori, Ribs, and some other flavor that I couldn’t figure out.
There are more 7 Eleven’s here than there are Starbucks in Manhattan. I had heard before that 7 Eleven in some Asian countries is quite posh, but this is something else. 7 Eleven here is the go to store for almost everything. I love it.
Lastly, if you don’t want to pay to eat bugs there’s a nice restaurant next to the fried chicken stand near Haadrin Beach that will place parts of dead flies in your Pad Thai for free -_-.
But if you want some damn good schnitzel, or fried chicken sandwiches, go to Mama Schnitzel. 5 stars.
