Michelle's Year in Southeast Asia: Koh Phangan, Southern Thailand

The next afternoon, we arrived in Koh Phangan. We had pre-booked our hostel called Secret Hut, on Hostelworld before we got there. We were breaking the bank at a whole $5 a night haha. Since it was the Full Moon Party week, all the guesthouses on the beach were booked up. The Full Moon Party is when tens of thousands of travellers come to Hat Rin, Koh Phangan to paint themselves in day-glo paint, drink whiskey buckets and party on the beach all night. Our hostel wasn’t on the beach, but it was only a flat rate 100 Baht ($3) to take a cab to the main area. The Secret Hut was definitely truthful to its name, since it was a 15 minute walk off-roading and hidden behind trees. The owner of the place really made our stay there quite amusing. He looked like a hippy and I'm pretty sure was always ‘high’ on some sort of drug, but was extremely friendly and helpful. He also had a pet monkey, which was pretty hilarious. We fell in love with his wife’s Thai Basil-chicken rice and ended up ordering it everyday we stayed there (even for breakfast). She would make it from scratch when we ordered it, and it was just so fresh and flavorful that we couldn’t get enough of it.

The Secret Hut..loved it here!
At nighttime, we decided to head to the main beach to party. The town was similar to Koh Phi Phi. It had restaurants, clothes shops, and was full of tourists. On the beach, there were ten-times more alcohol bucket stands then there were on Koh Phi Phi. Each stand had their own saying and the sales people were quite hilarious. The main bar on the beach was called Cactus, where we spent the majority of the night. There were glow-in-the-dark paint stands along the beach. We ended up making friends with the guy and painted out faces for free. And from there on, we spent the rest of the night dancing to the amazing music and partying on the beach.

"Jesus Favourite"? hmmm

Lauren's new friend haha

Fire limbo makes another appearance
The next day, we woke up, had Basil-chicken of course, and then head into town in search for a beach. We didn’t go to the beach that we had partied at the night before because we thought it would be too touristy. It was a good decision we didn’t because we ended up finding a secluded beach in the middle of nowhere. There was not one person on the beach, aside from the four of us. It ended up being a perfect day relaxing on the beach and watching the sunset. At night, we went for round two of the beach party… which was also the night before the actual Full Moon Party. All the Full-Mooners were now on the island, making the party ten times as big as the night before. It probably was one of the best nights of my entire Exchange. Great music, great friends, and so many laughs. We had so much fun that we didn’t even go to bed. Instead we just stayed out to watch the sunrise. I never wanted to leave Koh Phangan. Even though we stayed such a short time, I will remember those two days for the rest of my life!