Full Moon Party, Oct 26 2007
Haad Rin depends almost solely on the monthly full moon parties to generate income and business. The beach there is fine but people come for one reason only – all night partying. Every Bungalow or Hotel room goes up in price for the week of the Full Moon and almost all have some minimum amount of nights required (usually about 4 or 5 days prior to the party itself).
Phangan during non FMP activities is a quiet place with plenty of choice for eating out and a large selection of movies and shows being played daily in the various eateries. The few days before the rush of travelers descending for the FMP are nice and peaceful but the days immediately preceding it are anything but. During all our time so far in Thailand we only met one other Irish guy but you could easily mistake Haad Rin for O’ Connell Street the number of Irish was so great for the Full Moon. The place was awash with Dublin jerseys and Kerry flags and with all the rain, Haad Rin was starting to take on a distinctively Irish flavour. Every day we expected to run into someone we knew and of course Carina had to run into someone from Carrick while out at the shop.
We managed to miss most of the actual FMP itself, the night before and night after being much more enjoyable and without the crowds of people passed out on the beach. It was no place for a camera but we managed to get a few in from the night before albeit censored highly:
They have a saying in Haad Rin, what happens on the mountain stays on the mountain…
When the dust settles after the FMP, Haad Rin turns back into a ghost town. We have said our goodbyes to the rest of the Dublin lads as they are heading onto Samui or Tao and for us it’s over to the Andaman sea to check out Phuket, Phi Phi and Lanta.