Jumping in Koh Pha Ngan

From Railay Beach, we then headed to the opposite side of Thailand, on the east, to the rather famous Koh Pha-Ngan Island (อำเภอเกาะพะงัน).

Koh Pha-Ngan is mostly known for being the place where wild Full Moon parties got internationally famous. Full Moon parties happen every full moon (duh!), on the beach. Everybody is supposed to be dressed in white and have their bodies painted in fluorescent colours. A side requirement of these parties is to buy a "bucket" full of ice, soda, but mostly alcohol (vodka, rum, whisky, you name it) in order to really join the party craziness.

Parties became so famous (and lucrative) that Half Moon Parties and Black Moon Parties started to appear too.

Maybe I'm getting old, but I was very happy to arrive just in between two moon parties, so the island was quite quiet. The hostel room we were in was for 24 people, and we were four in it. I don't want to imagine how it would have been with 24 people full of "buckets" after a moon party. I'm pretty sure the owners must have had some nightmares about it too.

Koh Pha Ngan outside of the Full Moon Party events is a great little island. It's quite hilly, but you can rent scooters that are very cheap to awaken the road rider that sleeps within you.

The picture below is, well, not the best of the series, sorry. But we cannot be on top of everything all the time, especially in a place where buckets are flying around... 😅