Clare man Ciaran O’Connell has left Ireland behind to embark on a once-in-a-lifetime trip backpacking around the world. Internet access permitting, Ciaran will be corresponding with us as he enjoys his travels. This week, the full moon party in Koh Phangan and scuba diving.
Dear Joe
I hope the brass monkey hasn’t broken over there yet.
The first day of the Full Moon Party had finally arrived and the excitement around the town was building. Before we got going, I met with my dorm roommates – a diverse bunch to say the least. They were Joule, a Portuguese student fluent in four languages, Alexi, a 29-year French banker, Famke, a young Dutch girl, Melaka, a Danish girl who recently graduated and Teresa, a qualified doctor and the only other Irish person in our group. We were all single travellers who had met at different stages over the past couple of weeks.
To break the ice, we played a card game I had just been introduced to called “the horse race.” Basically, you line the four aces in a row and then line five cards face down in a line out from them. The object is to bet an amount of drink on a suit and if your card or horse wins you don’t have to drink. At this point, you can pass your allotted amount on to some other person playing. There are other rules, but I wouldn’t bore you with a long winded explanation of them. Suffice to say, it’s a great for getting the party started.
Hostel takeover
Then we stumbled into the bar of the hostel for the 400 Baht ‘All you can eat’ dinner. People there were dressed in all forms of colourful attire, from t-shirts and shorts to bikinis and hat scarves to headbands, wigs and bottomless shorts, and in every colour you could ever imagine. Even the topless were covered head-to-toe in illuminous paint. The crazier you looked the better. Personally, I was rather dashing, dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and illuminous shorts. A crazy Asian rock band kicked off the pre-party, and we all starting lathering each other with paint.
The crowd became bigger and bigger through the night, drinks were flowing and it reminded me a little of the good times – before the Celtic Tiger, when the pubs in Ireland were wall to wall and nobody cared what anyone did or worked at. People were dancing on tables, sweat dripping from their sinewy bodies as they screamed the lyrics of their favourite songs. After a while, my group and I decided to make the five minute walk to the beach, thinking the night couldn’t get any better.
In fairness, the beloved JOE t-shirt may need an iron at this stage
There was a crowd of 12,000 dotted all over the horseshoe-shaped beach. The beach was a melting pot of nationalities, every corner of the world seemed to be represented. Music was blaring from the hundreds of bars set up at 20m intervals the length and breadth of the strand. There were mud slides, fire rope jumping, fire spinners, glow paint artists and copious amounts of drinking games to get involved in. It was like a cross between Oxygen, the Electric Picnic, Creamfields and Cois Fharraige, but in a much warmer setting, where everything was lit by the brightness of the full moon.
We finally hit the hay at about 8am after a couple of hours of hedonistic excess at the after party.
Scuba
Over the next couple of days, we signed up to and followed up to a Padi open water scuba diving course in the neighbouring island of Ka Tao. Because of the different mother tongues, we were split into two groups: French speaking and English speaking. I was in the latter group, with Theresa and Famke (newly christened Irish). We were joined by Alan (my diving buddy), Itamar from Israel and Tom from New Zealand.
The course was split between two days in the class room learning the basics and an evening in the water. I’ve had fear of deep water since nearly drowning as a child, so it was an extra barrier for me to push through. We had to swim from the shore to a boat ten minutes out to sea. On the swim-back we had to stop half way and treading water for ten minutes in the one spot, before eventually swimming back to shore.
When I stepped back on dry land, I was so happy I could have cried. It gave me the confidence of taking the next step – diving. Over the next two days, I made four dives out at sea and successfully completed my water course. I also got to swim with a stingray for about an hour – thankfully it didn’t react to me the same way one did to poor Steve Irwin.
Well that’s pretty much the full story on my full moon party and deep sea diving experience. Join me again soon for further adventures.
See you after kid.
Ciarán O’Connell
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