Hong Kong to Bangkok summer 2002 – Part 7
We arrived in a hectic Bangkok bus station still a bit shaken by our last night in Cambodia and, before entering Thailand, a hellish road with a hangover. I can't say what it was, but I immediately felt at home in the big city. Full of bustle, smell and noise, but not in an intimidating way. Bangkok felt very approachable and certainly gave us a good time.
Predictably, we took a tuk tuk to the Koh San Road and booked a tiny dingy room above the craziness below. Cockroaches abounded and the walls combined the ability to hold floor to ceiling stinking rot, while being so thin I could feel the place shake with every thrust as the guy next door got lucky.
The Koh San road was everything I expected and more. Part "backpacker wonderland", complete with buckets and Beer Chang t-shirts, part engaging cross over of cultures. Great street food, crazy bars, flashing lights and people in the mood to have fun. It was exciting and eye opening. Of course there were the overly touchy lady boys, sometimes barely distinguishable from the Thai girls (the giveaway being the voice), but also a whole array of other Thais and people from across the world to mix and get a bit wrecked with.
We did manage to escape the bubble to explore the city. We wandered around bustling street markets, got lost around back streets and searched out Buddhist temples, with my highlight being Wat Pho, where I got an exceedingly painful massage (who would have thought that such a small lady could cause such incredible pain).
Needless to say we had a great time and jumped on a train two days later in no better state than when we arrived.
THE FULL MOON PARTY
It was a steaming hot overnight train ride. Stacked in narrow bunks, we did not see much of the good portion of Thailand we passed on our way south to Surat Thani. Awaking in a daze soon after sunrise, I did at least get a glimpse of tropical lushness in the first light before we arrived.
Then stacked on to a boat across the crazy blue sea, a short stop in Ko Samui and then we arrived with the crowds in Ko Pha Ngan. We were (nearly) all there for the same reason. The legendary Full Moon Party.
Tales of the event percolated through travellers chat across the region and it was almost inevitable it would become the the last big chapter in our trip. Like it or lump it, we had to give it a go.
The Full Moon Party has been taking place at the beach of Hat Rin since the mid 80's. It is fair to say that the area surrounding the beach is spoiled. A mash up of never ending cheap beach huts, bars and snackeries. We though had a good bunch and made more than the most of it.
You could feel the atmosphere build as more and more people arrived in the day's building up to the big night. By the time of the big night, the place was bursting at the seems with thousands upon thousands of people wanting to get wrecked until dawn and beyond (I understand well over 10,000 that night). Along with the pumped atmosphere there was more than a little nasty undercurrent, with stories of undercover police and bust ups abounding.
I spent the first half the night with Felix, Tom, a couple of Italians and whoever else we bumped in to. Starting with the more laid back bars overlooking the beach as the sun went down drinking milkshakes, before moving to the strip behind the beach for buckets of Thai whisky and Red Bull and then being sucked in to the epic-centre of the giant rave on the beach.
At some indistinguishable point in the night, the whole thing went up a notch of messy and one by one the guys I was hanging with disappeared (the last time I saw one of them was walking past as he lay zonked out on the beach watching a random couple copulate in the sand... each to their own).
I found myself on my tod, stumbling between the the beach and trips to the strip to pick up another bucket. The night took a random turn when I was bear hugged from behind by a tall blonde German. To my surprise he called me by my name and, a short moment late, I recognised him. It was Thilo, the awesome, quirky dude we had met in Yangshuo and travelled with through south-west China!
We hit the beach and raved until dawn. As the sun rose, we found ourselves on a platform, covered in UV paint, dancing with strangers and ushering the sun out of the sea. It had been a good night.
BOTTLE BEACH AND SOME SCUBA
I slept through the next day, awaking briefly to get nourishment and take a squizz at the level of carnage all around (a lot!). The next day Felix, Tom and I cleared out and got a bus and then a boat to as far away as we could get on the island from Hat Rin - Bottle Beach.
Nestled in a stunning bay on the north of the island, Bottle Beach was the antithesis of Hat Rin. A score of small, palmed fringed huts stretched out on a beautiful sandy beach, equipped with hammocks, backed by palms, thronged with tropical noises and surrounded by forest. There was no road in, no TV, no internet, no hassle...
Needless to say, we had some serious down time (only briefly interrupted by the biggest spider I have ever seen rustling the mojo of my hut - I was saved by a broom). I recall hours chatting with Tom about the depths of morality, staring out to sea, half alert to passing naval boats. One even came to shore - to the half horror of many of the occupants of the beach hastily hiding stuff under their huts - but it ended up just being a friend of the family who ran the huts. We had a beer with them, lost to them at foosball and high-fived them on the way out.
Best of all was after dark. Each night we kicked back under a throng of stars like I had never seen, imagining the scope of the universe and listening to Incubus' rendition of "Wish you were here". Truly great times.
After five days Felix and I very reluctantly moved on. Our flight back from Bangkok beckoned and I wanted to get in some scuba diving. With many a hug to those we left behind, we took the small boat out of Bottle Beach, bus across the island and then ferry north to the island of Koh Tau.
While Felix kicked back on Thai cushions by the beach, I mixed my time between tacky videos and serial dives, completing my PADI Advanced course. We visited some great dive sites, including Sail Rock, with its 12 meter vertical chimney swim through. The diving was exhilarating. Along the way I met loads of flamboyant corals, shoals of a myriad of fish, black-tip reef sharks, a turtle and a whole other array of great sea life.
Perhaps my favourite dive was a night dive in a sea of teeming with phosphorescence. You could literally shoot a bright green Street Fighter "harduken" with a double punch of the hands. I back-rolled and soared through the sparkling water. Added to the sensation of weightlessness, it was a surreal experience. Exploring with the torch, I discovered the red eyes of hundreds of crustaceans hiding in the rocks and, with a chill, the green eyes of circling reef sharks.
BANGKOK AND BUST
Chilled, tanned (OK... burnt) and adorned with fisherman's trousers, we made the long reverse journey by boat and train half the way up Thailand back to Bangkok. By arrangement this time, we met up with Thilo again and had a final big blowout in Bangkok.
It was the quintessential Bangkok backpackers night out, starting with buckets on the Koh San Road, moving to another random district for a very odd club and finishing with a mad cap tuk tuk ride across the city just before dawn. The driver was certifiably nuts. Almost certainly on amphetamines, he laughed as he put down peddle to metal and did a mini wheelie, running straight through red lights at break neck speed. We missed other traffic by a whisker. Thilo and I screamed for him to stop. Felix, who I thought had finally lost the plot, was screaming for him to do more. I can only suppose it was a final forlorn attempt to win the ultimate man contest (oh you remember that Felix don't you!).
And that was that. With yet another killer hangover, our great adventure had come to an end.
In two and a bit months we had made it from the Hong Kong to Bangkok, via landslides, cave treks, the first mosh pit in Chinese rock festival history, gun pointing border guards, midnight storm swimming, the shits (multiple times), motorbike crashes, mountains and the Mekong, dens of iniquity, the largest temple in the world and finally some chill in Thailand. To say it was an eye opener is a cliche, but also a whopping understatement. I loved every god damn minute of it.
THE END...
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