After a long 12 hours of travelling, we arrived in Koh Phangan. We left Phuket at 7am and after a combination of bus, boat, bus, we finally reached the party island. When I was younger, it was always a dream to go to a full moon party, but now i'm a little older, I never actually thought we'd go to one. We didn't plan for it, but when we arrived in Thailand a few days ago, we heard there was a full moon during the Songkran festival, so full moon means party. It would be rude not to attend, especially as it's one for the Thai new year. The bus and boat journey was packed full of revellers, ready and waiting to attend. We met a couple on the boat, who we said we'd try and meet later on. Thousands descend onto the beach; Hard Rin in the peak season, there have been known to be up to 30,000 attending the parties. It could be crazy trying to find and meet up with people here.

Our first mission was to find our guesthouse, which luckily was close to the main port. We didn't want to stay right on the beach where all the action was happening, so we'll get a taxi to the party later. Once we'd checked in, we needed to get kitted out. I had an illuminous dress already, but John had nothing bright to wear, so we wandered off to find him an outfit. We were in such a rush as most of the stalls were closing and we hardly had time to find things to buy, but we found him a brightly coloured yellow top, with pink shorts. He'll be the brightest guy there, so you won't miss him. Next we went off to have dinner and found a burger bar right nest where we're staying. There were loads of people in there, so I expect they'll all be going to the full moon party. After dinner, we went back to get ready. By time we'd had showers and got ready, it was nearly 11pm, so we won't get there until late! But if we're going to be partying all night, then it's ok to get there so late.

When we were ready, we walked out to try and find a taxi to get to the party. It's about half an hour drive away from the port, so you definitely can't walk it. We saw lots of pick up trucks converted into taxis with benches in the back of the trucks, so everyone clambers into the back of them for around 100 baht per person (£2 roughly). We had to wait for it to fill up before we left, which was annoying. But we left and had a bumpy ride ahead of us. Most of the bars we passed were deserted by now, so I guess everyone had left to go to the party already. The roads were chaos as lots of people were getting dropped off and lots were riding scooters there. The roads are too dangerous for that around here, and after our bad scooter experiences, never again will I be travelling around islands on scooters.

UV body painting

Once we'd been dropped off, I saw body painting artists. I had wanted to get the paints and do it myself, but we ran out of time, so once we saw these guys here, it made sense to get it done by the professionals. They had a board full of tattoos lit up under uv lights. They looked pretty cool, so I got some flowers on my arm and on my face. While John got a dragon on one arm and full moon party on the other. The artist painting John's arms done it so quickly within 5 minutes, but the lady doing mine took ages, which I didn't mind. I only had one arm painted, but still, I was happy enough with it.

FULL MOON PARTY!

By the time we'd left and got ourselves painted, it was gone midnight, so we just headed into the party without trying to find the others. It was manic, and people were everywhere! We didn't bother trying to find the others in the bar, we could barely stay together ourselves. We paid our 100 baht entrance fees, got our wristbands and descended upon the madness. We got ourselves a bucket of vodka red-bull. They sell buckets of spirits and mixers, so you pick your own combos. The hard job is holding onto your bucket without someone spilling, or knocking it out of your hands.

As we walked down into the party, there were so many stalls selling all kinds of full moon party paraphernalia, from glow sticks, illuminous hair accessories, clothes, more body paint stalls etc. There were also many bars and clubs blaring out all kinds of music and plenty of food stalls. This was just on the road leading up to Hard Rin beach. The music was getting louder as we approached the beach and there was a main stage with many people dancing upon it. The music was decent and I felt a good vibe about the night. We stood and watched from a safe distance before defending on the madness.

I felt it was time to go and join in, so we wandered around to the stages and started walking around. I never realised there were so many stages at the full moon party. There's some kind of music to suit everyone here, from dance, hard house, drum n bass, r & b, cheesy pop etc. I just thought it would be one kind of music being played to one big crowd, but everything was spread across lots of mini stages. It's probably a good thing as it spreads everyone out, so we're not all crowded in one spot.

Each bar had its own form of entertainment; some had skipping under a burning rope, others had the limbo under burning fire, some had climbing apparatus and gym equipment. If you're not up for these activities and are a bit tired, there's even a sleep area. Surprisingly there were loads of people all in there sleeping! When we walked past, some guy asked what everyone was all doing sleeping at the full moon party- he kind of had a point! There's always the beach too, lots of people sitting down and dancing all around it.

As the night went on, we had more and more buckets. I was surprised as they did one of strawberry daiquiri, perfect for me, and mojitos for John! We were sorted for the night! I also found strawberry Breezers, so within a few hours, we were well away and dancing up on the stage! The drinks had kicked in, and we spent the night dancing until the early hours of the morning. I was just loving listening to the music and dancing, it reminded me of my clubbing days! I felt like a teenager again! There were people of all ages here, so it's not just for the youngsters!

Whilst we partied the night away, it was now starting to get light and the sun was rising. It was so strange being on a beach all dressed up in illuminous clothes watching everyone dancing on the beach! It kind of felt wrong to be there now it was light and seeing how drunk everyone was. It just didn't feel the same party anymore. People were dancing in the sea, so we all thought it was a good idea and went to join in! People were all still in a happy mood and there was still a good atmosphere, so we must have stayed there dancing until around 8am, when we decided enough was enough and left to get a taxi back to our guest house.

Monks

It was an amazing experience going to a full moon party and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves! I didn't feel out of place, which I thought I would. We've not been out clubbing until this time in a long time, so the rest of the next day is written off to catch up on sleep, and recover from our hangovers. Just as we were getting dropped off walking back to the room, I saw a group of monks. They take to the streets to beg for food early mornings, so kind people provide food parcels for them. It's a practise which is done by the monks to teach them to be thrifty. I was lucky enough to see this event, but tired so couldn't take in what I was witnessing. It was a stark contrast, me returning from the party in my neon orange dress, and the monks dressed in their orange robes, begging for food. It puts things into perspective. John missed the event as he was too tired, so went straight to the room to sleep.

3 day hangover!

After we'd slept for most of the day, it was dark by then, so we missed the daylight hours. We didn't mind, as we wrote this day off knowing we'd have hangovers. We only really got up to get some food from the pizza restaurant next door, then went back to our room to watch horror movies. Most people that we saw out and about looked a bit worse for ware, so they must have all been feeling like we did! For the next 3 days, we still had a hangover. It was just horrible to be feeling like that, so we didn't do much expect go to the Irish bar, not to drink, but to eat and for John to play pool. It was too hot being out and about, so we avoided going down the beach. We were going to do a snorkel trip, but it's quite expensive, so didn't bother. When we go to Ko Tao, we'll be doing snorkelling there anyway.