Tuesday, 10 February 2009

• The Man of Haad Salahd at the Full Moon Party in Thailand

  Guest post submitted by Lv16
  written January 25, 2008

  I don't drink much...but here I am, posting with yet another hang over from the night before.

  Time to catch up...lets see...

  The bus ride from Bangkok to the ferry boat wasn't anything spectacular, although the highway at night was full of glowing trucks. Since there are no real light regulations (so it seems) vehicles and especially truckers deck their cars out with green, blue, yellow neon lights. Makes for a cool ride to watch them speed by.

  The ferry boat itself was quite formidable so all those stories of boat flippings and losing electronics wasn't something to worry about. But we'll see if that remains true for the future boats

  Landed in Ko Phangan. This place was buzzing with motorbikes and tourists. Shops selling catchy T-shirts were everywhere. Taxi drivers pretty much tackling you as soon as you step off the boat, trying to shuffle you into the back of their pickup trucks.

  Haad Salad (Sah-Laad) was our destination, and after a bit of a mix up, which is a long story I won't go into, we arrived to our bungalow. Small huts near the beach, nothing too fancy, there were beds inside and that's all I was looking for....and a hot shower but no such luck.

  

  The main building held a pretty nice restaurant that got quite a bit of my business, small tables, with pillows you sit on, loud sound system that was going constantly. And at a mention of my fondness for Jack Johnson, the owner's friend Si, played his entire CD for me.

  

  While Si was a beautiful girl...gorgeous actually...and Karl (our chef/waiter) was pretty much the coolest older guy straight out of an old samuri movie, my favorite character in this story is undoubtedly Hut. Hut was the cutest dog I have EVER seen. This little puppy was a constant companion for your heels. I planned on more then one occasion to stuff him in my bag and take him with me

  

  

   

  The hut was a great place to hole up for a while, but it was pretty out of the way from the action....thus the motorbikes. I was a bit reserved when it came down to it, especially since the thing was manual and the trucks weave around that place with what looks like no regard for motorbikers. But all was well, besides me not knowing I have to take steep hills in 2nd gear and not 4th and rolling backwards through traffic!
  

  Speeding through the jungle was definitely the best way to experience the island. Once you left the town, the roads were pretty much empty so it was just you and the bike. I got a kick from riding at night; the nearly full moon cutting through the massive palm trees with a constant sea breeze on your face as you drive around at about 70mph....so good...

  Speaking of the full moon...The legendary full moon party was the reason for our arrival on this island in the first place.

  

  After a brief yet high speed drive down to the beach that I thought would surely end up with us flipping over, we arrived. The familiar signs of a rave started to appear, but on a more massive scale. Glow in the dark items were everywhere, buckets of liquor and bottles of water lined the entire walk to the beach.

  

  And a familiar surprise out of the corner of my eye. Out of a side cafe comes a former housemate of mine when I stayed in Queenstown, NZ. Of course she recognized the hair, but still, two different countries, almost a month and a half later and here we were again. A stunningly beautiful Israeli girl, whose name...I totally don't remember. We shared a drink and parted ways soon after, but not before I grabbed another pic since my older one was a bit blurry (she was the one with the santa hat on, the dark skin and the huge a....ccent.
  

  

  Into the party I went.

  This place was....I don't even know....another planet. Fire, lights, 30,000 people dancing, fireworks, you name it, it was there.

  

  The entire beach was lined with neon lights and speakers and food stands, they even had a sleep area for those who couldn't make it till morning.

  Things were literally always on fire out here

  

  The fire spinners were not to be missed. Countless people told me they go specifically to watch these guys and girls perform. Some with flaming batons, some had chains with fireballs on each end...some got the crowd involved with a flaming jump rope. I wanted to jump in, but ya know...I've got a bunch of tinder on my head.

  

    

  

  Hours of dancing later, I found myself covered in blue glow in the dark paint, taking a break on the beach. The party started to wind down towards the early early morning hours. Seriously, I've never seen so many people passed out before. People just face down in the sand. Bizarre...

  Also on the same token of bizarre. You'll be dancing, pull yourself a pretty girl, thinking to yourself "aww daym!" only to have her lean in and whisper "500baht". No! NO! Cruel!

  We'll leave it at that.

  So yes the party was great.

  The entire next day was all recovery. Woke up around 5pm, ate, came back, passed out again.

  I spent the rest of my time there just chilling out...and avoiding this girl who fell in love with me after she gave me a massage. For 5 days she stalked around. AND during the massage she called herself from my cell, thus now having my phone number. Ain't that a b....

  Met some french guys who were awe struck when walked by them on the beach. Apparently I was in the background of multiple pictures they took during the party and here I was standing in front of them. One guy almost tripped getting up to shake my hand and get a picture with me. They referred to me as "The man of Haad Salahd" and were thrilled to meet me in person.

  

  
  

  So now I'm on Koh Samui. A much bigger island.

  My bungalow is nice... but my bed is full of ants and other biting creatures so I'm going to go sleep outside and nurse my toxin filled body.

  

  No hookers were hurt in the writing of this story. All girls in my pictures are not hookers, they are wholesome members of society
  ..or at least I think

  Have you been to Thailand? What were your reasons to travel there?
  

  
  

  • 6:21 PM
  • 1107 Views
  • 6 eProps
  • 3 Comments