NYE in Bangkok and Islands and Full Moon Party.

[vitaminp]

I suppose the title of this report should make reference to the gradual death of my liver. Which I think I can actually feel screaming for me to stop!

I had every intention of writing the report in a very strict manner, each day posted each day. But it's already day 7 and this is the first post...maybe all the drinking has something to do with it.

So to start at the beginning, I have two mates who work long off-shore swings in Africa, 2 months on 2 months off. I just transpired that over NYE they would both be off. So what better way to celebrate than going somewhere new for three weeks.

I had a QF flight credit, so was able to get my ticket from PER-SIN very cheap, and then JetStar from SIN-BKK.

Day 1 gave a very bright dawn, as when logging into QF website I was 24k points light and my upgrade confirmed. So it was to be my first International business class trip!! First time in a Skybed!! (at this point must than AFF'ers for their help and experiences that have given me and many others a leg up.

Check in at a very quiet PER International. Was first in the line. My mate flying with me was in economy, I felt semi-bad about flying up front, but quickly got over it. Into the QP where I was able to change to 1A. Was one of the first in J to board (didn't want to miss a minute). Pre flight champers and then we were away into a very good looking PER morning.

Excellent climb as I stuck to champagne. Passed over the Abhrolhos at 38k feet, amazing sight. The co-pilot gave each side of the plane an excellent view. As lunch was served i switched to a very nice Shiraz. I managed to drink the better part of the bottle with my beef dish. I watched In Bruges which I thought was very good. The back onto my Bacardi and Coke. The crew were amazing throughout, I monopolised quite a bit of their time chatting and ordering drinks in the galley. One FA took back some drinks to my friend in economy, which was a nice touch.

But soon it was all over, the descent into SIN was upon us and the Skybed returned to upright. A nice landing and very quick taxi to stand. A dash down to customs and we were out and bags collected quite quickly. Although I was quite shaky, it could have been hours and I would not have remembered.

We had no room booked, and were just looking for something cheap. *Aside - Jetstar changed the SIN-BKK flight times from early morning to 7pm. Originally it would have been into SIN at 6, then dinner, drinks and back to the airport at about 5am. But we needed a room for the 24hr stop over. Booked a cheap room in Clark Quay. That night visited the Clinic and a couple of other clubs, finished up at about 2am and turned in for the night.

**Well, enough for today. We are on Koh Phangan and its 5pm. I need to grab about 5 hours sleep before we gear up for tonight.

 

[Alanslegal]

I'm already excited at this TR - the full moon parties are HOTNESS!

Can't wait for your next installment

 

[moa999]

Bring on the fluoro body paint and buckets

 

[matty744]

Bring on the fluoro body paint and buckets

I can hear my liver screaming at the mention of full moon party and buckets. Good times

 

[vitaminp]

Thanks for replies thus far

Day 2

Saw us arise and head out to Orchard road for some window shopping and food. We strolled around until about 3pm and collected bags and headed out to SIN, T1. We were the second pax to check in at the Jetstar counters, went through customs and looked around at the duty free before finding a nice spot to relax by the gate. The ipod was groaning under the stress of watching episodes of Entourage, and i suddenly remembered I only bought my USB charger, not powerpoint. D'oh.

Plane arrived a little late, but the disembarkment and re-embarkment was handled very swiftly. Took off into a slightly rainy SIN evening and made our way to BKK. Flight was very smooth, my mate and I had a spare middle seat..ahh, back to reality after the Skybed.

I think the Pilot was employing the "Slam Dunk" approach. Which put us on the ground very quickly. Arrived on time at 9.20 from memory. Customs was very easy, collected bags and hopped a cab to the Grande Majestic on Sukhumvit, soi 2. We found the Majestic after trolling websites and reviews. The cheapest I could find rooms on travel websites was about 260 a night. Enter QF website, which was just cheaper than booking through the hotel and came to 70 each for a twin room. Our other mate and his GF had already checked in, so we met up for some coughtails in the bar.

I was very impressed with the Majestic. Excellent staff. Good location for what we wanted to do, nice rooms by my standards and a good pool area.

That put to bed Day 2, we wanted to prepare for NYE which was tomorrow.

Day 3

Up for some of the included breakfast. A nice selection of western and eastern choices. Our first stop was Khao San Road. Being our first time in BKK it was a good experience, I managed to get some "fully genuine" Ray Bans to keep sun out of my eyes. Also picked up the islands uniform of Singha, Chang and Tiger singlets! We had lunch at a nice Indian place on the road and after about 2 hours of shopping we returned to the hotel for some pool time and discussion about where to go for NYE.

The discussion turned out to be vitally important. I had spoken to a few staff and they had mentioned the Santika by name, saying it was a higher was quite popular. Fortunately, it was dismissed very quickly, instead deciding to head for a more carnival atmosphere of Khao San Road.

We got stuck into the duty free in the room, my Havana Club was being drained quite quickly. At about 10pm we hopped a cab to Khao and strolled down to Silk club, where we secured a table out the back and started on the Vodka red bull buckets. There must have been something about me that night. My mate got 3 buckets for 450 baht and when I returned I got the hard sell for 700! Needless to say he was the bar runner for the night. It started to get very loose at about 11.30. I remember shirts off, standing on tables, beer and some form of sparkling wine being thrown around. At one stage the security staff were up on the tables dancing with us. A couple next to us had purchased a bottle of vodka, so we hit up some shots with them.

The countdown was displayed on the plasmas and as the clock struck 12 I had someone to plant a NYE kiss on.

The night seemed to get looser and looser from there on. We stumbled out ont the road at 1 and at the end of Khao there was a concert with a huge crown. We moved up to the front and danced for a while, my mate and his GF getting up on stage and dancing with the band. To my surprise they were not kicked off, the crowd loved them and the band was getting involved as well!

We finished the night at a sort of loungey/bar cafe with some Tequila Sunrises.

I went drinking at a closer bar (to the hotel) with a friend I had met who was over from the states. So the next morning at about 1 when I met up with my mates, I had a very worried mother on one of their phones who could not get me on my mobile (locked in my room safe) who had just heard about the fire at Santika Nightclub. My sister, who could not get any of us on the phone for a while had called DFAT and a spate of calls made by various mothers/fathers finally had us all accounted for. It was the first we had heard of it, so we switched on BBC and caught an update. RIP to all those who passed, it made me think how easily it could have been us or anyone. So we headed to the bar for Bloody Mary's to clear the fog, and much of the day was spent like this. A huge buffet lunch, more bloody mary's and for me Mai Tai's (I was feeling in a little more tropical mood)

**Off for another scooter ride today. Someone stole my thongs last night so I have to get some new ones...hmmm or were they burnt off in a fire skipping rope incident? :shock:

 

[Keith009]

I'm already excited at this TR - the full moon parties are HOTNESS!

Amen. Totally.
I'd go back to Thailand over and over again JUST for the full moon parties.

 

[vitaminp]

I am wondering why I thought it was a good idea to go do a Thai boxing lesson. Although it is bliss when you can go from an 8 dollar lesson to an 8 dollar massage

Day 4 - When we did the train.

Today was again spent recuperating from NYE. Large amounts of tomato juice consumed. I think I'm getting very healthy.

We checked out of the hotel around 6 and made our way to the railway station for the trip down to Surit Thani and the bus and ferry to Koh Samui. Train was leaving at 7.30 and I walked over to a Hong Kong Noodle house and bought supplies that were nicely packaged up for the ride. A couple of plastic bags filled with 7-11 ice and king brown Singha bottles were also prepared for the trip.

My mates and I are a little poker crazy. Two of us seriously play on-line and we thought we would use the train ride to polish up some of our short handed cash game skills and tune up the strategy. We had rolls of 1 and 5 and 10 baht coins to use. After about 2 hours of playing a Police officer came along and I thought we were going to be in some serious trouble for the gambling. The way he was gesturing to the cards and coins put up a red flag. Fortunately, he was just saying that it was now 10pm and the sleeper beds had to be made up.

I managed to get quite a good sleep, about 6 hours. And we arrived in Surit Thani at about 7.30am.

Next was a bus to the ferry, or the boat of belly ache and throat burn.

The scene at the ferry was not pretty. A howling wind, very very choppy mid range swell. We started taking odds at how many people would last the journey below decks. We all grew up in costal WA, so the ride did not bother us, playing Uno the whole way. But about 30 min in, over half the lower deck had climbed out for air, and were making liberal use of the sick bags.

We pulled into Samui, and caught our Minibus to Al's Resort on Chanweng Beach. The resort was quite nice. Although I am not a fan of having inward facing glass sliding doors that needed to be constantly covered by the curtain. The towels were made into little elephants, which was nice.

Dinner was had at a corner bar I can't remember the name of. I can remember I was drinking:

1. Mai Tai's
2. Mojitos
3. Commited Suicide
4. Kamakazi.

We took full advantage of a number of other bars offering 90 baht coughtails. It was getting on to about 1am by the time half of the group left. It was just my mate and I who ventured down one of the streets that has a big open air and enclosed bar. Can't remember the name, but it was down the same street as the Viking Bar.

We had progressed back onto rum and for some reason my mate drank a few Bacardi Breezers. The club was pumping at about 2, and it had all spilled out onto the street. We were chatting to some American girls who were also heading over to Full Moon, my wingman was labouring (I think it was the breezers) so we called it a night and stumbled back to Al's, stopping for some water at the 24hr stop just near the resort.

**The boxing lesson took it's toll...time for massage, there are many buckets and Mama Schnitzel's to be consumed tonight

 

[vitaminp]

Well, my best intentions to keep constantly updating all went to hell after the Full Moon Party! Now I am sitting in the SIN T1 J Lounge waiting for QF78 to ferry me back to Perth and some sense of normality. The wait is made all the more pleasurable by being lighter 24k points and knowing I get more Skybed hours .

The Full Moon Party: Or how I learned to stop worrying and love fluro body paint.

The FMP day was mostly spent in bed recovering from the night before (I think I have omitted a day, because there is a huge scene missing slide in my head). We ate take out on the balcony of Sea Garden resort while drinking the last of our duty free booze and moving onto the buckets from the friendly bartender below. At this time the fluro body pain was produced and we started "inking up" for the night. I had decided to keep a singlet on for the event...the last 7 days were taking toll and I think the singlet was the best move for everyone.

I let my creative side run wild...this extended to a couple of dots and lines on my arms and feet. I was aiming for some kind of fluro skeletal look, but failed miserably and decided to pour paint all over my hands and put hand prints over my exposed skin. My mate was talked into putting the paint through his hair, which was foolish, as he is still struggling to get it all out.

More and more buckets were consumed, but I was feeling a little queasy, so I changed to beer for a bit and slowed down considerably. The group bravely drank on, and by about 12pm we had a fair posse assembled drinking at the hotel bar. But we were here for the FMP, so we mounted up and headed to the beach, which was packed. We walked the length of the beach a couple of times, taking in all the different parties. Each club had a "section" on the beach and some of the beachfront resorts have their "section" where they bring in DJ's and acts to entertain.

We decided on Cactus Club to party for a while, which turned out to be a bad choice. We were dancing on the beach, making use of the stage and having a great time. The fluro skeleton/handprint ink was looking good under the blue lights! We moved to the beach bar to buy a round of drinks and then the "night changing event" occured.

Night Changing Event

Now I must say that my recollection of this event is not complete, and more than likely impacted by alcohol. We were standing at the beach front bar buying drinks, I was away from my mates and had a decent view of them as they bought a vodka bucket. As this was happening, there was some kind of argument next to them between a barman and a male patron. My mate had the misfortune of standing right next to this argument, and as it progressed, another barman came up and thinking my mate was in some way involved, grabbed him by the throat and tried to push him to the ground. Things seemed to move in slow motion from here on. My mate put his hands over the barman's (which were on his throat) and tried to push him away. More of the Cactus club workers saw this happen, and decided to end it right there by smashing a bottle of Singha over my mates head, and for good measure, another one that didn't break.

My mate ran off into the crowd as the Police arrived and grabbed two of the barman and my other friend. I ran off to find my mate who was now bleeding from the head quite profusely. I'm not sure what happened with the Police, but our other friend shortly found us and his GF led the way to emergency, which is convienently just up a side street from the beach. We were carrying my mate, who had near passed out and was babbling about not wanting to go to the ER. We managed to get him there and propped him up on a trolley/bench where he was looked at by a nurse. The came the best part of the night...(my friend is not a very experienced o/s traveller) who does your travel insurance? "Travel insurance? I don't need travel insurance." Outstanding I say, and before I know it I am running back to the hotel to get the passport so he can be treated. I can't believe he hasn't taken out travel insurance, but decide to leave it and just focus on the issue at hand, in the end, it is his responsibility.

An Israeli tourist is having a MASSIVE bit of glass removed from his foot, and screaming a scream I thought was not possible. After he was cleaned up my mate was seen too, and for his troubles recieved a 9cm gash and a minor 3 cm one, and the bill of 30,000 baht!

The whole ER event took about 2.5 hours and it was 4am before we took him home and laid him in his bed. I was amazingly hungry by now, and a trip to Mama Schnitzel's was on the cards, a takeaway Schnitzel Burger and a Singha to drink as we digested the night sitting on our balcony watching the dribs and drabs of people roll up from the beach.

My impression of the FMP is somewhat clouded by the "event" but they are an absolute riot! If being honest, they are a little boring after 5 nights of roughly the same people, music and entertainment, but hey, its all about getting out there, mixing with new people and having a blast under the (obscured) full moon!

I would go back in a heartbeat, but next time look for something on the island a little quieter, away from Haad Rin and probably not stay the full 7 nights if possible (but a lot of resorts enforce the 7 night stay during FMP)

My mate is still nursing the head wounds, but I think he is most upset about the fact he had nothing to do with the initial argument between some random and the barman. The staff were very hotheaded and acted without any kind of provocation from my mate. Just a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

 

[Alanslegal]

Aaahh what an unlucky incident indeed that your mate got caught up in someone else's mess and paid for it physically and financially - and probably scared the living daylights out of him and your group at the time.

Yes the crowd on Koh Phang Nan does get a bit repetitive during the FMP but for us luckily, the place we stayed at (Coral Resort Bugalows) in 2007 imposed a four night minimum so we didnt need to spend a whole week there. Our resort also held this huge pool party 2 nights before the FMP - 4am in the morning, hot weather, paked pool, and lots of alcohol from the voda-whatever or bourbon-whatever buckets - this was a night also to remember.

During those four days we hired scooters and rode around the whole island which was very scenic, we also did a bit or snorkelling and enjoyed the many 200BHT hour long Thai massages. It is a very nice and cheap island to visit and I would recommend it, even if you aren't into the FMP scene.

All in all, a well done report vitaminp

 

[Mal]

The came the best part of the night...(my friend is not a very experienced o/s traveller) who does your travel insurance? "Travel insurance? I don't need travel insurance." Outstanding I say, and before I know it I am running back to the hotel to get the passport so he can be treated. I can't believe he hasn't taken out travel insurance, but decide to leave it and just focus on the issue at hand, in the end, it is his responsibility.

An Israeli tourist is having a MASSIVE bit of glass removed from his foot, and screaming a scream I thought was not possible. After he was cleaned up my mate was seen too, and for his troubles recieved a 9cm gash and a minor 3 cm one, and the bill of 30,000 baht!

Very unfortunate for your friend. Even with travel insurance though, they may not have paid up. Lots of the insurance companies have exclusions for incidents that happen when you are intoxicated. Not sure what they define as intoxicated (1 drink/ not able to drive/ slurred speech / falling over / passed out), but could pose an interesting battle with the insurance company.

Glad you (mostly) enjoyed yourself. Sounds like you had a good time away.

 

[vitaminp]

Our resort also held this huge pool party 2 nights before the FMP - 4am in the morning, hot weather, paked pool, and lots of alcohol from the voda-whatever or bourbon-whatever buckets - this was a night also to remember.

Ahhh...yes, the pool party was the talk of the island. I am actually v disappointed I didn't get out to it. Everyone I have spoken to said it was an amazing night!

During those four days we hired scooters and rode around the whole island which was very scenic

The scooters were brilliant! Although I was in macho idiot mode and didn't wear a helmet, which I paid for with a 200 baht fine as we rode through Thong Sala and got stopped by the Police...although most locals saw stopping as voluntary and rode on when called on! I wasn't game to do that!

All in all, a well done report vitaminp

Cheers

 

[JohnK]

Very nice trip report.

Glad it all worked out with the unfortunate incident to your friend. Anything can happen in Thailand as I found out during my latest trip.

I thought my alcohol intake was way over the top but it pales into insignifance compared to your achievements. I woke up a few mornings feeling very sick with what felt like an inflamed liver and a lot of discomfort around the liver and kidneys and one morning I really thought I was going to die and then had a sudden panic attack which did not help. Anyway time for a break from Thailand....

 

[oz_mark]

Very nice trip report.

Glad it all worked out with the unfortunate incident to your friend. Anything can happen in Thailand as I found out during my latest trip.

I thought my alcohol intake was way over the top but it pales into insignifance compared to your achievements. I woke up a few mornings feeling very sick with what felt like an inflamed liver and a lot of discomfort around the liver and kidneys and one morning I really thought I was going to die and then had a sudden panic attack which did not help. Anyway time for a break from Thailand....

You didn't wake up in an ice-filled bath and a note thanking you for your kidney? :mrgreen:

 

[JohnK]

You didn't wake up in an ice-filled bath and a note thanking you for your kidney? :mrgreen:

Not quite but a few bad experiences have put me off Thailand for a while....