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thai islands:
KOH PHANGNAN
DISCOVER MY FULL MOON PARTY ITINERARY
In February 2019, I went spent 4 days in Koh Phangnan for the Full Moon Party. Here's my itinerary with my recommendations:
Day 1
Ferry to Koh Phangnan
I took the speedboat from Koh Tao to Koh Phangnan for 1,000 baht ($31.50 USD). This was my only option and luckily it was available. The ferries get totally
booked up around the time of Full Moon, so book a few days
in advance to ensure a cheaper ticket!
Recommendation: Eh, if you want to spend the money.
Check into
Dancing Elephants
I arrived at hostel and our hostess for the week, Almy, gave a group of us a tour. It’s right on beach with a ton of hammocks and space to lay out; a large bar with a full kitchen and a lot of fun neon colored rooms and statues. I immediately felt like I arrived at Full Moon summer camp—and that’s exactly what it was.
Recommendation: Go for it! I loved Dancing Elephants. Is it perfect? No. The service was quite slow at times, and the bathroom situation was a bit primitive. But it’s a hostel, and the pros way out weigh the cons.
Dinner at the Hostel
We were given credit wrist bands for the week—that means that any drinks, all food, and any other charges are put on a bracelet you never take off. I loved this system. I never had to get out my wallet for anything. I ordered the lasagna the first night for dinner, and it was really delicious. The best lasagna I’ve ever had outside of Italy. (You can’t really beat Italy when it comes to lasagna.)
Recommendation: Go for it! I was shocked by how good it was.
Silent Disco
The rest of the night was spent getting to know my other campers! We drank buckets on the beach, hung out, played cards, and at midnight we had a silent disco. Which was a hilarious new experience for me.
Recommendation: Go for it!
Day 2 - Beach Day
I ate breakfast the Thai way and opted for 80 baht ($2.50 USD) fried rice. It was delicious and filling—perfect hearty breakfast for a long day of beach hopping.
Recommendation: Go for it! It’s tasty and cheap.
Breakfast at the Hostel
Our hostel hosted a beach day, thanks to Almy!
Our first stop of the beach tour was Phaeng Waterfall. It was an unimpressive waterfall, but nonetheless, it was fun to swim in the pool of it and take pictures!
Recommendation: Go for it! Pretty and you get a little workout.
Next we went to Malibu Beach. This is far from the prettiest beach in Thailand—the water was a little polluted and it was quite crowded. But, we did spend a lot of time playing beach volleyball. And I discovered that… I. Love. Beach. Volleyball.
Recommendation: Eh, if you have time. There are plenty of places to play beach volleyball.
After that we headed to Koma Beach where we walked across the sand dollar to another island. Tons of sea penises—I mean sea cucumbers. =)
Recommendation: Eh, if you have time. Don’t pet the dogs.
After that we stopped by a temple and paid 20 baht as a donation. This was so gorgeous and peaceful! Surrounded by the lush green mountains, this was lovely to walk around.
Recommendation: Eh, if you have time. So many temples in Thailand.
Our last stop on the beach tour was to the Secret Beach. Turns out it’s not so secret… but this was the nicest beach we went to. We were all pretty tired and hungry at this point, but we hung out at the nearby cafe and relaxed.
Recommendation: Go for it! I wish we would have only gone to this beach for beach day. We moved around way too much.
Beach Tour
We headed to the nearby Amsterdam Bar, famous for a certain type of, um… cigarette that they sell. It was PACKED. We watched the sun set—or rather, we watched people stand blocking the sun set. It was nice, but too crowded. I would have liked to come here at a less crowded time, because they have a pool and a deck and it’s stunning.
Recommendation: Go for it! Amsterdam Bar is famous for its views and atmosphere.
Amsterdam Bar
Dinner at the Hostel
After a long day of only eating fried rice, I scarfed down an incredibly mediocre Caesar salad. No surprise, Thailand doesn’t have good caesar salad—no worries. Recommendation: Skip it. Tried to be healthy, but it just wasn’t good.
Jungle Party
We ended our night at the Jungle Party! During Full Moon week,
there are a ton of parties leading up to the actual party day.
Jungle Party costs 700 baht ($22 USD) to enter, and it’s kind of like a festival vibe. You enter a park (not really a jungle) and there’s music and dancing and random entertainment. We watched a magician perform twice. Twice. He did shadow puppets, and I don’t know what to say… we just really loved it. It’s kind of pricey, but you’re paying for a very different experience. I liked Jungle Party because the park was contained—you could walk around and still run into your friends from the hostel. The cons were that it was expensive and it wasn’t really a jungle. Overall, I had a great time and really enjoyed hanging with all of my fellow Dancing Elephant travelers!
Recommendation: Go for it! It’s a part of the Full Moon experience, just do it.
Day 3 - Full Moon
Breakfast at Hostel
A big plate of fried rice to start off Full Moon day! Recommendation: Go for it. Cheap, tasty, filling.
Beach
We napped and chilled on the beach while everyone recovered from the Jungle Party. Kite Surfing is a common activity here, so we watched all the kite surfers! What a difficult thing to do, but so cool to watch.
Recommendation: Go for it! A lot of people in the hostel elected to sleep in the hammocks outside rather than their beds. Something about too much noise… haha. Sufficed to say, that beach is comfy.
Full Moon Shopping
I went with my friend Naeema to a shop just up the road. They have a ton of neon garb for purchase for the Full Moon Party. We both found some shirts we liked and we were set!
Recommendation: Go for it! Super convenient and cheap. Better than using something from home—buy it here!
Lunch at the Hostel
Pizza. I needed it.
Recommendation: Eh, if you have time. If you’re staying at Dancing Elephants, this pizza is real expensive. But I saved a few pieces for later in the night which became a life saver.
Hang with Lois and Tom
My favorite buds from Koh Tao came to visit me! They stayed at a different hostel, not to far away from me, so they drove their bikes up the road to visit. It was such a good surprise to see them again. We hung out at a table on the beach, they once again reminded me that they are two of my favorite people on this planet!
Painting Up
As day turned to night, everyone started to get ready for Full Moon. The hostel offered a painter if you’d like to pay for it. I chose for him to do my face, but I wanted to do the rest. One of the lovely friends I made at the hostel bought some body paint and paint brushes and she was eager to share. I don’t know how it started, because I am not an artist, but I ended up painting so. many. people. And loved every second of it. If I’m being honest, I think this was my favorite part of Full Moon. Everyone just drinking some buckets, getting painted up as much as possible.
Recommendation: Go for it! Make sure you buy some paint and paint yourself and others. It’s cheaper, more fun, and you get to flex your creative muscles!
Full Moon
Party
It’s 100 baht to enter the Full Moon Party, which is confusingly cheap. It pays for the clean up crew to come to the beach the next day. I really liked Full Moon. I thought it was better than Jungle Party because it was more chill. Just some people drinking on a beach, having a good time. I danced, I climbed, I got lost, and I had so much fun.
Recommendation: Go for it! Maybe it’s because my expectations were incredibly low, but Full Moon surprised me but how much I enjoyed it. It’s a life affirming bucket list kind of thing.
Day 4
Hostel Chill Day
The next day was undoubtedly chill. Most of the day was spent sleeping on the beach or working out my ferry to Koh Samui the next day.
Movie Night at the Hostel
Almy, in her infinite wisdom, set up a movie night for everyone. We watched Bohemian Rhapsody and hung out one last time before departing the next day.
And worked
Oh also, I had a work call at 1am I had to stay up for. I had a movie going into production soon, so I had to make lots of little edits to script. They picked fun at my hoarse voice, but hey—as long as you get the work done, my friend. Goodbye Koh Phangnan!
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