Sawadee Bi Mai Kah!

That’s ‘Happy New Year’ in Thai (of course)!  It’s also my new favorite thing to say to taxi drivers, teachers, cashiers, and anyone else who I may meet along the way.  I figure I only have about one week left to use it before it starts to get old, so I might as well impress as much as I can now.  Thais love it when farangs try to speak Thai; they not only think it’s funny because our pronunciation is so atrocious, but they truly find it endearing that you are trying to communicate in their language.  The kids in my classes also think it’s hilarious when I try to speak Thai, particularly when I yell, “Neyap noi!”  (Be quiet!).  Doesn’t make them listen to me for more than a hot minute though (shock, surprise).

For New Year's weekend, I headed to the island of Koh Phangan to experience the legendary Full Moon party.  I knew the trip was off to a good start when I caught a 6am flight out of Bangkok on December 31st and immediately started to make friends with others on my plane.  It's a bit of a trek to get to the island:  plane-> bus-> ferry, but were were all going the same way and the airline did a really good job at coordinating all legs of the journey.  It was an easy and fun trip, but unfortunately, I never saw any of those people again (exchanging phone numbers and trying to meet up at a beach party with thousands of attendees turned out to be fruitless).  Laura and Kelli had rented motorbikes that day, so when I arrived on the island, I headed solo to Haad Rin beach (home of the Full Moon party) to get some food, catch some sun, and check out the place.  My good luck with meeting people continued as I sat down for lunch at a waterfront restaurant and a group of six Australian guys asked if they could join me (duh!).  After a hilarious 1.5 hour lunch, I broke free and finally hit the beach, striking up a conversation with an Israeli girl on the beach towel next to me.  She was there with three other girls who were all still sleeping (it was 3:00pm at this point....), so it was fun to hear her stories from the days leading up to New Year's. 

With the Aussies in the water

View coming from Haadrin to Bantai, another part of the island where I was staying (about 15 minutes from Haadrin).

My place in Bantai

I knew almost immediately that Haad Rin was 100% my scene; tons of backpackers from all over the world, and everyone was super friendly and fun.  I was in my glory.

At 7:30, I met up with Kelli, Laura, Kelli’s brother Joe, and Joe's friend Chad, and we started to make our way to the festivities.  Long story short, the Full Moon party was really, really crazy.  30,000+ people from all over the world on a beach in Thailand with pumping music, beautiful fireworks, florescent clothing/body paint, and a ridiculous amount of alcohol; it really doesn’t get much better than that for New Year’s Eve.  You kind of have to experience it for yourself to understand the magnitude of this event, but hopefully, these images capture some of the madness.

Little did I know that my first day on the island would be my only day on the beach; it started to rain on New Year’s Day and didn’t stop until the day I left.  Really??!  It’s super sunny and hot every day when I go to work, I’ve seen rain ONE time in the past 2.5 months, and now it rains for three days straight when I’m on a beautiful island?!  It was disappointing to say the least, and I didn’t get to do any of the things I really wanted to do (zip-lining between two islands, exploring the beautiful marine park, going on a reggae snorkeling tour).  I think I may have to go back to a) hit another FMP (yes, it was that much fun), b) do the things I couldn’t do this time, and c) check out the other islands in the area, namely Koh Tao and Koh Samui.  I’m not sure if time will permit, but if it does, I am definitely heading back down there.  We’ll see.

It was back to work late last week, and on Saturday, I headed up to Bangkok to meet up with a friend of a friend who was in town, as well as some of my friends from my program.  We went to the sky bar featured in the Hangover 2 and it was truly amazing (Lebua at State Tower http://www.lebua.com/en/the-dome-dining/sirocco-restaurant/).  It’s located on the top of a 5-star hotel; the bar and restaurant are posh, the view is spectacular, and the drinks are super expensive (by Thailand standards).  They were pretty strict about picture taking in certain areas, so we had to be sneaky and couldn't really get the best shots.  Definitely a must-see though.

The view

Part of the bar

We have another 3-day weekend this weekend (Teacher's Day- gotta love it), so I am headed back up to the north of Thailand to Chiang Mai (not to be confused with Chiang Rai, where I went a few weeks ago).  I haven't met a single person who doesn't love Chiang Mai; it's supposed to be very beautiful with an old city/cobblestone feel, and very different from the rest of Thailand.  I am going white water rafting with some others on Saturday, and then I'll have Sunday and a good portion of Monday to check out the town.  I hope this place lives up to all of its reviews!  Until next time....Sawatdee kah!