Thailand-day 35

Day 35 Sun 9/30
We woke up ready for the Full Moon Party, which is one of the biggest backpacker attractions in Asia. It takes place at the end of each month, when there is a full moon, in a little beach in the south of Koh Phangan Island (Thailand). We wore clothes to throw away and bought Full Moon shirts when we got to Haad Rin. The partying didn't start quite as early as we thought, so we watched The Change Up in a restaurant for the early afternoon. Afterwards, the Australians invited us to come to the Best Western bar, where their favorite bar tender, Ducky, made us buckets of strawberry daiquiris and piña coladas, which were delicious. Ducky was hilarious. We finished our buckets and walked on the beach back down to Haad Rin, where there were more people starting to show up. We walked along the beach taking in the ridiculous amounts of people crowded into the small beach and all the carnival like activities being set up, like the people baton twirling fire. As we were walking, Maggie's friends from Korea, Danica and Nick, ran up. They were here with some of their other friends from school/ work from Canada, and we ended up hanging out wight them for the rest of the night. By the end of the night, there were supposedly around 20,000 people at the party, but the locals were well prepared for it. They do it every month. There were lasers reflecting off the rocks on the opposite side of the beach, bucket stands set up all over the place, water slides (Maggie went down it), painting people everywhere, loud music, and lots of food stands. It was surprising how many kids were there late with blaring music. It was great to experience the Full Moon Party.