I've been living on Koh Phangan since March. AMA
Have you talked with local Thais about the border closures and if so, how do they feel about letting in foreigners (or not)?
The Death of the Full Moon Party
41–50 of 68 posts
Re: The Death of the Full Moon Party
#42This is very good news. Full moon parties are not the stuff of legend, but rather the lowest point of party tourism in Thailand. Although I think that, give it 5 years, something similar will pop-up somewhere in SEA.
I agree. Unfortunately, equivalents already exist in many places: Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Taiwan... with Vietnam well on the way.
I was at part of one in 2018 and while not really my cup of tea I'm not sure what's so bad about having dance music and drinking on a beach once a month. Personally I'd prefer a bit quieter and able to chat rather than nightclub volume techno stuff.
Re: The Death of the Full Moon Party
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
They were actually quite tolerant of the visa runners. I used an organised service where they drove you to a park on the Myanmar border, you exited Thailand, 5 mins later re-entered Thailand, had a coffee then got the bus back. They could be like Europe and ban you for 90 days after you've been there for 90 days if they wanted to.
You can get away with this twice. Once you hit 180 days in the last year you'll face some probing questions as to exactly what you're doing, and you better have a good answer or they'll simply deny re-entry. With this being Thailand, of course there's going to be some wriggle room and variation depending on who you get, but it's a pretty high risk roll of the dice.
It's always been fairly easy to just get a multiple entry "Non-B" visa instead of relying on visa waiver, and then no questions asked.
Re: The Death of the Full Moon Party
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the Philippines, Boracay used to be a party destination but the govt banned parties last year.
Or this one in Laos that got shutdown. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/apr/07/vang-vieng-lao...
That was quite a different thing to the Koh Phangan full moon parties. Though they both featured young western tourists drinking a bit much.
Re: The Death of the Full Moon Party
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree. Unfortunately, equivalents already exist in many places: Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Taiwan... with Vietnam well on the way.
I was at part of one in 2018 and while not really my cup of tea I'm not sure what's so bad about having dance music and drinking on a beach once a month. Personally I'd prefer a bit quieter and able to chat rather than nightclub volume techno stuff.
>> I was at part of one in 2018 and while not really my cup of tea I'm not sure what's so bad about having dance music and drinking on a beach once a month.
You make it sound like a childrens' party, but my experience from living on an island with a notorious beach resort (Kavos, in Corfu) is that people drink way more than they can handle, vomit everywhere, assault someone, break something, get in a fight, injure themselves or others, pass out on the street and leave a horrible mess of trash, sick and piss behind them.
And often don't even know where they are, literally, because they boarded their plane already off their tits and went back with three months' worth of hangover and never had the chance to visit places or see sights, or anything else than drink themselves blind.
Covid just puts the risk of spreading infection cherry on top of the public nuissance cake.
Re: The Death of the Full Moon Party
#46This is very good news. Full moon parties are not the stuff of legend, but rather the lowest point of party tourism in Thailand. Although I think that, give it 5 years, something similar will pop-up somewhere in SEA.
Maybe. Maybe not. Love Parade died out too with no replacement
Zürich Street Parade is almost as big, and equally fun. 1M attendees over 1 day in a city of 400k. It's insanity. Loved going a few years.
Re: The Death of the Full Moon Party
#47Re: The Death of the Full Moon Party
#48Wow. A quick glance at the picture shows about a million guys and 4 girls, I think.
I believe this party would have died of natural causes after a while. I can't imagine it would go on organically.
Re: The Death of the Full Moon Party
#49Re: The Death of the Full Moon Party
#50I've been living on Koh Phangan since March. AMA
Are Eden / Guys Bar open?
They were open until a few weeks ago. Now closed for rainy season like every year around this time. Guys bar has been mostly off since march. Eden full on past couple of months.
They did switch to day time party from 11 am - 2 am-ish, as night time party is (was) not allowed
Ps: 7 years and counting Koh Phangan resident here.