Full Moon Party

The full moon party was supposed to have occurred on Friday Jan 22 as was listed on the internet as well as being common word of mouth. The actual lunar full moon was the previous evening, however as it was the Buddha's bday or a Buddhist holiday, depending upon who one listens to, the party was postponed till the following night on Friday. It was then postponed again from Friday evening to Sunday evening for reasons nobody is quite sure about. Possible reasons I have heard include an election on Friday to their having been a recent death in the royal family. At any rate, it was figured that it would still be quite crowded and partylike in Haad Rin, the site of the full moon party, as everybody had been coming into town with the expectations of the party being Friday evening.
Myself and 7 others from yoga class decided to take the journey across the island to Haad Rin to check out the scene. Included in our group was a fun loving and free-spirited black Canadien woman named Beth, short for Bethleham, now living in Australia and finishing up her law degree. She was much fun watching skip down the street as well as sing random songs from all genres of music. She is defintely one of the most unique persons I have met so far. Too bad she only sticking around for 4 days as she was visiting a friend at Agama Yoga and just passing through, kind of like a wind blowing through town. Another girl, Victoria, a beautiful blond from Munich, Germany who recently arrived and is attending yoga class as well. Traveling by herself, she is only 23 yrs old and has already spent extended time traveling through South America, Europe, New Zealand, and Fuji, in addition to being here in Thailand. I have definitely enjoyed getting to know her. The youngest one of our group was Sheila, 20 yrs old and one of the few Americans I have met abroad so far. She is definitely a very mature spirit as she has been traveling by herself for several months now, earlier being in China for several months. Here she is studying yoga while her husband is stationed in Iraq with the army.

The Haad Rin scene was quite crowded although limited partying was happening during the evening. Typically on the beach at Haad Rin, especially during full moon time, their is one party and music set after another on the beach blasting music with everyone dancing and reveling. However on this evening there was no music playing on the beach, nor very little playing in many of the bars and clubs. Apparently some edict had been issued by the government subduing the partying for the evening, in light of whatever issues were postponing the full moon party till Sunday night. Our group still did manage to hit up several establishments and enjoy some of the delicious mushroom shakes common to the town.