If you know anything about Thailand you have probably heard about the famous Full Moon Parties that take place on Koh Phangngan in the south east of the country. This relatively small island is famous for a lot of reasons including being featured in the DiCaprio movie "The Beach."
The Full Moon Party is not really my cup of tea because I don't much care for electronic music or getting off my face on drugs but there are a lot of people that do enjoy that sort of thing. I've been to two of these parties and it is absolutely insane. Tons of money is generated for the island's economy during these multi-day beach parties and depending on your perspective, this can be considered a very good thing.
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During the lockdowns the parties were banned for obvious reasons and January marked the very first time that they have been allowed since nearly two years ago. The local economy was really hurting just like anywhere else in this country or the rest of the world and even though I would rather sit at home and watch Netflix than go to one of these things, it is good that Thailand has embraced fully allowing things to get back to normal.
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According to friends of mine that attended, it was just like it has been in the past. There were zero restrictions and as usual, the beach was filled with 20 somethings that were loaded up on buckets of Sangsom rum, mushroom shakes, and a load of other drugs. In the past there have been reports of people drowning at these things but it appears as though nobody managed to die at this one - which is an added bonus.
I'm happy to see that Thailand is back to making money from tourism and the fact that this event was allowed to go forward is a good sign that the country is going to just allow anything from this point forward. While I have no intention of ever going to one of these again, I guess a lot of other people are interested and this is a good thing!