Nice T-Shirt dude. Full Moon Party on Koh Phang Gaan.

It was a nice T-shirt. Kind of black with a big, yellow full-moon on it. And the words "Full Moon Party Time – POLICE".

"Hey Mike, check the fuckin’ T-shirt the plain-clothes is wearing over there". Mike and I were, as usual, sitting at the bar in Nathon, Koh Samui, Thailand. Well, not so much as usual of late; we’d both been pushing heavy workloads but now were winding it off on a Friday night.

"Mein Gott, what a fucking wanker, eh?" Mike replied to my comment. Sitting over the road at the Ya Dong (home-made whisky) shop was a plain-clothes police officer; not that the gun, holster and police-radio attached to his belt would have allowed him much scope in any undercover function.

The police had, apparantly, found it amusing to create their very own T-shirts for their regular drug raids at the Full Moon Parties on Koh Phangaan, a neighboring island.

The parties began back in the late 80’s with the arrival of back-packers and hippy travellers to the islands in the south of The Gulf of Thailand. The beaches on Koh Phangaan are simply stunning. White sand, palm trees, crystal clear waters – a real stereotypical postcard scene. Lovely place.

So came the back-packers, the young budget-minded travellers who simply love to party. The islands offered a step back from the moderm world, a lost paradise found again.

From Goa in India and Kathmandu in the Himalaya, from the Kashmir hills and the River Ganjes they came over to Samui and out to Phangaan. Every month, on the full moon, they gather on Haad Rin beach and dance and howl at the moon; often with the assistance of copious quantities of drugs.

I remember travelling here back in the 80’s. Many restaurants had very interesting dishes on their menus. Dishes such as "Ganja Grill", "Real Hash Brownies", "Majik Mushroom Milkshake" and "Green Ganja Salad".

Halucinogenic mushrooms, amphetamines, marajuana, and opiates were readily available. You could buy a bag of dope in the market. Ready rolled in Marlboro packs. Dried magic mushrooms. Sticky blocks of raw, black opium. Imported Hashish from Nepal. Rough and raw local Ya Maa (speed)j.

So… off they’d go. Bag of dope, some mushrooms, get a few beers up at the bar and hit the beach, listed to Techno and dance the night away in the company of friends and like-minds.

It was heaven for them. Party-up, rock’n’roll, all night long dancing, tranced out, zombied. Cheap drugs, good food, cheap and cold beers, great Techno on the beach with lights and mats to sit on….. heaven, paradise.

To quote the words of http://www.kohphangan.com/
(yes, the island has its very own website)

As the evening progresses the beach explodes into a dancing frenzy as different m.c.'s take their turn on the decks. There is something for everyone here, trance, techno, drum and bass, commercial dance and reggae, no-one is disappointed.

Jugglers and fire-eaters entertain the crowds as the night goes on and with the brilliant impromptu fireworks display, the party atmosphere is complete.

After a few hours it could be time to chill-out for a while, maybe grab a drink or a bite to eat from one of the many beach traders and wade out or sit down in the warm surf of the Gulf of Thailand, pure, pure heaven.

Revived and relaxed it's time to return to the main beach and get blown into another dancing dimension, while all around people are doing the same, there are no barriers here, no inhibitions, just people enjoying themselves with one unified intention, to rejoice in the magic that is the paradise of FULL MOON PARTY"

Do not eat or drink anything that is offered by strangers.

If you don't plan to stay up all night at the party, you are advised to stay in bungalow facilities outside Haad Rin (unless you think you can sleep with that very loud party noise). Besides, there are more than hundred bungalow places to choose and you can go back to your bungalow anytime you like by all night taxi servicE - DRINKS, DANCE AND HAVE FUN!!"

End Quote.

So that was a fair run-down on the parties.

Used to be that the drug "problem" was no issue at all. Sure a few wankers drowned themselves probalby because they were so stoned they forgot they were in the water and started trying to breath under there. They drown anyway, now and then, with or without the drugs.

The police used not to attend the parties at all. Then due to pressure from the US DEA and other "international protection agencies" the police began to establish a presence at the parties. At first it was very, very discreet the object being to bust people, not simply discourage drug use. Discreet, undercover, disguised.

Getting busted used to be a great way to loose all your money and goods and possibly spend several nights in a rathole to boot. But you could buy your way out as a rule.

Now we have the "honest cops" Lucky, aren’t we? They are the ones at the party wearing the "Full Moon Party Time – POLICE" T-shirts. You can’t miss them. They appear to be uncorruptable. But every officer has his price, don’t you all worry abou that.

Now when you get busted – you really get busted. You get to spend several MONTHS in a rathole and yes, you still get to loose ALL your money and goods as well. Great work isn’t it? Haven’t the drug agencies been doing such a fine job?

From information recently gleaned from one of my most reliable contacts – you can still pay your way out of trouble but when in the past this may have cost you tens of thousands of baht, now it will cost you hundreds and hundreds of thousands of baht – if you can get hold of the cash quick enough. If you got busted by the "right officers". If you were very lucky.

Otherwise, well just otherwise. Not a nice otherwise either.

Off the coast of the island, not far from the parties, fishing boats with payloads of heroin bound for Hong Kong sail past. Protected. Known to the "authorities". Owned by "respectable" men and women.

But it is, obviously, very, very important to bust poor, ignorant hippies for smoking dope. And processing the charges, the paperwork and then locking them up a while – all at the expense of the very poor Thai taxpayers. Oh DEA, you do such a wonderful job in the international arena don’t you?

The parties are still fun. They still dance all night long and many still take lots of drugs; albeit more discretely than before. The police prance about in their very cool new T-shirts….

If you come to Koh Samui you should go out to Koh Phangaan at least once to watch the police doing their dangerous "stalk-the-hippy" routine. Or what-the-hell-ever they call it.

Meanwhile, the boats sail by, bound for Hong Kong and the children of the world are exposed to another several tonnes of heroin. Wonderful.