The Dark Side of the Full Moon Party

After a night of thousands of people dancing, drinking and doing drugs on a beach, you can imagine that the scene the next morning was a bit of a disaster.

As soon as it got light enough to see without a flashlight the locals came out in packs to scavenge. Lots of partiers had passed out on the beach and if anything had fallen out of their pocket it was quickly picked up and taken. Bags and fanny packs that were left unwatched or lost on the beach were fair game, and Carrie even saw a guy thwart a Thai pickpocket.

Flip flops were another popular target of the scavengers at the Full Moon Party, as the beach was full of lost and forgotten sandals. Unfortunately, not all the sandals being scavenged were lost. While watching the sunrise next to our group’s shoes a local man came by and quickly slipped off his cheap black flip flops, put on Karen’s expensive black ones and started to walk away.

I saw him and said “hey, what are you doing?” He quickly said, “oh, sorry, I thought these were mine,” before quickly switching back and scurrying off to try somewhere else.

I can only imagine how much other shady things go on under the cover of darkness and alcohol.

I saw a Thai woman walking around with a stack of empty alcohol buckets going around to a bunch of locals. Each of them would put a wad of bills in the bucket, she would look through it and give them their keep. Sometimes I don’t think it was all bills. Whatever they did to get that money, I doubt it was legal.