Voyage Of The Odd Essay

I mention in my last post that at the Koh Phangan Full Moon Party I took too many mushrooms, and in the interest of not freaking out parents and enlightening party goes who might follow in my foot steps I shall shed a little more light on the story.

The exact legal status of Mushrooms in Thailand is a bit of a mystery,  the information I have to had is:

• Mushroom Shakes are sold openly in at least one bar on Haad Rin Beach during the Full Moon Party
• Mushrooms are actually Illegal to Posses or Sell in Thailand, according to Erowid, a normally reliable source of information on such things.
• But a Google Search for “Mushroom Arrest In Thailand” returns only one, unrelated result.
• So, Most sources cite the legal status as “Questionable”.
• More then one person has mentioned the bar selling the Mushrooms has a special license. Though this is purely word of mouth.

So there clearly isn’t any problem with consuming them, and it would make sense that any legal grey area could be cleared up with a “license fee” to the police either officially or otherwise. Additionally, not all magic mushrooms contain the same active ingredients, so the legal status could be worked around by selecting the right mushrooms just as it can be back home in the UK.

With that cleared up (Or not) back to the story, the plan was simple: Get to the beach, dance, drink, dance, meet people, dance with people,  drink a small amount of mushroom shake, dance, watch the sun rise, dance, go home. Roughly in that order.

Now I have to admit I’m not sure at what point small amount of mushroom shake turned a heroic dose, but I have it on good authority that the friend I was travelling with had many of these magic drinks, so it’s fair to say I had plenty as well, this was news to us both the next day!

The hazy memory is a novelty, and down to the drink, rather then the mushrooms I’m sure, I suspect since the bar selling the shakes is at the far end of the beach, and up a staircase cut into the rocks – Which makes it one of the most dangerous places on the beach, clearly an ideal spot to sell party goes hallucinogenic drugs! – the hike up there, plus red bull kicked the booze into my bloodstream quicker then I expected.

Next thing I know I’m dancing away on the beach all well and good, but I’ve lost the gang I was with, and so I just danced around on my own though with my visuals boosted with a hazy glow of colours and sound merging in my brain a little beyond what you would call normal, and the confusion that accompanies hallucinogens was clear if I tried to think about anything too tricky so most conversations were too much effort to consider for a while, though the ones I did have were particularly funny!

So when I say too many mushrooms I mean to say, sufficient magic mushrooms that I had to change my plan of action for the night, not that I had a bad experience maintaining my 100% success rate to that effect.

To put this in perspective, not everyone was so lucky that night, “Mushroom Girl” as she will now forever be known to me called the friend I was travelling with early in the night, and from over hearing his side of the conversation the problem was obvious: She’d take Mushrooms for the first time, and been abandoned by her friend.

When people (Including myself) say you shouldn’t take magic mushrooms for the first time in loud, busy, over crowded places you should listen to them, Full Moon Parties are not friendly places for a messed up mind, and confusion and abandonment is always a recipe for disaster when it comes to the shrooms.

We found her and set her right mind you, so that story ended well enough, but Koh Phangan is not a good place to experiment particularly for the first time, there are a lot of people on the lookout for messed up tourists who they can take advantage of one way or another.In my case I simply ended up at a hill top bar which cost me a hefty bike ride back to the hotel, but I blame our travel agent for claiming the 30 minute ride was a 10 minute walk from the peir.

So there you have it, magic mushrooms are Awesome things, but not to be played with lightly, and I wouldn’t take so many at a huge event like the Haad Rin Beach Full Moon Party again so that I can enjoy the night in a different, more social way – Detachment from reality also detaches you from people a bit, but it’s all an experience and it all adds flavor to my travels!

My decision to make the move from Koh Lanta to Phuket Town to spend Christmas at the Phuket Backpacker hostel couldn’t have gone better, while the mood here isn’t traditionally festive lacking the near opressive sounds of Christmas music flooding your senses in every shop and tv advert, but everyone has been in the mood to go out and party, every night I’ve been here I’ve had no trouble finding a group to eat and drink with, and now I feel like I’ve settled here, I know names and faces and there is a regular crowd of people hanging out together along with a daily flow of new faces as travellers come and go on their journies.

Christmas Eve was spent at Patong Beach a short Tuk Tuk ride away and perhaps the most random night out of the whole festive season, as a very touristy location you get a real glimpse into the seedier side of night life and we ate well, drank in various places of varying quality, and ended up at the Club Hollywood where we got Santa hats with flashing stars on them, very festive.

Christmas Day started slow most of the hostel was hung over but by midday a few of us managed to gear up to hunt down some brunch in Patong, relocate to a lake where they did cable sking, and then just down the road had our Thailand Christmas Dinner at a British run pub who did turkey, stuffing and all the trimmings and then back to Phuket Town for a couple of drinks at the current bar of choice, Roxy.

Boxing Day was just as random, heading to eat at a place on the edge of town with my dorm mates where we ate wild boar and frog, both of which we tasty. Then as we drank at Roxy we bumped into a few more people from the Hostel and ended up heading to one of Phuket Town’s biggest clubs, had a drink in the VIP area and watched the live band who apparently are pretty huge in Thailand, though no idea who they actually are.   We got out of there fairly quickly and went back to Roxy via a round about route and stop at another bar due to a wrong turn and finished the night with a couple of cheaper drinks.

So as Christmas goes this was all Same-Same but different, drinks and food all around and everyone in a good mood, but the sun and heat distracts from the fact it’s Christmas back home and that makes it easier not to dwell on what I’m missing.

All in all I made exactly the right choice hitting this hostel and the people I’ve meet here are Awesome, lots of people are leaving today, and I’ll be moving on myself soon but I’ll be back here when I pass through the region again as it makes a handy base, and I have great feel for the place now.