(Ebook) Full Moon over Koh Phangan: What Adventurers, Dancers, and Freaks Seek and Find on Thailand's Magic Island by Brian K. Gruber

(Ebook) Full Moon over Koh Phangan: What Adventurers, Dancers, and Freaks Seek and Find on Thailand's Magic Island by Brian K. Gruber

Mention KOH PHANGAN and the image for most is of thousands of revelers attending the world-famous Full Moon Party. For any backpacker visiting Southeast Asia, Koh Phangan was top of their bucket list, a chance to enjoy a few days—or more—of hedonistic indulgence, to dance to sunrise and beyond to the repetitive and hypnotic repetitive beats of techno or psytrance.

But there is far more to this idyllic island, situated just to the north of tourist hotspot Koh Samui in the Gulf of Thailand, in Thailand’s southern Surat Thani province. The name of the island itself comes from the Thai word for sandbar, ‘ngan,’ many of which can be found offshore.

From the Dong Son drum found on Samui in 1977, we know that humans settled there more than two thousand years ago, and that they likely traded with the maritime culture from what is now northern Vietnam. We also know that it was a favored destination of Thai monarchs, with one of the greatest, HM King Chulalongkorn (also known as Rama V), visiting the island no less than 14 times.

Koh Phangan is also home to a diverse range of flora and fauna, most of it benign, from the many species of lizard (including large monitors) to snakes and macaques.

This book is more interested in the more common, and occasionally troublesome, primates to be found on Koh Phangan: humans, and their recent history on the island. For many, the Full Moon Party may have been the initial catalyst to visit, often then choosing to stay. Others were drawn for a wide range of reasons; from seeking their own little corner of paradise to finding a like-minded community of individuals with interests in creative arts and spirituality. (...)

[excerpt from "Editor's Preface"]