Dharma bums

 

I was sitting on the front steps of the restaurant at the Lighthouse enjoying my first cup of coffee, listening to the sounds of the sea and watching the waves break on the rocks.  I was having a generally peaceful and serene moment when Chilli Willi showed up to begin fishing off the dock.

 

He was in the process of setting up his fishing gear when Normano arrived wearing a Dharma Bums World Tour T-shirt.  Willi started chuckling and explained that he and his Austrian friends were getting a big kick out of our shirts.  It turns out that in the German language the word bums is a slang term for fucking.  “Dharma Fucking World Tour”, Chilli howled and danced. I wonder if Jack Kerouak knew that? 

Chilli Willi who, it seems know his way around a party, confirmed that the Full Moon Parties at Haad Rin are indeed  legendary, they have been occurring every month for more than twenty years.  The Dharma Bums were not on the island during that phase of the moon, in fact, we arrived on the day of the new moon, as we would under Dharma Bum rules.  But it really doesn’t matter anymore what phase the moon is in, there is a beach party every night, some are just bigger, louder and last longer.

There are people, mostly young, from all corners of the world but predominantly from Europe and Australia not to mention the Thais here on the island.  If you venture into town and onto the beach in the early morning (before 10) you will rarely see anyone but the local Thais,  mostly cleaning up from the previous nights partying.  The revelers rarely make an appearance before 11:00 unless they need to catch a ferry to leave the island.  Around noon there is much more activity as they begin to take on nourishment and to rehydrate, there are plastic bottles of water everywhere.  After lunch they start gathering at the beach, the Sunrise Beach on the east side of the island is the preferred site for the party set.  By mid afternoon the crowd at the beach thins dramatically,  the sun gets too hot.  From mid afternoon until about 9:00 in the evening there isn’t much activity, siesta time.  About 9:00 the activity level increases with people going out to a leisurely dinner.  The drinking activity and the music begin about 10:30-11 at a very modest pace.  The tempo of the music and the drinking hits full stride around midnight.

There are bars that overlook the the beach, each with their own very powerful competing sound systems cranking out techno beat but most parties are on the beach.  Some places provide tables and chairs  right on the beach, some provide entertainment in the form of small theater screens, some have Thai fire dancers and fireworks, all have booze by the bucket.  The plastic buckets come with about six straws so it can be shared with one or more friends. 

The drinking, the music and the dancing all get pretty raucous.  Some partyers crash right on the beach.  We saw one young man passed out in a plastic chair with his head resting on his chest, it looked mighty uncomfortable.  Those that pass out on the beach often have a rude awakening, first the sun comes up and then the tide comes in.

And then it happens all over again.  Maybe its like “Ground Hog Day”, they have to keep reliving it until they get it right.

 

 

Dharma Bernie

Tags: Travel

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 25th, 2007 at 8:22 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.