Music In My Koh Phangan Soul

It's been a crazy few weeks of festive season on the islands! I wrote about our Christmas Day Parties, Koh Phangan Style here - and a few days later we were back on the party circuit again, for the lead up to New Year 2014 on Koh Phangan.

Sat Dec 28th: 
Season Opener @ MerKaBa Beach Club! Our dog Foxy was enjoying the MerKaBa DJ booth with Pablo for his soulful afternoon set to warm up proceedings - in 'the jaw's of a giant tripped out cat' - in Ilona Rampling's words!

The DJ booth is something to behold, and the beach club itself is full of imaginative use of space and a sense of luxury, Koh Phangan style, uncommonly seen on the islands.

Leaving Pablo to his work, Foxy followed me as I left after sunset, running up the MerKaBa steps ahead of me like a whippet. He took himself home as I made the short journey into Haad Rin - only five minutes away from this best beach club location on Koh Phangan, in my honest opinion.

Mer Ka Ba Beach Club, Haad Rin

I missed Kaonashi & Pablo's second set at MerKaBa, but was back at this stunning location on my all time favourite Koh Phangan beach of Bang Son - to see Mr T and Red Eye LaFunk play to a dance floor full of friendly faces... well into the early hours!
And that was just the first day of New Year celebrations...

The best beach club location on Koh Phangan

Dec 29th: 
The 'Music In My Koh Phangan Soul' continued with three Koh Phangan & Bangkok DJs absolutely rocking up the floating bar - Sunday Boat Party at Loi Lay!  As it was also Jungle Experience, Loi Lay didn't expect to be so busy tonight, but the dance floor of this small intimate party was literally pumping, as you can see from this Phanganist.com photo!

Sunday Boat Party @ Loi Lay Dec 29 
Photo via Phanganist.com

Darragh nailed it, Pablo took off with the baton in both hands and smashed it (I had people coming up to me for days!) - and then Bangkokian Dan Buri came in for the finale. We jumped around with old friends on the floating bar to see out the old year, having a whale of a time at Loi Lay… 

Pablo Escobud & Darragh Casey @ Loi Lay Dec 29 
Photo via Phanganist.com

… before jumping on the bike and heading on to The Jungle for their last party of the year! 

Jungle Experience Koh Phangan was going off into another stratosphere, with thousands of party-goers having it in the newly decorated Jungle arena. Well-known local DJ Rob Gritton and recently returned from New York DJ Naq I Freak Da Rhytme were going wild in the illuminated Jungle DJ box. 

Rob Gritton & Naq I Freak Da Rhytme @ Jungle Experience

Old friends unite! Welcome back to the Jungle.
 
Eat, sleep, rave, repeat! 

Dec 29th: Voodoo Koh Phangan! Musical treats from Darragh Casey and Dan Buri... and James Trystan. It's very rare for visiting DJs to cut the mustard with our Koh Phangan DJ talent (OK, maybe I'm biased!), but this UK DJ from Filth & Splendour was definitely worth his salt!  

James Trystan rocked my socks off … and is my new favourite DJ :)

James Trystan @ Voodoo Koh Phangan 
via Phanganist.com 

And that's before we even got to New Year's Eve! That's another story to be told… coming soon...

© Mia Escobud 2014
Photography by Mia Escobud & Phanganist.com