Cold? Wet? Overworked? Underpaid, under loved, and under appreciated? Is that what’s troubling you, Bunkie? Maybe, oh ha ha ha, maybe, ha ha, there’s been some terrible misunderstanding and your government and economic system isn’t trying to get the last ounce of work and money out of you before melting your economic remains down for fat, like they used to do on whaling ships.

Never mind! Come to Thailand, where the all night parties pop up like mushrooms after tropical rain!

The Thai people appreciate and enjoy life, which in truth is as brief and fleeting as, well, a mushroom that pops up after a tropical rain. They get together and pull out the native whiskeys as often as they can.

The Songkran Water Festival is their national party of sorts. Its exact date is determined each year, but falls roughly in the middle of April. Officially it is a few days of Thais gently patting each other down with soft white clay and gently sprinkling water on each other. In the more refined sections of town, this is what happens, and the tourist and traveler can gently decline the honor. In the raunchier (expat British Bad Boy sections of town), machine gun water pistols are used and the whole experience turns soggy miserable.

I’ve seen motor bike riders drenched down with buckets of unclean water when they pass by expat bars. You need Buddha or at least plastic bags to protect your electronics, and be sure to keep that unclean water out of your eyes nose and mouth.

Moreover, Songkran makes transport across Thailand overbooked impossible. Once is enough for Songkran.

Local legends say that when Western hippies first found the beaches of Thailand, they looked in vain for anything resembling a guest house or hotel; and thus, out of necessity was started the first All Night Beach Party!

Those first hippies may have been happy with moonlight, waves and a good hand rolled cigar, but present day entrepreneurs of the West, with their organizational skills and artillery of music electronics, now rule Thailand’s parties. These days the DJ’s are often internationally known, the sound systems elephant sized and first rate.

Foremost and most famous is the Full Moon Party on the Thai island of Koh Phangan. The island gets booked out, fleets of party goers come from the neighboring islands, and everybody gets drunk and dances till dawn. All this is done under the bright white full moon to the sound of monster loudspeakers playing music selected by DJ’s flown in for the occasion.

This is the granddaddy of all the Moon parties. That is, the Half Moon, Dark Moon, Quarter Moon and junior Full Moon parties which now pop up all over Thailand at each moon phase. These may also be internationally attended, or they may have no more publicity than a handbill pinned next to the Thai boxing schedule at the local grocery, but the good natured vibe is the same.

Along with Moon Parties, there is the Rave. “Same same, but different”, as they say. Rave artists/entrepreneurs may party in India one week, and then bring their show to Bangkok the next week. A Rave may consist of more electronic trance music, but the basic concept is the same. Drink, party, dance, and hopefully hook up with a fellow traveler.

As in, the whole point of life is to have a good story to tell.

I suppose illegal drugs are present at all parties, but avoid them. The Thai police watch carefully for such activity, and are known to search even the gas tanks of motorbikes when guarding the entry roads.

Caution - any large gathering in the 3rd world can be problematical. There is much more of an informal attitude towards sanitation, crowd control, overcrowding, etc.

You could play it safe and stay home at your guest house, then buy a souvenir T-shirt the next morning from an exiting vendor.

But then, you would miss the party!