THAI BEACH IS FANTASY ISLAND FOR HARDCORE PARTYERS

Some Coming To The Country Just For The Monthly Binges Of Drink, Drugs
And Dancing

A DOZEN people suck beers and stare at the TV in an open-air video
bar, watching Leonardo DiCaprio live out a dream about finding an
unspoiled beach in Thailand with hardly anyone there.

Outside the bar, a different kind of beach fantasy is
unfolding.

A full moon has risen over Haad Rin Bay on Koh Phangan, a rugged
tropical island in the Gulf of Thailand. And on the beach to greet it
are 10,000 revelers, most of them high on drugs or alcohol, grooving
on the sands to a thudding bass beat.

The monthly Full Moon Party at Koh Phangan is to beach raves what
Mardi Gras in New Orleans or Rio's Carnival are to street bashes --
the biggest and best.

It draws 8,000 to 10,000 people, mostly in their 20s and early 30s,
from Europe, the Americas, Australia, Asia and even Africa.

The parties used to be advertised by word of mouth and fliers at cheap
budget hotels in Bangkok. Now, the Internet has sites providing
upcoming dates and photos of past bacchanals.

In an odd twist, publicity surrounding DiCaprio's latest film, ``The
Beach,'' based on the novel by Alex Garland, is pulling in the biggest
crowds yet at the moon parties, even though Koh Phangan and the
backpacker culture it epitomizes are described in the movie as
``cancers, parasites.''

``It's a crappy book and a crappy film, but because of it, there's a
lot of attention on Thailand, and Koh Phangan benefits from that,''
said Paddy Douglas, 32, barman at the Outback, an off-beach watering
hole.

Up at 30,000 at New Year

Douglas arrived on Koh Phangan 12 years ago. He remembers a single
nightclub on Haad Rin, some huts that the few thousand islanders would
share with visitors, and not much else.

Most of the party crowd then were nudists who came to Koh Phangan to
soak up sun away from Thailand's mainstream beaches, where the
unclothed are frowned upon.

How far has Koh Phangan come? For last New Year's Eve, which
overshadowed the moon that month, the party drew more people than
possibly any single event in Southeast Asia.

Estimates ranged from 20,000 to 30,000 revelers a night for two weeks.
The beach at Haad Rin, about three-quarters of a mile long, was packed
end to end with dancers. Several were injured by fireworks and one
Frenchwoman hit by a rocket had to evacuated to a hospital.

A Dutch veteran of eight parties, Roel, 32, recalls the New Year's
event as so crowded you couldn't move, ``but it was the best party in
the world.''

(Most of the party crowd prefer not to give full names, wary of
problems with customs and police.)

``There's no law,'' said Roel, whose vest and shorts reveal tattoos
down his arms and legs. ``That's what I like about it. If you want to
party, this is the best.''

On this April day he was heading by ferry back to Koh Phangan's tiny
port, joined by other party animals, a van of police deploying for the
night, and a few Buddhist monks headed for a temple.

Thousands arrived days before the party, hoping to get a bungalow at
Haad Rin. More came just hours before sunset. Some pull up right on
the beach in hired speedboats after dark.

But the majority pack into pickup taxis or hire small motorbikes to
drive 20 minutes from the port to Haad Rin, over a roller-coaster
road, narrow and full of blind curves. Nobody wears a helmet, though
few have ever been on a motorcycle before. Hospital officials say at
least 231 riders needed treatment from accidents in the first three
months of this year -- more than half the total for all of 1999.

So far this year, two tourists have been killed in physical assaults.
Last year saw six fatalities from accidents, assaults, drowning and
suicide.

At Haad Rin, the old fishing huts are gone. The village is full of
cheap guesthouses and restaurants selling fried rice and burgers.

Internet cafes sit next to shops hawking black-light tapestries of
psychedelic mushrooms. Body-piercing parlors hang out photos of all
the intimate places a stud or ring can be stuck. Tiny nursing clinics
post signs offering sutures and pregnancy tests.

Local people have given up fishing. They now have motorcycles and TVs
and, even if they wish their visitors could be upgraded, they know
that prosperity comes from the estimated $350,000 a month they spend.

``The local people know that much of the island's economy depends on
outsiders who come to drink and do drugs,'' said guidebook author
Steven Martin. ``Many here would like to see that change, but all-out
partying is what Koh Phangan has become known for. Besides, without an
airport, it's difficult to bring in a wealthier, more sedate class of
tourist.''

So that local children aren't corrupted by what they see of Western
civilization, local police lecture in the schools about the dangers of
drugs and extol the value of traditional Thai culture.

As the sun sets over Haad Rin Bay, partygoers head to their rooms and
abuse whatever substances they brought or picked up from local
dealers, who pass out fliers with the names of bars where they can be
found.

Users run a serious risk. Marijuana and ecstasy are illegal and
sentences in Thailand's hell-hole prisons are long.

Police can't control party

Police set up drug-search roadblocks on party night and plainclothes
officers patrol the beach. Fifteen people, including a few Thais, were
arrested on drug charges at the April 18 party, said Col. Suwan
Leelaporn, local police superintendent.

That doesn't count those who -- foreigners insist -- avoid jail by
turning over hefty bribes. Officials deny such allegations.

``Drinking alcohol is allowed at the party, no matter how much,''
Suwan said. ``But all kind of narcotic drugs are prohibited. We see,
we arrest.''

There are far too many people for police to control. By 10 p.m.,
thousands are walking up and down the beach, drinking beer, liquor and
stay-uppers, mixing Thai whiskey with a potent caffeine drink popular
with truck drivers.

The clubs crank up the music and over the next couple of hours the
beach fills with woozy dancers in shorts, swim trunks, bikinis and
sarongs, many decorated with body paint, moving choppily to the
constant boom-boom-boom of drums and bass, the hypnotic sounds of
techno, hip-hop, trance, house and garage throbbing from a half-dozen
sound stages and a dozen bars.

By midnight the surf has become a toilet for men and women either too
desperate or too cheap to line up for the club lavatories or pay 10
baht (27 cents) charged by entrepreneurs running private stalls.

By 2 a.m., most are drunk or stoned, dancing, jumping, staggering and
collapsing. To anyone sober, the scene looks dangerous, the people
demented. Many pass out. Unless they convulse, no one pays attention.

At 3:45 a.m., the heavens dump tropical rain on the festivities,
driving anyone who can still stand indoors. Many call it a night.

By dawn, the skies have cleared and 4,000 people are still jamming.
Many would stay until nearly noon, when the party petered out. The sun
reveals a wasteland of motionless bodies and empty bottles.

The hardier survivors -- a few with bandaged feet after stepping on
broken glass -- take midday ferries out. For many, the party was the
only reason to come to Thailand.

Some head for Koh Tao, an island the partgoers say is the closest they
can find to the idyllic seclusion of Leonardo DiCaprio in ``The Beach.''

Mimo, a 26-year-old Swede, has seen the film three times. He's
enthusiastic about Koh Tao. ``You know what's great about Koh Tao?''
he said. ``Zero police.''