Earlier last week I had the pleasure of going to Japan’s very first micro pig (dubbed “Mipig”) Cafe located in Meguro. What exactly is a micro pig, you ask? Micro pigs are miniature pigs that are specially bred to be smaller in size and have friendly, dog-like personality traits while they are young. They have sparked somewhat of a controversy online due to many people wanting them as pets but not being prepared to look after them when they rapidly grow in size. Though the Japan Times cautions pet owners the risks of owning a micro pig, they are legal to own in this country and can live a healthy lifestyle if properly cared for. When I entered the cafe, I was happy to see it was clean and that the pigs were both energetic and welcoming of human company.
The Mipig Cafe currently has 2 locations in Tokyo (Meguro and Harajuku) and can be booked in timeslots of 30 or 60 minutes by making a reservation online. We decided to go to the Meguro location simply because it has less traffic. Once you arrive, you will be given simple instructions on how to interact with the pigs, and be asked to order a drink around 600 yen. We also ordered cake for ourselves as well which was surprisingly delicious. The cost to enter the cafe is 800 yen per 30 minutes, which is quite affordable compared to other animal cafes. I had previously held a baby pig while I was in Korea, but this was my first time ever seeing them run around:
Interacting with the pigs is quite easy and fun. As you can see from the video, basically they will come to you! They are very curious creatures and love to be petted and fed. We bought some feed for them and instantly they ran over towards us (the food can be purchased for 100 yen and I recommend buying it for them). Taking pictures of them proved to be quite difficult as they love to move and run around, but I went more for the experience since it’s quite easy to take photographs of baby pigs at farms and zoos.
What happens to the micro pigs when they outgrow their micro status and become adult pigs? According to the official Mipig FAQ, they are eventually be adopted to a new family after they have acquired social training and sufficient human interaction at the cafe. That is why I think this cafe is a great place to interact with the pigs without having the risk of being unable to suit their needs as a pet owner. Though the controversy of breeding these pigs still remains, fortunately there seem to be a growing amount of resources in Japan to educate pet owners on proper care.
Since I recently wrote about my Ghibli Adventures in Yamagata, I figured I’d recount my tale of visiting Zao Fox Village (also called Kitsune Mura) in the neighboring Miyagi Prefecture in 2017. This is the largest outdoor fox sanctuary in Japan that is home to over 100 friendly foxes. Additionally, Zao Fox Village is currently the only place in Japan where you can have the unique experience of holding a baby fox. Though it’s been over 3 years since I first visited this place, I’ll never forget my time here! It was quite the long journey from Tokyo, but was definitely worth it.
Getting There/Expense
Address: Fukuokayatsumiya, Shiroishi, Miyagi Prefecture 989-0733, Japan
From Ueno Station, you can take the Tohoku-Hokkaido Shinkansen Yamabiko to Shiroishi-Zao Station for 10130 yen, then take a taxi for around 4000 yen or Castle Kun shuttle bus (that runs on Tuesdays and Fridays) for 200 yen to reach the village. This combined method of transportation takes about 2 hours total.
The entrance fee is 1000 yen, fox feed is 100 yen, and holding a baby fox cost 400 yen. The cost of getting here from Tokyo is a bit expensive, but the overall cost of the zoo is pretty affordable.
The Fox Experience
The system here is pretty easy to understand. You pay the entrance fee and are given specific instructions on how to safely interact with the foxes, then you are free to wander through their open-air village! They are quite entertaining to watch and you may even have the chance to see the rare silver fox roaming around. If you are afraid to get up close, there are several viewing platforms that you can stand at and observe them. Though some foxes enjoy sleeping through the day, they usually become most active when you offer them treats! The baby foxes are available for visitors to hold under supervision several times per day. Be sure to arrive before 4pm if you want to partake in this activity.
Here is a video I captured when one of the staff came out to feed them. As you can see, they show a lot of positive energy. This is even better seeing in person!
Animal Abuse Dispute
There are several articles and documentaries that claim Zao Fox Village is cruel for encasing animals in small spaces. While some of the cages used to transport the animals are small, I would argue that the sanctuary as a whole is quite wide and gives the animals enough room to relax and go about their usual business compared to usual zoos. As I personally observed the foxes here, I noticed they had enough space to exercise and seemed to be in good health. Though exposure to new people can make animals anxious, these foxes can fortunately retreat to their own plots of land away from visitors if they get tired.
Final Thoughts
Though this trip was quite the expense at the time, I thoroughly enjoyed my time seeing all of the foxes up close—especially since I got the chance to hold one! This was my first time seeing a Japanese silver fox as well. If you are interested in seeing a lesser-known fox village in Japan, please check out Kitakitsune Farm in Hokkaido! I have yet to visit, but it is definitely on my bucket list.
Sannakji (산낙지): Live octopus from a local shop in Sinsa, Seoul.
Since I’m staying in Seoul for the next few days, I decided to be adventurous and try some wriggling live octopus (called sannakji). I’ve eaten octopus sashimi in Japan many times and enjoy pairing it with soy sauce and wasabi, but the experience in South Korea is a bit different. Instead of thinly slicing the octopus like in Japan, here they carefully cut the tentacles into smaller bite-sized pieces and give you special spicy sauce to eat it with. Taste-wise I prefer spicy seafood, but texture-wise I prefer my octopus to be thinly cut so it’s easy to chew. Though the tentacles were slippery and difficult to pick up with chopsticks, I managed to almost finish the entire plate!
The octopus is selected from a tank outside and takes about 10 minutes to prepare depending on how busy the restaurant is. This dish is safe to eat when it is served to you, but due to the complex system of neurons in each tentacle, they still wriggle a bit even when they have been severed from the octopus’s body. If you really enjoy seafood (especially in Asia), then this is something you should try!
Pro Soy Crab is a popular restaurant where people in Seoul go to eat crab and octopus, but I chose to eat at a local shop nearby that had a Japanese menu. Sannakji is called “生きているテナガダコ” in Japanese, so you can also try looking that up (I cannot read hangal, so I rely on my Japanese skills here). Earlier this year I ate Dancing Squid in Hakodate, so if you are interested in other seafood adventures, please look at my post here!
Here is a collection of desserts that will make your heart melt in Tokyo (Volume 2). ♥ For reference, please see Volume 1 here.
Sweets Paradise (Akihabara Branch)
Sweets Paradise is an extremely popular buffet-style dessert restaurant with multiple branches in Tokyo. You can choose from an unlimited selection of multi-colored pastries for 70 – 90 mins. However, the branch in Akihabara offers a take-out option with cake that looks like actual ramen! Even the toppings are edible and have an extremely sweet flavor. The “noodles” are actually just thick layers of frosting. This is probably one of the most unreal sweets I have ever eaten (appearance-wise), but the taste was definitely worth it!
New New York Club
New New York Club became a meme because of its rainbow bagels stuffed with delicious cream cheese. These bagels sell out fast so sadly I wasn’t able to get one, but they do have multi-colored bagels you can purchase too! They still taste the same as a regular bagel despite their strange color, and I prefer them to most Japanese bagels because they are larger and softer in texture. Ikumimama Animal Doughnuts is another cute bakery that is right around the corner from here! Be sure to pick up some cute cat donuts if you still have an appetite.
Aoyama Flower Market Teahouse
Aoyama Flower Market is a popular florist chain that is often found in Tokyo train stations. Stopping here is convenient if you want to pick up flowers for a special occasion, but certain locations also have cafes with extremely aesthetic food too! I ordered this delicious parfait with pink jelly and fruit that looks like a work of art at the Kichijyoji location. They have a seasonal menu that rotates frequently, so be sure to check online to see what they are serving. All of the food here has an extremely appetizing look and taste.
Salon Ginza Sabou
This upscale restaurant exploded with popularity when they released their infamous green tea boxes. Under a thin layer of green tea-flavored chocolate topped with green tea powder that you break apart with your spoon, you will find the goldmine of all green tea desserts. Watch my video and see Sabou’s website for more information. Other restaurants are starting to copy this style of dessert, but this was the original place that invented it.
Liquid Nitrogen Kit-Kats
It’s no secret that Japan is infatuated with Kit-Kats. Walk into any souvenir store and the first thing you will besides the obvious Hachiko-shaped sweets is corn, sweet potato, green tea, and other strange flavors of Kit-Kats. The Kit Kat Chocolatory and Café offers a whole different level of strangeness with its liquid nitrogen Kit-Kats. It was surreal to watch the Japanese waiter pour liquid nitrogen onto a platter where it would perfectly chill a sweet commonly found in the US, but it was definitely worth the experience. You can customize your own Kit-Kats at this cafe as well! There are a variety of unique toppings you can choose from and the menu changes its featured items each season.
Doubutsuen Ice Cream/The Zoo
Doubutsuen was another dessert place that exploded with popularity in Harajuku due to its cute animal cones. I opted for the tripple scoop piggy the first time I came here. Originally you would buy a ticket from the front of the shop that looked like a vending machine and they would make your cone for you behind the curtain, but due to the mass amount of people waiting in line on the street, they moved their shop to the end of Takeshita Street under the name “The Zoo” so they could serve more customers. The ice cream here is not only cute but also delicious, so I highly recommend it!
Other Ice Cream Recommendations
Other ice cream spots I highly recommend trying are Edy’s Ice Cream for their cute customizable cones with unicorn and heart-shaped toppings, Milkcow for their rich and creamy soft-serve ice cream, Coisof for their black ice cream with crunchy colored toppings, and Godiva simply for their unmatched rich flavor of chocolate ice cream. It’s hard to find bad ice cream in Tokyo, it really is!
Bonus: Rainbow Sweets Harajuku
Last but not least, if you are looking for brightly-colored photogenic food then I would recommend coming to Rainbow Sweets Harajuku! This is right off Takeshita Street and attracts a lot of customers, but the food is all take-out so it doesn’t take much time to receive your order. I ordered the rainbow grilled cheese and the rainbow ice cream. These were fun to take pictures of, but the taste was so-so. Instead I recommend trying the ice cream places I mentioned above because they have a way better taste.
Thank you for reading Volume 2 of my dessert cafe expedition in Tokyo. If you have any recommendations, please drop them in the comments! I will be make more volumes in the future!
Over the weekend I had the opportunity to attend M3, one of Japan’s biggest interactive multimedia events that is essentially the Comiket of music. M3 is a great opportunity for aspiring artists and record labels because they are able to rent a booth and distribute their music in addition to connecting with other artists and fans. I like this kind of event because it preserves the culture of physical music distribution and a lot of the music sold here is unavailable online so you won’t be able to find it elsewhere. The same goes for the merchandise (such as hats and bags) as well. There is also a space where you can freely listen to select music with your own headphones or have the option of renting some. It’s very exciting to wander around here because you can literally see the happiness of people as they connect with the artists they love.
Getting to M3
M3 takes place at Tokyo Ryutsu Center, which consists of six exhibition stalls and a conference center with multiple floors. This complex is actually really close to Haneda airport, so I rode the local Tokyo-Monorailtowards Haneda-Airport Terminal 2 to reach it. The event goes from 11:00 – 15:30, and I arrived at 11:30 just to avoid the initial crowds. My timing was perfect because it only took me around 5 minutes to register and I was able to visit the 3 booths that I wanted. The entrance fee is 1500 yen, plus it includes a guide with all of the participants listed and a map which is quite handy.
Navigating M3
The floorplan of M3秋2019.
Navigating M3 is quite daunting at first, because each booth is identified with a letter and a series of numbers. The booths are placed side by side and there’s a lot going on so it’s really easy to walk past the one you’re looking for. Not only do they use all 26 letters of the English alphabet in the booth naming system, but they also use Japanese hiragana and katakana consonants and vowels as well. There is very little English guidance and I don’t think much of the staff speaks English, so I would strongly recommend researching the artists/circles you’re interested in and finding exactly where their booth is placed before you come here. It is extremely fun to wander around, but sadly there is not enough time to fully experience each and every artist’s music as this is only a one day event. I would advise you to plan ahead so you can make the most of your time here.
Buying Music at M3
The CD I was most interested in buying was TVR Compilation Vol. 1, which is from a relatively new independent label in Asia. One of my favorite artists who I’ve written about before; in the blue shirt, has released a rare song that is only obtainable at M3.
Here is the preview of the compilation that was uploaded a few weeks before:
Fortunately when I arrived there were multiple copies of the compilation I wanted, and the people running the booth were quite friendly and gave me an extra CD along with my purchase so it was an extremely good experience. The compilation was only 1000 yen and was more than worth the cost. All of the artists on the compilation have experience in the music industry, so it was quite the noteworthy compilation.
The first time I ever saw in the blue shirt at Lounge Neo in 2017, he played the song 「Dreamin’ of You」as an exclusive song in his set. I’ve wanted the song for the longest time but I could never obtain it until now. Finally in 2019 it was officially released as a part of this compilation, and I am very happy to officially have it in my collection now!
In addition to TVR’s booth, I also checked out the booths for Miraicha and Lipgloss Records. I bought some merch for my friends overseas who couldn’t be here, and also picked up the Departure CD early that a lot of artists I know have collaborated on. While I was here I saw so many familiar names of Japanese artists like IOSYS and ave;new that I listened to in high school through the internet, so I felt extremely nostalgic even though it was my first time here. I had an amazing time even though I was only here to purchase a few things. It truly felt like a dream to be here.
Closing Remarks
Overall M3 is a really friendly event that is perfect for networking and sharing music. All of the music and merch is extremely affordable (most CDs are sold for 1200 yen on average), and I like knowing that all of the profits go to the artists and record labels (in addition to the booth rental fee). M3 is quite comparable to Comiket, but not as big and daunting. The size of the event center was enough to accommodate all of the artists and crowds of people, so I was relieved that I didn’t have to deal with long wait lines or commuter traffic on the trains. All of the artists I talked to were happy to meet me, so I left the event center with an extremely good feeling. If you love Japanese music as much as I do, please consider checking M3 out!
*M3 is a seasonal event, so you can check the latest information on their official website here.
Here is a collection of desserts that will make your heart melt in Tokyo (Volume 1). ♥
This city has no shortage of of aesthetic foods so I will continue to share cafes that I stumble across in future posts!
Roll Ice Cream Factory
Roll Ice Cream Factory opened just 2 years ago in central Harajuku and has a colorful array of flavors and toppings that you can mix together to form quite beautiful creations. Similar to the New York style of roll ice cream, you choose the base flavor you want and watch them craft it into tiny little rolls. I chose the “American Dream” combo and added a taiyaki to the top of it for fun. This is patriotism at its finest! Roll ice cream isn’t quite the same as soft serve ice cream, but it still is worth trying at least once in your lifetime. They also have matcha and delicious chocolate rolls that you can try as well.
Harebare Pecori
For some of the most monstrous milkshakes in Tokyo, stop by Harebare Pecori in Shinjuku! Here you will find colossal shakes with ice cream, cotton candy, lollipops, cookies, whipped cream, and many toppings to completely satisfy your craving for sweets. Finishing one shake by myself proved to be a challenging quest, so I suggest you share one of these with a friend. I enjoyed the massive amounts of whipped cream and the creative placement of all of the toppings.
Milky Way Cafe
Now this place is classic. Likely if you’ve researched desserts in Tokyo, you’ve come across Milky Way Cafe in Ikebukero. This cafe has a different parfait for each sign of the Zodiac, and the quality of the food is really amazing too. You really can’t go wrong with anything you choose here because the presentation is amazing. I loved the mini chocolate cake on top of my parfait! It definitely made my day worth the trip.
Micasadeco & Cafe
This place became a meme due to its wiggly jiggly fluffy stacks of pancakes. You can wobble the plate and the pancakes will still stick together as if they are compelled by a magic force. I highly recommend taking a trip to Micasadeco & Cafe in Shibuya if the opportunity arises. I think these are some of the fluffiest pancakes I’ve seen in a while.
Patisserie Potager
If you are looking for cakes with interesting flavor combinations, look no further than Patisserie Potager! Here I found tomato cake and avocado pudding as well as other unlikely French-Japanese fusion cuisines that tasted amazing. Most of these desserts are lighter on calories than regular cakes so they are a healthier option.
Sakura Cafe Mukojima’s Tokyo Skytree Parfait
Like Tokyo’s infamous landmark, this Tokyo Skytree parfait at Sakura Cafe Mukojima mimics the real thing standing at 63.4 cm high, as the actual tower is 634 meters tall. Loaded with jelly, ice cream, fruit, mochi, and a giant soft-served ice cream cone, this dessert does not disappoint! I ordered the matcha flavor, but there are other fruity flavors available for purchase. I was very impressed with how they balanced all the ingredients to make it stand up.
Nanaya
On the subject of green tea and ice cream, Nanaya is another store that should not be missed because it has 7 different intensities of green tea ice cream and other flavors. I ordered three scoops and tried #1 (the weakest flavor), #7 (the strongest flavor), and the green tea rum raisin flavor. In my opinion, the less intense and lighter flavors tasted the best. The store name “Nanaya” means “Shop of 7 (flavors)”, so be sure to choose wisely!
Dominique Ansel Bakery (Now Closed)
Previously I wrote an article on Dominique Ansel Bakery in Omotesando praising their delicious pastries, but I am very sad to see that they have closed their Tokyo branches as of summer 2019. I will never forget the delicious hedgehog cake I had for my birthday last year, as well as the Zero Gravity Chiffon Cake that was light enough to float in a balloon. I am hoping that they open a similar cafe in the future!
Thank you for reading Volume 1 of my dessert cafe expedition in Tokyo. If you have any recommendations, please drop them in the comments! I will be writing Volume 2 very soon!
The Imperial Palace Brightly shines brightly in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
On my last day in Cambodia, I decided to take a walk to the Imperial Palace in Phnom Penh and try some aesthetic food at the cafes nearby. What an amazing trip this was! I had the opportunity to visit the killing fields and learn about the brutal history of Cambodia, rave in a jungle on Koh Rong, volunteer with bears, and also see the historic temples of Angkor Wat. I ended my trip by coming to the capital city to see how it has reshaped itself since the rule of the Khmer Rouge. Phnom Penh reminded me of a smaller Ho Chi Minh City because there were a lot of motorcycle commuters and international travelers with tiny shops that lined the streets. It was a bit harder to traverse on foot compared to Siem Reap with all of the traffic, but it is definitely worth checking out.
Since I had done a lot of traveling in this country, I spent a lot of time relaxing in my room at Lovely Jubbly Villa, which I highly recommend staying at. They have an excellent bar by the pool with a happy hour every night and the staff are extremely friendly. Plus the panda mascot is so adorable! The perks of coming during the off season is that it is very easy to make friends and go out with the Cambodian locals here. My hotel was able to help me book cheap tuk tuk rides and a ride to the airport, and they had cheap tours you could book the day of. It was such a pleasant stay and I was sad to leave, but 10 days here was enough for me to see everything that I wanted.
Overall I was extremely impressed by the warmth and friendliness that everyone showed me here. Most people that come to Cambodia have already been to Thailand and are looking for a different experience. I was able to meet a lot of cool people that inspired me to travel to other Asian countries as well. It’s amazing how much this country has built itself back up since its destructive civil war in the 1970s.
If you have any questions about traveling to Cambodia, please see my original itinerary, or feel free to ask me in the comments.
Warning: I’m going to talk about some gruesome topics in this article as to thoroughly explain Cambodia’s history, so please be wary of this when reading.
While I was staying in Phnom Penh, I decided to visit the Killing Fields and Genocide Museum to learn about the gruesome history of Cambodia. I booked a cheap bus through Get Your Guide and arrived to Choeung Ek, the largest of the killing fields which is now a memorial, in the early afternoon. Though I knew this visit was going to be a sad part of my trip, I didn’t expect the audio recordings and personal stories from some of the victims to move me to tears. The reign of the Khmer Rouge was a truly horrid part of Cambodia’s history, and many of the country’s own people were trained to become merciless assassins and slaughter innocent victims that were targeted or framed. It’s a miracle that some of them are still alive today, so I think that this is an important part of history we should never forget and never let me repeated.
The Khmer Rouge reigned in Cambodia from 1975 – 1979, but in these 4 years they caused more damage to the country than what anyone could truly realize. During this time 1/4 of the Cambodian population was killed by cruel and unusual punishment, disease, and starvation mostly by the hand of their own kind. Toul Sleng, which is now the genocide museum, was the prison where “enemies” of the Angkor were sent for questioning and torture. However, most of these people were innocent and the Khmer Rouge just wanted a confession from them so they could control the country in an extremely corrupt way. This was mostly due to paranoia as the Vietnam War and secret bombing campaigns were simultaneously occurring, but this also shows the darkest side of communism.
Once taken the the Killing Field, the soldiers would blindfold and smash the heads of victims into spears as to not waste bullets, then dispose of their bodies in mass graves full of thousands of people. While they were being killed, eerie symphony music would be played as to mask their screens and keep other prisoners from overhearing. Children were beaten to death against “The Killing Tree” so they would be unable to take revenge when they grew older. This tree is now adorned with colored bracelets in memory. Very few people survived or were spared, and those that did have lived with horrible memories from this inhumane place. The skulls have now been moved to a memorial in the center of the museum to serve as a reminder of this terrible reign. However, there are still many fragments of bones around the fields as the devastation of this tragic event still affects this country to this day.
Those who weren’t sent to the killing fields were forced to work on communal farms in harsh conditions. Anyone educated or that stood up to the Khmer Rouge were immediately sent to the fields or prison for questioning. This is comparable to the Nazi concentration camps as it resulted in a mass genocide and left many people without families or hope for the future. So how exactly is Cambodia doing now?
Fortunately Cambodia has received aid from other countries, and tourism there is gradually increasing, but most Cambodian people live in poverty and it is far from becoming the democratic society that it was promised. Yet, while I was staying there I noticed that a lot of Cambodian people are quite kind and are usually smile a lot when talking to you. They are far less aggressive than people in Vietnam or Thailand, and I didn’t fall into any major scams while I was here. Why do modern day Cambodians appear happier than a lot of other people in Asian countries?
After my wild night of raving in the jungle of Koh Rong and frolicking on the beach until the early hours of the morning, I still couldn’t sleep so I decided to take the first ferry from Koh Touch to its sister island Koh Rong Samleom. This ticket cost about $8 and there are 4 ferries that depart from Koh Rong daily depending on the boat service you choose. I decided to get off at Saracen Bay because it has the prettiest beaches and most bars and accommodations. M’pai Bay is more lively at night and attracts a lot of backpackers with its parties and cheap accommodations. However, Saracen Bay and the other parts of the island are quite relaxing and carefree in comparison.
The atmosphere here during the day was definitely more quiet and reserved than the main island, but it had a lot of restaurants and places you could stop for a massage as well as snorkeling equipment available for you to rent. Wifi is scarce here due to how remote this island was, but I was able to score it for a bit from a local restaurant I ate at. It was definitely the cleanest area in Cambodia I had been to and I was very impressed with all of the great views:
Similar to Koh Rong, this island also hosts jungle parties on Friday nights and Half Moon Parties during certain times of the year. Though I wasn’t able to attend one here this year, I’d really like to come back and go in the future. I loved staying at Treehouse Bungalows on the main island, but I would like to trying staying here in the future so I could get to know more of the locals. The island really has a great vibe and is off-the-grid so you can definitely make it your own. I just went here as a day trip, but I wish I could have stayed longer. It was great to relax here and reflect on all the crazy things that happened the night before.
For more information on Koh Rong Samleon, please check out the island guide from Don’t Forget to Move!
When caught up in work, stress, and a maze of relationships, it’s often easy to lose sight of yourself and forget what is important. Though I love living in Tokyo, I find it often hard to relax here and there is an endless amount of events occurring which really places a lot of pressure on my life. Spending 4 days on the small Cambodian island of Koh Rong in Koh Touch, a small village that only stretches for about a mile, really taught me taught me some valuable lessons I will treasure for life.
It was here where I went to my first old-school rave in the jungle and learned to live frugally compared to my extravagant city life. The villagers were extremely kind and I was always surrounded by friendly people that took care of me despite the fact that I ventured here completely alone. My time here really helped me let go of a lot of anxieties and insecurities I had that were holding me back recently. Though I have many caring friends in all the countries I have visited, being in this setting helped me resurface to reality and form an entirely new perspective so I could enter a new mindset that I couldn’t reach before. I am still trying to find the proper words to convey exactly what happened, so I am just going to start from the beginning and write it all as I feel it.
The night began I as I wandered from my treehouse from around 9pm to a local bar called Karma, just because it had a lot of pretty murals, dank music, and was the designated pre-game spot before the rave in the jungle. The best way to find out where these places are at is by word of mouth (simply by asking someone that works at the bar what’s going on for the night). Here I met a crazy diverse group of people (one banker, one bar owner, and one government worker) who I really hit it off with so they ordered me some happy cookies, shots, and some Turkish coffee (which is just really strong, delicious tasting coffee) to keep me awake. We all just had the same vibe–this was our first time in Koh Rong and we wanted to go out for the night but didn’t know what to expect–so we stuck together. Fortunately all of us were experienced travelers who had done the Fullmoon Parties in Thailand already and were looking for something different. And an absolutely insane night full of neon lights, fantastic music, and important self-discoveries was ahead of us!
If you haven’t heard, the main reason that people flock to Koh Rong is because of their weekly beach parties on the un-ironically named Police Beach. In addition to the vivid nightlife, there is a ton of unspoiled nature and beaches to explore. The reason I love Koh Rong is because unlike other places, it usually only has one event going on per night such as beach parties, bar hopping, or game nights between small groups of people. There is no competition between events and everyone that shows up is generally friendly and looking to have a good time. I did not encounter one unpleasant person while on this island. I came during the off-season in October, but the weather was still sunny with only mild rain. It was perfectly suited for me because I never felt like I was missing out.
We arrived almost at the start of the party because we were already buzzed and ready to dance. I wasn’t extremely familiar with any of the DJs but they did a great job of mixing really classic techno songs. I liked the venue because it had an indoor area that protects you from the rain, lounge chairs where you can relax and smoke joints, and nicely-sized dancefloor, and an outdoor area where you could relax on the beach but still hear the music. It wasn’t anything fancy because it was partially in the jungle, but it was perfect for what it was. I have been to many clubs in Asia so I was looking for something different like this.
Basically anything goes at this party–it preserves the old rave culture that is lost to Japan and many other places. If you’re looking for something, then you’re likely to find it if you make friends with people beforehand. I also loved the fact that wild dogs would roll up to the party and fall asleep on the ground (they were friendly and nice). While I was at this party I really had a lot of fun twirling on the dance floor and running across the beach. I felt relaxed, energized, and full of life. It reminded me of being in college again, so I messaged some of my old college friends and told them I was thinking of them while I was there (since it was day time in the US and they were awake we had some great convos).
I stuck with the group of people that I had met earlier, but also was in my head for the most of the night. To be honest I don’t remember a lot of things, but I was able to reach a level of thinking where I could compartmentalize my stress and anxieties and manage them a lot better. That in itself made the entire experience worth it.
When the clock struck 6am, we climbed down to the beach and watched the sunrise. It was breathtaking. The sun looked like a red beady dot that was emerging from a sea of clouds, just like how we were all slowly trickling out of the jungle to the beach. Earlier that night I had put a lot of effort into my appearance but at this time of morning I didn’t have a single care in the world. I felt like a mermaid as I swam in the cool water.
When the party ended, I didn’t go to sleep. I ran back to my treehouse and blasted my favorite songs from my balcony. I met one of the bartenders on the way walking his dog and we had a lovely conversation. Then I waded in the water until the first ferries arrived and sailed off to Koh Rong Samloem Island (which I will cover in my next post). Overall, this was one of the best party experiences I had in my life, and I am so grateful I made the decision to come out here.
Compared to the beautiful islands I traveled to in Thailand, this was like an off-the-grid, undiscovered, party paradise that only the true backpackers make it to.
It’s not as if Thailand lacks an authentic culture…but the country, especially its islands, has been inundated with foreign tourism for so long that it’s far more difficult to forge sincere connections than it was on Koh Rong.
The biggest issue with islands in Thailand is that they are sometimes overcrowded with tourists so it’s difficult to partake in genuine Thai culture while you are there. Plus because their Full Moon parties attract a large number of tourists, there are always other smaller underground parties going on at the same time as competition. If you are only in Thailand for a short time, then it’s really impossible to hit up all the events. However, at Koh Rong you never have the fear of missing out and can really learn from the culture of the people there. The parties take place away from the hotel area so you can easily escape them if you need to. There is a sense of peace and balance on Koh Rong that you’d never find elsewhere. From what I’ve heard, Thailand used to be like this in the 80s, but this kind of culture is starting to fade away with the huge tourist boom. However, I am extremely grateful I had the opportunity to travel to both countries and make friends.
Will I come back to Koh Rong to resurface to reality again in the future? Perhaps one day. Next I have my sights set on the Philippines and Indonesia which I likely will traverse next year! But this has been my best island experience by far so I likely will try to go again. Thank you to everyone for reading my heartfelt post.
