Experiencing EDC in Thailand
The first stop of our island hopping journey was Phuket, Thailand's biggest island. I had visited Phuket last time I was here and it was actually the one place I didn't care to return to. There's nothing wrong with Phuket... it's just very touristy (as most of southern Thailand is) and isn't as beautiful as some of the other islands in my opinion. However, about a month before we left, my uncle brought it to my attention that Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC), a huge electronic dance music festival based in the states, was putting on their first festival in Thailand, in Phuket! I'm a huge fan of EDM, so attending EDC in Thailand seemed like a no brainer. The dates aligned perfectly, so we bought tickets and worked the 3-day event into our itinerary!
We landed in Phuket around 11pm and our hostel was only a 10-minute walk from the airport, which saved us a little money on transportation. Our hostel was lovely and a perfect first accommodation (outside of Carlos and Rosanna's home). Hostels aren't common in the USA, but they are very popular in this part of the world. They're a great way to travel affordably and meet other travelers along the way. I know the thought of sharing a room with strangers sounds strange, but it's really not at all! Out of all the hostels I've stayed in, I've never once had a weird experience. Just be sure to pack ear plugs, an eye mask, and a lock. The next morning we enjoyed a free breakfast, went for a swim in the pool and then walked to the beaches of Sirinat National Park. During this walk, we accidentally made a wrong turn and had the only scary experience in Thailand thus far... we were approached by 5 aggressive dogs who were not happy about our presence. We walked as fast as we could without ever looking back while the dogs escorted us out, viciously barking the whole time. In scary situations with animals, I've learned that it's best to not show fear and avoid eye contact. After our encounter, we went for a much needed swim! Swimming in a warm sea in January was surreal and so healing.
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| Our hostel beds- I always seek out hostels that have curtains like this. |
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| Hostel pool |
Then it was time for us to head towards the part of the island where the festival was taking place! We took a Grab (SE Asia's version of Uber) to the Bang Tao area and checked into our Airbnb. We had to splurge a bit on our accommodation because options were super limited considering we booked it one month before the festival. But it was really nice to have an entire home equipped with a kitchen. We took advantage of this and made breakfast both mornings. All of this pictured here cost $1.42, which means our breakfast was less than $1 each:
We got ready for night #1 of the festival and walked about 1.5 miles through some of the craziest traffic I've ever navigated. A maze of cars, motorbikes, and pedestrians all trying to get to the same place on the same 2-lane road. It was a game of real life frogger and reminded me a lot of a normal day in India. I just looked up the attendance of EDC and was shocked to see the number was 300,000 people! This explains a lot as far as our struggles finding somewhere to stay and all the traffic chaos. On day 2 and 3, we got a ride from motorbike taxi drivers, which was honestly a highlight of the entire weekend. There is something invigorating about cramming 3 adults on a motorbike and weaving through gridlock traffic. I felt like a happy dog sticking my head out the window without a care in the world. I also couldn't help but think about how our moms would not approve of what we were doing... Sorry moms!
The festival itself was incredible! It did not feel like there 300k people whatsoever... They did a really great job staffing plenty of help to manage all of the lines and did really well with the overall layout of the festival. The coolest part was raving with people from all around the world. We saw dozens of flags and heard so many different languages being spoken. Even though all 300,000 people came from different cultures, backgrounds, etc., we were all there for the same reason: to dance and sing and have a good time. If you've never been to an EDM event, there is something known as "PLUR," which stands for peace, love, unity, respect, and that is the overall vibe of the EDM space. It's a safe place where all are welcome and everyone looks out for one another. It's a beautiful thing and I am happy to report that EDC Thailand was full of "PLUR." At one point during Illenium, my favorite DJ's set, I randomly felt like I was going to pass out. I popped a squat in a sea of people (safely up against a barrier to prevent getting stepped on) and within seconds 3 girls were fanning me. Their kind gesture healed me and solidified why I love the EDM culture so much.
It's always hard for me to pick out favorite sets because every set is different and special in its own way, but I'm going to try:
1) Subtronics. I actually just saw him play in Philly in December because one of my good friends, Clay (DJ name CrayVo) opened for him, which was a huge deal! It was so cool to see a DJ I've loved and followed for years play at such a big festival abroad.
2) Skrillex. This was our first main stage set and it did not disappoint. Seeing Skrillex live is an experience every EDM-lover needs to add to their bucket list. Here is a snippet of Skrillex's set I found on YouTube. It'll give you a taste of what an EDC festival is like: Skrillex set
3) Illenium. He's my favorite DJ to see live and the only reason he's not #1 on this list is because my body failed me during his set. I don't know what happened but if I had to guess, the jet lag and exhaustion hit me all at once during the most inconvenient time.
Honorable mention to Levity who covered for Rezz who couldn't make it. Also to The Chainsmokers who closed the festival and were SO much fun! I also wanted to mention that a huge part of EDC festivals are the fireworks... they put on a magical firework show every night and call it the "electric sky." I've never seen anything like it! They also have carnival rides that are included with your ticket (at least they were in Thailand) and I highly recommend taking a ferris wheel ride because the view of all the stages and action from the top was surreal.
The festival took place in the evening so we got to explore a different beach every day. The first day we explored the beaches of Sirinat National Park that I already mentioned. While here we went to Nai Yang Beach, which is located directly next to the Phuket airport. People seek out this beach to experience the thrill of planes flying directly over your head right before they land. I can confirm that this is quite the thrill!
The next day we walked to the beach near our Airbnb: Bang Tao Beach. This beach had a strip of restaurants and shops that reminded me a lot of the Virginia Beach oceanfront.
On the last full day, we took a motorbike taxi to Surin Beach, which was the most pristine of the 3 in my opinion. This beach had a strip of vendors along the edge of the beach with really cheap food and drinks. I got some grilled prawns (what they call shrimp here) and Atticus got a mango smoothie. We were watching the sunset talking about how dreamy our life felt and a few moments later, a European tapped me on the shoulder and politely said "excuse me" then proceeded to show me a sweet photo he had taken of us with the sunset. I couldn't believe his timing. He Airdropped it to me:
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| Surin Beach vendors |
After the 3-day festival, we woke up extremely worn out. At this point we were still recovering from jet lag and had just walked at least 10 miles a day for 3 days straight. We had plans to catch a ferry to our next destination, Phi Phi Islands, at 1:30pm. The port was about an hour away and we thought leaving by noon would give us plenty of time. We did not think about the other 300,000 people also trying to leave the island that same day. Traffic was insane and it was clear that we didn't plan accordingly. We called a Grab but she had to cancel because the traffic was too thick for her to reach us. Every taxi that passed us was already occupied. Time was ticking and our chances of making our ferry were getting slimmer and slimmer. Finally we flagged down a motorbike taxi with a sidecar. The sidecar was essential since we had our bags. We showed the driver where we needed to go and he told us it was too far. We pleaded with him and he agreed to do it for 1,000 Baht (converts to $30) and he said we needed to go to his house to switch into his family car. He literally took us to his house and I couldn't help but think about how I would never in a million years find myself in this situation back home, but in Thailand it felt so normal. Everything here feels so much more laidback than the USA. Unfortunately we missed our ferry by 20 minutes but luckily, we were able to catch the next one a couple hours later.
If you made it this far, thanks for being here! I am so behind on these blog posts because I've been so busy, so tired, and sick pretty much the whole trip. But I have 7 drafts started so there are a lot of posts that will come eventually :)
Links to accommodations:
Also shoutout to Atticus for taking most of these photos :)
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