And another Worldpackers volunteer. After volunteering in Ban Na, Surat Thani for quite a while, among a tranquil and peaceful area very depleted of foreigners, I decided to go exactly for the opposite haha Koh Phangan and the full moon party. Yes, I can do it all! I can enjoy parties, silence, empty, and crowded, I enjoy the world, most of all.
I was willing to volunteer in Thailand in a more sociable and crowded environment and have a type of experience I didn’t have before. My previous volunteerings were pretty chill.
I was in Koh Phangan before, but I didn’t explore the island even a bit. The island is easily accessible from Surat Thani, therefore a good option for me. I went for exactly the opposite of what I was doing in Ban Na and I also enjoyed it.
Volunteer in Koh Phangan
I ended up volunteering in a party hostel that revolves around the Full Moon party itself. I stayed there for 10 days and this was such a fun volunteering experience haha. Was actually awesome for me because it gave me so much free time to explore the island. It was perfect.
To find this volunteer in Thailand opportunity I searched Worldpackers volunteer where you can do the same. And there I went on my journey back to Koh Phangan 5 years later. I also have been to the full moon party in 2018 and I didn’t enjoy it that much so I was willing to give it another chance.
During these 10 days on the island, I basically worked 5. This place is a good volunteer experience if you are willing to meet people, are social, and want to explore the island because it will guarantee a lot of free time. I arrived in Koh Phangan several days before the party. If you volunteer in this place you must be there when the full moon party happens otherwise it makes no sense to volunteer there.
Daily tasks
The workload here was easy. We, 11 volunteers, yes you read it ELEVEN, work for 5 days and the rest is pretty much free time. When I arrived the hostel was completely empty. No guests at all!!! I was confused haha I didn’t have a thing to do the first days!
This hostel lives for the parties 100%. If you decide to stay in this hostel several days before or after the full moon party you might end up having the whole hostel for yourself, which is actually pretty cool if you want a place to chill because there is also a swimming pool and you would have a whole hostel for yourself. Sounds good to me! Like I said I can handle 8 and 80. This hostel goes from 0 guests to more than 100 guests during approximately 3 days or so, the days near the iconic party.
It’s crazy!! The hostel I chose for this Worldpackers volunteer is: WET- a pool party.
So the volunteers work those 4/5 days when the guests start arriving and leaving. We have a schedule to follow and it is a full-day schedule. Usually, you don’t work so many hours a day while volunteering, but then you end up having days and days in a row without doing a thing, so it makes up for the previous hard work, and it makes sense.
We had several tasks to do a day. They would vary between receiving guests and taking them to their rooms. Socialize with them in the pool/bar area, play games, create a social atmosphere, involve the guests, make sure they are enjoying, and also promote the parties by distributing fliers around the area or at the pier because we sell tickets for the parties that precede and follow the Full Moon party. Basically, it is something like 5 days in a row with several parties taking place on Koh Phangan: OXA beach, waterfall party, jungle experience, and a few more but these ones are the best. It’s too many parties in a row for me haha even though as volunteers at the hostel we would have free entry to some of them. I couldn’t cope haha. I went to 2 parties in a row and that was it. I’m in my 30’s I can’t party like a youngster anymore haha
Those were literally the tasks during this Worldpackers volunteer in Thailand! Yes, that’s it. Most of all, the whole experience is very chilled, just the reception hours would require more commitment but the rest of the time is basically spent at the bar and swimming pool enjoying the vibe. As we were 11 volunteers it was pretty cool because there was always someone else “working” together. If I knew this Worldpackers volunteer was like this I would have stayed longer. And I would have had time to explore the island even more. Even if I wanted I couldn’t stay because my visa was about to expire and I had extended it before.
Worldpackers volunteer Free time
Even though we were 11 volunteers, we didn’t do that much together. I didn’t explore the island with any of the volunteers for example, and that was something I was expecting to happen. I was also expecting the crowd to be party people in their early 20s. I wasn’t wrong haha but I get easily along with any age group basically. There were some older people too, but overall, this hostel is a party hostel filled with very young people. It is very sociable and if you want to meet people this is the spot.
I ended up having a lot of free time that I used to explore the island. I visited several viewpoints, did jungle hikes, and rode a motorbike to explore further beaches too. You can read all in the previous articles.
Koh Phangan parties
As volunteers at WET- a party hostel, we had free entry tickets for some of the parties, one of them was the Jungle experience which all the volunteers attended for free. We only had to pay for the taxi to come back to the hostel, which was fine. The ticket to get to this party is 1300BH so I ended up saving that amount. I don’t think I would have paid that to go to the party.
There were tons of people gathered at the hostel before the jungle party DAMN. So many people!!! This is the spot to meet others before going to the party, I’m telling you. The taxis, aka Songthaew, were leaving from the hostel to the party location and people at the hostel had kind of a pre-party before the party. WET hostel does a really good job selling tickets to the parties. Usually, customers get a free drink at the hostel bar if they buy the tickets through us, which leads to a lot of crowds hanging around.
For the full moon party, the hostel was also bustling with people hanging out and meeting before heading to the beach. The hostel is literally a few minutes walk from the beach and is a great option for the one attending the party as walking back home is easy peasy. The hostel gets fully booked during the party and is way more expensive than usual too. After the party, the prices go back to normal. We offered free neon body paints and people were making their little body art around the bar and pool. I’m afraid some people didn’t even make it to the party itself haha
You can read more about my experience at these parties HERE!
Anyway, this Worldpackers volunteer was fun. We had free accommodation and that’s it. We had to pay for our meals and food options around this area aren’t the cheapest honestly. All volunteers were sleeping in the same dorm. We basically had a dorm for volunteers which was nice too. We had free tickets to parties and free drinks many times at the hostel bar and that was it. No free ticket to the full moon party though. Volunteers were: 1 Portugal, 1 Equador, 2 Chile, 2 Turkey, 1 British and 4 Americans. There was supposed to be one more that never showed up.
This Worldpackers volunteer was definitely something new to me, but I like to experience new stuff. I actually ended up enjoying my time very much and this stay in Koh Phangan was much better than I was expecting. Volunteering keeps being one of my favorite things to do while traveling.
*my phone was stolen so I don’t have more pictures of this experience unfortunately
