A Frighteningly Good Time: Halloween on Koh Tao

Koh Samui, Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pai, Chiang Mai, and Bangkok again — I’d been all over Thailand in just a few weeks. It was time to go home.

This pier always makes my heart swell. Photos by Heather Holt.

Returning back to Koh Tao post-Yi Peng wasn’t in my original plan. But once I fell back in love with life there, I simply couldn’t imagine spending two of my favorite days of the year — Halloween and my birthday — anywhere else. I’m sorry, did a grown ass woman just cite her birthday as one of her favorite days of the year? Yes, she did. I mean, come on. What’s your favorite day of the year? Groundhog Day?

Anyway, tangent complete. Another reason I was so excited to return to Koh Tao was to show my partner-in-crime Heather around. Despite years spent living next door on Koh Pha Ngan, she’s never spent more than a day on little Tao! I was so pumped to give her a proper introduction. And it didn’t hurt that our first night back was a day we both treat with almost religious reverence: Halloween.

So basically, yes, this post is more or less a photo essay of me and my girls’ badass Dia De Los Muertos getups. And if you knew what lengths we went to to construct these ensembles, you wouldn’t blame me for wanting to show them off. Facepaint is shockingly difficult to track down in Thailand — what I would have given for a few hours to teleport to any one of NYC’s all-year-round over the top costume shops.

Now, considering how time and labor intensive these costumes were, you can imagine my shock when almost every other face I drove by on Koh Tao that night was Day of the Dead inspired. What the what? Inspired by a Lilly Wood video that I had on repeat for much of 2014, I thought I was being painfully original. I was going up to everyone all night like, um, are you a Lilly Wood fan too?! Share your source of creative inspiration immediately!

This is why I need chaperones for social gatherings.

And I mean like, I guess other people had cool costumes too.

Not bad for a teeny tiny little island in the middle of the Gulf of Thailand, eh? Oh and let’s not even talk about how clear this post makes it that I’ve fallen devastatingly behind real time in my blogging. Deal? Deal.

As usual, our night started at Banyan Bar — those orange background photos that look so fly up there were actually taken in the bathroom steps away from the urinal. The magic of photography.

Also as usual, we soon progressed down the beach to Maya Bar, where fellow Halloween enthusiast and bar manager Wendi had worked some serious magic turning the place into a creepy wonderland.

I couldn’t have been more thrilled with my decision to return to Koh Tao in time for one of this costume-obsessed island’s best nights of the year. And I’m looking forward to spending Halloween 2015 in the exact same way! Only difference? This time I’m bringing my costume from home.