Party and Hangover in Phuket
Energy drinks are part of the daily landscape of Thailand. Convenience stores always dedicate several fridge shelves to those tiny bottles. Do they work? That might depend on which brand, but mostly that will depend on you. If you are an espresso drinker, that might give you a mild boost; for some, it’s an all-night long kerosene. So if you don’t know these tiny bottles, you might want to memorise some of the names! ‘Energy Drinks’ are used as mixers and party through the whole night, while ‘Hangover Drinks’ are used to make the day after less miserable, better safe than sorry!
Energy Drinks
Energy drinks are very sweet and are often used as a mixer with whatever alcohol you can find. One of the best-known uses of these drinks as mixers is the ‘Thai Bucket’, which is actually a small plastic bucket where an energy drink is mixed with cheap Thai alcohol such as Sang Som or Mekhong, a recipe for massive hangover, sometimes accompanied by temporary memory loss (sounds like a well-known movie, doesn’t it?). But fear not! Someone came up with the answer to your problem; you won’t have to buy expensive alcohol; you just have to get yourself a ‘Hang’!
Hangover Drinks (1, 5, 6, 7)
These are supposed to prevent or cure your hangover. From what we understood, have a ‘Hang Foreplay’ before going to party wild in Patong, a ‘Hang Original’ or ‘Hang Virgin’ during a party and another the day after. You can also buy ‘Wakie’ pills, supposedly helping in the same way.
To be honest, we do drink those, but we wouldn’t bet our lives on their real effectiveness. All I know is: 1) They are part of our pre-party routine, 2) Whatever helps will be welcome!
Depending on where you are from, you probably already know ‘Red Bull’ but not necessarily in its concentrated form. If you are from Japan, you will recognise Lipovitan-D. Most popular in Thailand after Red Bull is probably M-150. All these small bottles are on sale in any convenience stores for more or less 15 baht, but we noticed that Family Mart and 7-11 around Bangla Road were often running out of stock. I guess marketing has been successful!
| Top line from left: 1) Wakie (10 pills for 150Baht) 2) Red Bull (Krating Daeng) 3) Lipovitan-D 4) M-150 (M-Loi Ha Sip) |
_ | Bottom line from Left: 5) Hang Original 6) Hang Foreplay 7) Hang Virgin 8) White Shark (Shalarm) 9) Rang Yer 10) Karabao Daeng 11) Ready |
