Lady Boys

I saw my first thai lady boy in person tonight.  Well, I saw three of them, one after another.  We're in Chaweng now, which is a larger city on Ko Samui.  We came here for the weekend to experience the night life a bit, and to see a different part of the Island.  Here is what you might picture when you think of going out to bars and dancing all night in Thailand.  The Bandara and the Bo Phut fishing village were sleepy hideaway havens compared to Chaweng.  Our suite is on the second floor and the window overlooks the main drag.  I can look out the window and see a posh outdoor dining patio with white interior and lush green foliage flanking the exterior.

The lady boys were passing out fliers on the street for a cabaret show called Starz Cabaret.  They were dressed in strapless dresses, high heals, tons of makeup, the works.  I knew right away what I was looking at because no one wears that much makeup on this island.  Other than that though, they are pretty convincing as ladies.

Funny references to lady boys so far on this trip:

• Dax's alternating purple and silver toe nails have now been commented on by the massage therapists at all three places we've been to, and 2 of them joked that he was a lady boy.  
• When we went to see an elephant show, the announcer asked the audience if we knew how many kinds of elephants there are.  We knew the answer was two: African and Asian/Indian, but she said, no, there's three: male, female, and lady boy.  Wow, haha.  It's definitely a thing here.  

On a completely unrelated note, we went on a speed boat trip through the Ank Thong national marine reserve today.  It's an archipelago of 42 islands off the cost of Ko Samui and Ko Phangan.  The islands are mostly made of jutting limestone and few have beaches.  We went snorkeling just off of the northern-most island.  Then we made our way south to another island where we pulled up to the shore, enjoyed coconuts, then climbed some extremely steep stairs to get to a view point and then down to a lagoon and back up again.  The stairs were basically metal ladders with a slight incline.  Something like this would never fly in the states.  

Next stop was lunch on one of the larger islands in the marine reserve.  I believe it's the only one where people are allowed to live, because there was a small fishing village, a restaurant, and a bar.  We had delicious thai food, of course, and then walked around the island a bit.  We saw a monkey chained to a post in what was possibly someone's front yard.  We also saw a litter of feral puppies that had not been trained not to bite, so we got out of that situation pretty fast.  Rabies anyone? 

After leaving the fishing village, we docked on a nearby island's beach and got in sea kayaks for a short treck around a different island.  Dax and I were adventurers today!

You've read this far, so you get a reward.  The reward is a tip on where you can find excellent mexican food on Ko Samui... are you ready for this?  We were!  It's called Gringos and it's in Chaweng.  It's down an ally off the main drag, so look for signs to Kabuki Tattoo and the Thai Massage School.  It'll be on you're right, you can't miss it.  Nor will you want to.  How about some super veggie nachos, a burrito, and some fish tacos?  Si por favor!!! 

Life is good. :)