Lady Boys Sure Can Dance!

Last night my new friend and hostel-mate Jo and I went out for dinner and some drinks. We stopped off at this little restaurant near our bungalow hotel where the prices are half of the other restaurants and the food so tasty! I ordered the green papaya salad, medium spicy, and it was DELICIOUS! Oh, I couldn't feel my face halfway through and I was breathing fire while feeling an odd mild euphoria wash over me, but it was wonderful. I thought of my dad and how much he would have loved that salad. The lovely cook and wait staff both laughed with me at how my body was trying to cope with the spice but were also kindly worried and a bit perplexed. "I only put two chilies in!" said the sweet woman who prepared our food. Yeah two fiery hot Thai chilies in a dish that could fit in two cups! But still, I told her, through watering eyes and running nose, that it tasted incredible, because it did. 

After dinner we wandered around in search of a cold beer or two and came across some elaborately dressed Lady Boys advertising for a "free" cabaret show. I put free in quotations here not because they charged for the show but because it was required that you purchase a drink and the drinks started at $150 baht for a small Chang beer. Still it turned out to be well worth it. For those reading who haven't yet guessed what a Lady Boy might be, they are essentially Thai drag queens, however they are notoriously the most unbelievable (or rather believable) drag queens on the planet. The Thai Lady Boys look so much like women and do such an incredible job exuding the presence and mannerisms of a woman (not to mention disguising their loins so well it has you peering, squinty-eyed, searching for the missing bump) that it is sometimes easy to forget that in fact you are witnessing a male drag queen.

The show, as it turns out, was just wonderful! Very much worth the inflated price of beer. Some of those women, I mean men, Lady Boys rather, are so damn sexy! There were a particular few that "sang" (really they mouthed the words, sometimes rather well, sometimes not so well) with such passion! And they danced with such rhythm and sway it made you want to jump up and dance with them. There were so many acts one right after another that it nearly made you dizzy. Their cast wasn't that large so these characters were doing costume changes in mere minutes from one incredibly elaborate costume to another. Quite a feat. Also how tiring it must have been to be dancing your heart out every 5 minutes as your next number came around, and then your next and your next and so on. . . Both Jo and I were so impressed! I'm so happy she insisted we go see it. I was put off by the beer price but how right she was!! It is not everyday that you get to see a Lady Boy Cabaret show in Thailand.

After the show we realized we were really in the mood to dance. So we wandered the heavily touristed streets of Chaweng Beach, Ko Samui, in search of some good beats to get loose. We found such a place and let it rip! Ohh it felt so good to just DANCE. Funny thing, I was wearing a shirt given to me by the lovely goddess woman Reida, which has printed across the chest: Just DANCE! Quite appropriate. The whole night just got me buzzing again to chase an education and perhaps a career in dance, performing and teaching. So thanks Lady Boys of Ko Samui. Your spirit rocked me and gave me renewed inspiration to dance. Just without so many sequins, nipple slips, and high heels.