The Queen’s Cabaret and The Hardest Day

The first night in Ko Tao

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. There is probably not a better opening line to a story than that. And it is perfect for my adventure in Ko Tao, Thailand.

The Best: After spending about two weeks on my own it was time to meet back up with my travel buddy, Laura. YEAH!! I realized that although I enjoyed being on my own. It is just a bit more fun when you have someone to share in all those best and worst moments of your journey. We had a happy reunion followed by plans going all wrong but in the end we were standing in island paradise off the eastern coast of Thailand. Does life get much better? Now Ko Tao is one of the more popular tourist places but when we arrived it was practically empty. Finding a little bungalow with a hammock and a view was a piece of cake and quite cheap. The days were filled by relaxing, scuba diving (only me), reading, and exploring the island. The nights were taken up by movies on the beach and the several trips to the Queen’s Cabaret.

I could not agree more

Having earned my scuba diving license about a year ago I thought it was time to put it to good use. I took a quick refresher course and I was ready to go. With the tank strapped on my back I plunged into the clear blue depths of some of the most beautiful and diverse coral reefs in the world. I saw a family of nemo fish with a mom, dad and baby, a sea turtle, many blue spotted manta rays, and even an eel. Not to mention the hundreds of brightly colored fish. There was a sea snake somewhere around but thank heavens I did not see it. You see I have this small fear of snakes and if I had come face to face with one in the water, well lets just say I would have peed my wetsuit. I completed four dives in all and loved every minute of it.

The Queen's Cabaret

The other great activity on the island is a little bit of a kept secret that most do not know about. It was Laura who first discovered the little gem of the Queen’s Cabaret. How to describe it? Think drag queens meet vegas show girl performance. It was great!! All of these beautiful “women” dancing and singing to anything from Lady Gaga and Celine Dion to Whitney Houston and Brittney Spears. We ended up being repeat customers and sat in the front row every night. The best part- totally free. We even were able to get our picture taken with them.

One of many stunning moments

On to The Worst: It all started with a map, a snorkel, and not nearly enough time or water. We had heard that some of the best snorkeling was in a bay on the other side of the island. So one afternoon after having glanced at a map which showed a small winding road through the valley, we set off for a leisurely walk to the other side of Ko Tao. Little did we know that it was going to be the hardest day of the entire trip. First the map was just a bit off, instead of going around the mountain the path went to the highest peak on the island. It was a slow steady climb to the top but it ended up being a spectacular view. To go snorkeling we had to go all the way back down to sea level. Well there was no messing around with all of that gradual slope and switch backs. We went down and by down I mean straight down where if we had misstepped we would have been at the sea much quicker.

View from the top. I made it!

By this point we had used most of our water and all of our energy but no worries we had a plan. We thought, after snorkeling we would simply catch a boat taxi back to the other side. Ha ha ha ha HA! Since everything in the bay was closed for renovations there was no boat taxis. I guess we will just have to borrow a workers cell phone and get someone to come get us….NOPE! No cell service. Walk around the coast line you say? Sheer jagged rock the whole way. Perspective time: it’s 4:30 in the afternoon with only about an hour and a half of daylight left, we have half a bottle of water each, and we have just figured out we have to go back over the mountain that rises 1200ft. in less than a half mile. SERIOUSLY?!?!?! I did not even get in the water. At the time I’m thinking there is no way I’m going to be able to do this. But somehow from somewhere we summoned the strength to start climbing. I put my head down and put one foot in front of the other. If I looked up to where I had to go I would not have made it. Knowing that there was water at the top was also a great motivator. Did I mention it’s about 96 degrees and probably as much humidity? We finally arrived back at the top looking like drowned rats.

After making it back to the top

The walk down gave us some time to reflect on the day and the only thing that we could say was “And the think we wanted to climb Mt. Everest.” We laughed the whole way down.