Koh Tao Pub Crawl

We flew from Chiang Mai to the island of Koh Samui, and from there took a ferry to a smaller island called Koh Tao.  In Thai, koh means "island" and tao means "turtle"; several species of turtle come to the island's beaches to breed.

Here is a view around the harbor near Sairee Beach.  The island's primary industries are tourism and fishing.

Here is a view of the island from the ferry.  Very green and tropical.

We came here mostly for scuba diving.  We did four dives over the course of two days, and saw some interesting corals and fish as well as giant clams.  But of course we left our underwater housing for our camera at home, so there are no photos.  We do, however, have photos of a pub crawl we did on our last night.  After dinner in town, we made our way back to our hotel bar which had a DJ playing techno music for a mostly empty room.

My Mai Tai came in a glass shaped like a woman.

After a couple of fruity drinks, we headed to Lotus beach bar.  It is right on the ocean, and has mats on the beach where patrons can lounge while sipping cocktails.

It was a very comfortable place to sit and watch the three firedancers who started performing around 9 o'clock.

They would dip either batons or poi (a wick on a chain) into a large container of kerosene and then light it and begin twirling.  In a little while, the whole place smelled like diesel.  



At times they came awfully close to the people sitting down, but they seemed to know what they were doing.

We were mesmerized for at least two hours, but they showed no signs of stopping.

But finally we had to tear ourselves away so we could head to the last bar on our itinerary, the Queen's Cabaret. 

The cabaret show had started several hours earlier, but we arrived just as they were lip-synching to "It's Raining Men".



I think it must be a requirement for these shows to include at least one version of "Lady Marmalade".  This "lady" was clearly channeling the Christina Aguilera version.



The "singer" for Aqua's "Barbie Girl" was very pretty...



But not nearly as sparkly as the "lady" performing the Abba medley.



Afterwards the performers came around and took photos.  I'm not sure who's face is scarier -- mine with no makeup or "hers" with so much makeup!