No, I am not using the word “Queen” in a derogatory sense. The Simon Cabaret in Phuket is generally considered one of the Top Ten activities in Phuket, at least for older visitors (not recommended for children), and the costumes worn by the kathoeys are quite spectacular.

The Simon Cabaret itself, while located in Patong, is a little ways out from the main drag around Soi Bang La. If you’re going to catch the show, your hotel can arrange for pickup and transfer to/from the show; you can also catch a taxi or tuk-tuk to get to the show that you will have to negotiate a price with the driver. Depending on location, a tuk-tuk will probably cost at least 150 baht up, whereas a taxi driver will probably be at least 300 baht (taxis are not cheap in Phuket, and you can pretty much forget about any of them using the meter).

I would consider catching the first showing at Simon Cabaret, which will give you time to get back to Soi Bang La for a night of partying. You will also see most of the performers from the show later in the night dancing around Soi Kathoey.

Koh Yao Yai (and neighboring Koh Yao Noi) are islands that are reachable within about 45 minutes from the island of Phuket. The island lifestyle is probably very much like other parts of Thailand were 20 years ago, with just a bunch of relaxed villagers getting by on just a little bit of money and living off of the sea. Things have changed a little bit these days, largely due to the recent addition of some luxury resorts, but you definitely won’t find the craziness of Phuket on the island.

As you can see from this picture, it is almost possible to walk between the islands during low tide. Given that I am not the greatest swimmer, however, I decided not to chance it.

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Many of the tourists that go to Phuket go there because there are some world-class spots (Similan Islands, Koh Surin & Koh Phi Phi) to go diving and snorkeling around there. If you’re doing a short trip to Phuket, or traveling with family and small kids, the good news is that there are tons of little day tours around Phuket that you can take to smaller islands. My lovely wife and I took a half-day trip to some of the smaller islands around Phuket, including Khai Nok, to simply check some fish out.

Some of the islands are only fifteen minutes from Phuket, which makes for a great half-day tour if you’re on a quick jaunt.

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Nai Yang Beach is the beach closest to the Phuket Airport, which you will fly over when you land in Phuket. A couple of really cool things about Nai Yang Beach:

1. Not nearly as crowded as the beaches in Patong.

2. There are a number of decent restaurants along the beach (my wife recently told me that this may not be the case now, however, because some of the locals may have had some conflicts with the local government).

3 You can go snorkeling at Koh Wei, located only about twenty minutes off-shore by long-tail boat, and check some tropical fish out.

4. The Beach Club is a really chill place to party or just hang out. The Beach Club is pretty slow during slow season, so you can expect to have the place almost all to yourself in the early evening hours.

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The Simon Cabaret in Phuket, Thailand is a “must see” show if you are visiting Phuket (I probably wouldn’t recommend the show for those traveling with small children).

Most of the performers in the show are Kathoey, or also affectionately known as “ladyboys“. You will often see many of the performers in the show at “Soi Kathoey” later in the night if you’re strolling down Soi Bangla in Patong (and many of the drunk tourists actually mistake them for being originally born as a woman).

These fish obviously aren’t carp (koi). But I thought I could attempt a clever play (or moderately clever) on the term for the medical problem of carpal tunnel syndrome.

This particular photo was taken without using any software to create the focal zoom effect. I did it the old-fashioned way, which included dropping the shutter speed down  & manually zooming the lenss back & forth to create the blurring movement The only editing I really did  after the fact was with Picnik, which included using the “auto fix” feature & then dropping the exposure down a little & boosting the contrast up slightly.

Fantasea is one of the better tourist attractions to see while vacationing in Phuket (see a fire long-exposure picture from a previous entry). If you’re looking for another tourist attraction besides Fantasea, the Simon Cabaret is another one of the shows you should see while in Phuket.

The nice thing about Fantasea is that you can have a picture taken with a baby tiger (yes, I realize that there are bad things about this practice as well).

I play around with long exposure shots at times to see what happens with the shot. I haven’t been brave enough to try a camera toss yet, and something tells me that my clumsiness won’t let me even consider it.

Fantasea is a Thai cultural show, similar to Cirque Du Soleil, that has an awesome ending with about twelve elephants. The good thing is that the park opens a few hours before the show, which means you can grab dinner, shop & see a few other small performances first.