Lady Boy

Thailand is the capitol of the world for a few things other than Human Trafficking; one of those is gender change surgery. They advertize it right on the outside of clinics everywhere. They have a lot of men here who want to be women, and they are extremely confident, walking around in high heels, growing their hair long or wearing wigs and tight dresses all max factored out (term I learned from the Brits here).  At the food festival the other night there was one performing onstage singing and dancing, after I left the other farongs told me that a few people went up and danced on the stage with the entertainment, and one man thought it was his girlfriend kissing his cheek in the crowd, only to find out later through a photograph that it was indeed a lady boy. Hilarious, but sad at the same time.

Today I was riding into town on a songtaew to catch a motorcycle taxi with a few students from my school when we saw one standing on the bridge in tight black booty shorts and bright pink lipstick. Standing there with nothing to do but smile and wave as if it were a parade. With a hand on his hip he winked and blew kisses. The boys that were in the songtaew with me exchanged glances of embarrassment, looking at me as if they hoped I didn’t see it.