the third sex

There is a park along Sukhumvit Road that I like using for photographs. It has traditional Thai gazebos, modern sculptures, overhanging trees, exotic tropical blooms, dramatic water fountains and a lake. Add in a backdrop of local people, gardeners in straw hats, and a large colony of pigeons, and you have a varied and satisfying setting for your ladyboys.

Ideally, however, you should take only one at a time. Nobody pays much attention to a Westerner taking photographs of what they assume is his girlfriend. A gaggle of ladyboys is however something else. Everyone stares.

A ladyboy out on her own usually becomes very demure. I have walked through this park with Talisha, who of course is big, buxom and blond, and she has attracted looks of admiration: she in fact looked like a Scandinavian or German tourist. Others such as Ton and Lela have likewise been perfect companions, sweet company and beautiful to photograph.

The other day however I took a walk through the park with four ladyboys: and when you have a group they tend to reach a critical mass. The only way to survive a session like this is to assume a “There is nothing strange in this, I do it all the time” expression. And of course to don your invisible anti-embarrassment shield.

This particular day was a Saturday, and also a public holiday, so the park was unusually full. We must have made a very entertaining spectacle for those laying on the grass, sitting gazing from the benches, or strolling under the trees. And my four sweet little friends did their very best to entertain.

I tried not to blush when one of them did something unmentionable to a rather phallic gatepost. I thought it was a little unnecessary for another to sexually abuse the rocking horse in the playground. It was very nice for me when one flashed her knickers at the camera, and I only hope the passers-by enjoyed the spectacle too.

I watched helplessly as one of our number became bogged down by her high heels in a muddy patch next to the lake, much to the amusement of a group of youths who were sprawled on the grass with a couple of guitars. In a gazebo overlooking the lake there were a number of old men slumbering on the benches, and I felt sorry for them as we burst in with a storm of chatter and giggling, as it couldnít have been easy on their hangovers. I even felt a bit sorry for the pigeons, who fled in panic.

We wended our way around the lake. One girl, who was wearing low-cut jeans, decided to flash her bottom at me. Another fellated a hosepipe, much to the consternation of the gardener. Someone masturbated the drinking water fountain. Inevitably, one of our group mounted the bobble-topped fencepost next to the ornamental pond and rode it with a lascivious expression. And they ALL piled into the ladies loo, leaving me lurking outside like a pervert, listening to the squeals coming from inside.

In the end I got my pictures and we headed outside for a taxi. When I looked at the pix on my computer they had actually come out very well. It had been worth the ordeal. But I think in future Iíll stick to photographing one ladyboy at a time.

O is one of my all-time favourite people as well as being one of the best models I have ever photographed. She appears on the main site in the Schoolgirl O series, and one of the best sets in my opinion is when I dressed O as a girl scout and took her out into woodland with another ladyboy named Trish for a twosome. The set is not a nudie one, but there is an eroticism to it that derives from the uniforms and the outdoor setting, in addition of course to the beauty of O.

But what a difficulty it is shooting outdoors!

I had taken O to Pattaya, where we met up with Aum, who lives there and whom I had photographed before, and Aum’s friend Trish. I hired a jeep so that we could get out of the city and into the surrounding countryside. We packed the scout costumes into a bag and off we went.

Now, driving through Pattaya in a jeep with three ladyboys is an experience in itself, but the girls were very demure and well behaved, and as they looked very feminine we didn’t attract much attention. I only mention this because I have driven in a jeep through the city with other ladyboys in the past and such has been the attention they have generated that all I could do was sit behind the wheel with what I hoped was a “there is nothing odd about this at all, I do it all the time” _expression and hope the tomato-red of my face would be taken as sun-tan.

But I digress.

With O sitting next to me and Aum and Trish in the back, we left the city limits on the main highway and began to explore the countryside, looking for somewhere quiet. This proved to be extremely difficult. Far more so than I thought it would. Each time we turned into a quiet lane we found ourselves cruising through a village, or pulling up in a farmyard, or entering a building site. On and on we drove, and I was getting uneasy. A photoshoot is not going to work if the models are tired and fed-up, and besides that the jeep was an old one, fine for rattling around Pattaya City but not a vehicle to rely on too much in remote countryside.

Eventually we found a quiet dirt track with no houses anywhere near, and with some decent woodland. Beyond were deserted fields. I pulled the jeep off the road. O and Trish began to get changed into their scout uniforms, with Aum acting as wardrobe mistress and makeup artist. The girls looked fantastic. Aum stayed in the jeep as lookout while I went with O and Trish into the woodland.

We began the shoot and it was working well. I had it mapped out in my mind what to do, and I was getting what I wanted. But we were all uneasy. The countryside seemed full of eyes. Labourers going past in a truck, a couple of motorcycles, somebody calling in the distance. Another car went past, and we stopped shooting for a while. Then we started again. The girls had dropped their pants and were getting into the sticky part. I was holding my breath, hoping that nothing would go wrong in these last critical moments. Then Trish let out a big sigh, and more, and I had my set.

At that moment a pickup truck hove into view. There was only one point in the lane from which we could be seen and it parked there, watching us. The girls were fully clothed but clearly this wasn’t a scout camp, and I am no scoutmaster. We got back into the jeep with as much dignity as we could muster, I revved the old engine and we rolled away in a cloud of dust.

The other day I was in a five-star hotel in Bangkok, attending a function, when I realised that two of the hotel girls taking care of the guests in the meeting room were in fact ladyboys.

Most of the guests were from overseas and quite possibly unaware of the ladyboy phenomenon, and I amused myself for a while trying to picture their reaction if they discovered what was under those neat hotel uniforms.

The two ladyboys themselves were behaving in a very demure manner, and it was only my enhanced ladyboy vision that picked them out. I watched them, and they knew that I knew, but nothing apart from some inviting sideways glances came out of the encounter.

But I did get to thinking how ladyboys are moving more and more into the mainstream. Pictured on the main site are many students, and they are not all studying beauty and fashion, two of the traditional industries in which mainstream ladyboys make a living. Some are studying marketing, travel and hospitality, accounting, business administration, and other subjects that for want of a better word can be described as totally straight.

1This means that when they leave college or university, they will be well qualified to find mainstream jobs, and embark upon the kind of well-paid, well-respected career that is increasingly open to young Thais, as the country’s economy develops.

The other day I was in the back office of another five-star hotel, and found a ladyboy holding a job of considerable responsibility in the management team. I went into a bank a week or so ago, and one of the tellers was a ladyboy.

I recently saw a ladyboy as a sales agent in a real estate company, and I have seen ladyboy tour guides and travel agent counter staff. I have a ladyboy friend who teaches dance and drama at a junior school, and another who is greatly enjoying her career with one of the big IT distributors. She was offered the job when she left uni, and her employers obviously think well of her, because they fly her around Thailand to deal with corporate customers on a face-to-face basis.

In other words, the acceptance is growing. A few years ago, the idea of a ladyboy holding a job in which she dealt with the public on a regular basis would have been a bit far-fetched.

This is all very heartening. Of course, there is no reason at all why a person of the third sex should not have a satisfying and well respected career. Only prejudice. But with the increasing number of ladyboys in Thailand, and the fact that so many of them are opting for further education, perhaps it is inevitable.