Tag: travel tales
The bellgirl
I have just returned from India, where I spent a couple of weeks travelling mainly on the back roads and staying in little local hotels. Early on during the trip I had arrived at a small town and checked into one of the smartest of the hotels, a tiny place designed mainly for travelling sales people, engineers and officials.
Small and local the hotel may have been, but it had a couple of uniformed bellboys. The one who took my bags to my room aroused my curiosity. In the lobby he had seemed an ordinary enough youth: late teens probably, average height, pleasant round face, slightly plump. It was only when he spoke to me in the room that I realised he was in fact a girl.
Or, at least, I am pretty sure he was a girl. The voice was undeniably girl-like, with none of the forced or husky quality that comes with a male attempting to talk like a female. The hands also were feminine. There was no sign of a bust beneath the uniform, but the aura was feminine.
I realised that this very polite young person was a genuine transsexual, and I suddenly realised too how seldom it is that I actually meet one.
There is a great deal of difference in being genuinely transgendered and being a ladyboy. Seldom are Thai ladyboys suffering from a misalignment of genes and chromosomes. If they were, given the enormous numbers of them, I could only say that there is a serious genetic fault running through the Thai nation. The fact is that ladyboys make a specific choice, usually pre-adolesence, and they make their choice for a number of reasons.
So the beautiful, exotic ladyboy that so enthralls the likes of you and I is not a mistake of nature, she is the result of a lifestyle choice.
I do see a number of transgendered girls in Bangkok. Quite a few of them work in the bars as cashiers, and if you visit the Patpong go-go bars you will usually spot them showing customers to their seats or collecting money. I don’t know if any are available: I have never tried, mainly because they look like boys. I have also seen them working as messengers. I remember one publisher friend complaining bitterly that his transgendered messenger “boy” had run off with his female sales manager. I remember one working on the motorcycle taxi rank outside my office, and I have known a couple who drove taxi-meters. A few years back I knew one who drove a number 14 bus, which I used to catch at Siam Square, where I was then living. She was a demon driver, one of the most impressive Bangkok bus drivers I have ever seen.
I would very much like to have had a conversation with my bellboy/bellgirl, but apart from the fact her English appeared very limited it is of course not that easy. In fact she seemed very nervous of me, the only European face in the hotel. I had to check out the next morning and I didn’t see her again.
Posted: May 31st, 2011 under General.
Tags: The ladyboy experience, travel tales
Comments: 2
Latin lovers
My old friend Jodahunta was recounting some of his experiences in the bordellos of South America, where he says the number of those specialising in transsexuals is increasing. I asked him if he would be kind enough to pen a few words for the blog, and this he has done, with relish. Here is his account.
One “burdel”, many “burdeles” (Spanish) = bordel (French), or in English: brothel, whorehouse, cathouse, knocking-shop and endless other terms. They’ve been around for a long time, as you would expect for an essential aspect of the world’s oldest profession. Wikipedia says that they were recorded in Sumeria (wherever that was) 4000 years BC! Most countries have them in one form or another, legal or illegal. In Europe they are legal and regulated in Holland and Germany. Paris had some internationally famous ones. They were called “maisons de tolérance” or “maisons closes” (because the shutters were always closed) but France banned them just after the war for collaborating with the Germans (and getting rich in the process!)
Spain tolerates them. In the UK they are known as massage parlours. They are also legal and regulated in Australia where in Perth a certain Mrs Kenworthy, a distant relative of my late Scottish stepfather, operates one of the largest. Nothing dour about tha wee lassie …
In the US they are illegal except in Nevada, but only in towns with a small population. So none operate legally in Las Vegas…but I still found one! But NOWHERE in the world do they proliferate like in Latin America!!
From towns along the US-Mexican border like Tijuana, Juarez and Nuevo Laredo all the way down to Ushuaia at the tip of Tierra del Fuego there are burdeles in every city, town and even a good many villages!
In Central and South America it is just commonly accepted that a guy can drop into a burdel either alone or with his buddies, at lunchtime, after work or in the evening, have a drink and a fuck or a blowjob, and then go back to work or go home to dinner with wifey and kids, or whatever.
Back in 1993 I met an Argentine Assistant Attorney General in a burdel in Buenos Aires. At the time I was only just starting to learn Spanish but he spoke perfect English. We had drinks, discussed and resolved the world’s problems, partied with some girls and exchanged business cards. We stayed in touch for several years until he retired and I lost track of him.
Burdeles take many forms. The classic version is a saloon or bar where you can sit and have a drink, meet and chat with the girls, and then head off to a room in the back or upstairs and do your thing. Often these are very easy to find in designated areas of cities (ie nightclub/entertainment areas) or on the outskirts of town where at night you just look for the house with all the red lights.
In business and residential areas of cities and in suburbs they tend to be much more discreet, usually operating in apartments or suburban houses. You find them via print ads such as the classified section of newspapers or on the internet. They vary greatly in terms of quality, prices and services. At the high end you are invited into the salon area, offered a drink, meet and chat with the ladies, and can choose from a variety of theme rooms with amenities such as Jacuzzis. Once you have decided what you want to do where and with whom you have a discreet chat with the person in charge, pay your money and off you go. At the low end you are ushered straight into a small bedroom, the ladies are paraded in one by one, you choose the one you want and the time, usually 30 minutes or an hour, then you pay, play and leave.
But what is really special about Latin America is that you can now find “burdeles con traviesas”, or TS bordels. In some you will find both ggirls and tgirls, whereas others are 100 percent transsexual. They are by no means everywhere but you will find them in most major cities like Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, Rio, Caracas, and Bogota. Also in the towns along the US-Mexican border.
Buenos Aires has been one of my favourite playgrounds for nearly 20 years and I found my first TS burdel there in 2002 through the classifieds section in one of Argentina’s leading national dailies. It is still operating and I am now a VIP customer and have my preferred room with a whirlpool bath. I was there just 10 days ago and spent a very pleasant couple of hours with a slim young blonde TS for the princely sum of US$50 + a US$10 tip to the girl.
But there are at least a dozen others I know about, some I have already visited and some still to be tested. And from time to time one will close down and another will open in some other place. Some are open 24/7 with girls working eight-hour shifts. Others open late morning and close around midnight. Usually these places have anywhere from two to six tgirls working at any time and quality and prices vary greatly.
Once you locate the burdel you want to visit from the print ads or the internet you call up and let them know you are coming over and give them your first name. If you have seen someone on a webpage who gets your dick twitching you can find out when she will be there and sometimes make an appointment to meet her at a specific time. Then when you get to the building entrance you call on the interphone and let them know you are there. Normally someone will come down and let you in once they have verified that you don’t look like something out of a Frankenstein movie.
You will then be taken to a room, sometimes offered a drink, then introduced to the ladies present and told about services, times, prices etc. There is no real “obligation to buy”. Not that often, but on one or two occasions, I have just politely said no thanks and left. If you reserved a particular girl you will usually be taken straight to the room where she is waiting for you.
In nearly all cases I have found these places are friendly and with a relaxed atmosphere. If you reserved a girl from her photo on the net but in reality it was somewhat over-Photoshopped and your libido suddenly takes a dive they will try their best to accommodate you with one of the others. And in those places I frequent more regularly I have never felt uncomfortable about having things stolen. But then again I have been to one or two where I had doubts about how often the sheets go the laundry but that’s the same the whole world over.
I have been to places where you get offered a 15-20 minute blowjob for US$10 but might hesitate putting your dick in the mouths of some of the ladies present, and others where you can spend US$75 + a tip for an hour of pleasure in a room with a Jacuzzi with a real stunner who has her own webpage. OK, that’s a lot more than you will pay in Thailand but still a fraction of what you would have to shell out in Europe or in the US for a visit to a tgirl who will probably try to hustle you out in less than half the time!
The average age of the tgirls I have encountered in these burdeles ranges from around 20 to 30. Thankfully I have never been offered anyone obviously under-age. Although there are some streets in Bs As where young tgirls of around 17-18 can sometimes be seen, I imagine the burdeles don’t want to take any risks in this respect. Most of the tgirls themselves come from the northern (and poorer) areas of Argentina or from Brazil or Uruguay and are ethnically usually of either European or mixed European-Indian (as in South American Indian) origin. Sometimes beautiful “mulatas” from Brazil, Colombia or the Dominican Republic can be found too.
And in case you wondered, all the oral stuff is usually “without” but safe-sex is the norm where anal is concerned, with lube and condoms always provided.
Posted: May 22nd, 2011 under General.
Tags: travel tales
Comments: 4
Shameless in Pattaya
Sargent Shameless has recently unleashed himself upon Pattaya, and left a trail of sore ladyboy bottoms in his wake. Pausing for breath on his return, he penned me his thoughts on the scene there.
A couple of months ago I wrote about the changing go-go bar scene in Bangkok and my main point was that while the numbers and quality of women in the girlie bars are visibly declining from 10 years ago, the opposite holds truth for ladyboys, who are more plentiful and beautiful than ever and may well be the future of the Thai sex industry.
I would now like to share also my updated view on the Pattaya scene. I was there end-2010 and, like in Bangkok, there are more ladyboys than ever. I counted at least 12 all-ladyboy bars (Soi 6 alone has five!) while 10 years ago I knew of only two: Hi! Boss, which I considered Thailand’s top ladyboy bar in terms of raw talent, is now all but defunct with three sorry looking ladyboys hanging around the premises…and Limmatquai–Pattaya’s original all-ladyboy bar off Walking street–which has closed down!
Speaking of Walking Street, it could now aptly be renamed “Ladyboy Street.” Late one night, I counted over 50 ladyboys of all shapes and sizes, including a skinny Russian one that I detected amidst his lady-for-sale compatriots, and scores of cruising freelancing ladyboys can also be seen on Beach Road (the Captain says: The Sargent may be an old hand but you can’t be too careful with street pickups who may rob you in your sleep or worse…).
Also, so many of the beer bars now have several ladyboys mixed in with their lady staff. These ladyboys tend to be the sweeter type, who are afraid to be around rough ladyboys in all-ladyboy environments even if it means far less revenue for them. I have had great luck with such ladyboys.
I also saw a few ladyboys amidst the female staff plying their trade outside Pattaya’s ubiquitous massage parlours. Which means that you no longer have to be in the know (like me!) to know where to get a professional massage (with optional sex) performed by a ladyboy.
Even in nearby Jomtien, better known for the gay action, I spotted far more ladyboys, not to mention feminised boys, than I remembered from previous visits.
In line with this expanding ladyboy trend, Pattaya also has more boy go-go bars, and other sorts of venues for gay activity, than ever. While 10 years ago Boyz Town was a self-contained gay enclave, the action now has spread to the two nearby Pattayaland sois, displacing all but a couple of the girlie bars in the process. In fact, the infamous Penthouse Hotel is now completely surrounded by gay action and it has opened its own ladyboy go-go bar; it should not be long before the in-house kittens are all of the three-legged variety. There is even a new gay go-go bar on Walking Street with the boys hanging outside in their white underwear for the Russian tourists to gawk…
What about the girl scene? Good question! There are still more girlie bars and beer joints than anyone could even begin to count. I noticed however that some of the girl bars that I patronised 10 years ago because of the choice and quality of their staff have gone downhill, or even closed. On the other hand, I visited new bars with gorgeous girls dancing, although not all were available for private sessions (a new for Thailand!). New, huge outdoor beer plazas have opened all over town, which makes me wonder if others have closed and the ladies moved or if they represent a net addition to Pattaya’s pussy count. Motorbiking around Pattaya I also spot many well staffed bars and go-gos in the inner, residential sois that used not to offer such sinful commerce.
In sum: Pattaya, unlike Bangkok, does not show signs of worsening prospects for action with girls, and, like Bangkok, it has more and sexier ladyboys than ever.
Posted: January 10th, 2011 under Sergeant Shameless.
Tags: travel tales
Comments: 11
Called to the bar
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Sargent Shameless really can be a thoughtful, intelligent kind of fellow. Oh yes he can! Alright. ALRIGHT! You wouldn’t trust him with your household cat! But he is capable of deep thinking and analysis. Sometimes. He has just sent me the following email, and I’m reproducing it here because it’s a subject that I myself have touched on before but not at length. And he does put it so well.
My first trip to Bangkok was in 1993 and I was not looking for sex. Still I was in awe at the high numbers of semi-naked (and fully naked) girls dancing and waiting to be bar-fined in any of the establishments of Patpong, Nana, or Cowboy. Dance shifts of 20 girls were the minimum, which times two, plus waitresses, doorgirls and mamasan meant 50 plus prospective lays the moment you crossed a go-go door. Ladyboy bars were the opposite: there were only a couple that I knew of with no more than a dozen staff each.
My impression over the past few years is that things are fast changing in Bangkok. When I peek into the girlie bars in Patpong I often see as few as three girls on stage, and the same for Nana. Also, there is little chance of finding a stunner or an 18-year-old fresh from the farm like in the old days. Completely naked girls dancing the night away are the exception (although they still exist!).
Not sure why this happening…Probably economic progress like how Hong Kong up to the 1950s used to be like Bangkok and then it changed to what it is today: few bars, expensive drinks and ugly women, who will not agree to sex or, if they do, charge princely sums.
Demographics may be at work too: birth rates have fallen sharply in Thailand over the last two decades, which means fewer girls around to go into the sex industry. Another possible explanation is that Thai girls who do go into the sex industry prefer other venues like the Pattaya beer bars that are as well staffed as ever.
In contrast to the girlie go-go bars, Bangkok ladyboy bars are flourishing. Patpong´s greatest hits are its two ladyboy go-go bars, Nana has at least four, with one of them showcasing 50 plus gorgeous ladyboys every night. Not to mention that some of the remaining girls in the girlie bars are actually…post-op ladyboys.
The underlying trend in all of this is that more and more male foreigners seeking sex in Bangkok will end up doing it with a Thai (lady)boy whether they are so inclined or because available girls are fewer and less attractive. In Pattaya as well there are more and more ladyboy venues, even if its classic beer bars with all-female staff seem to be at an all-time high.
In view of this, the questions I ask myself are: how long do we have left?… If indeed the flow of girls into Thailand´s sex bars comes to a trickle, how long before Thailand becomes like Hong Kong?…And if it does, will our cherished ladyboys step in for the disappearing bargirls and fuel the dreams and libidos of yet another generation of foreign male visitors?
Posted: November 2nd, 2010 under Sergeant Shameless.
Tags: travel tales
Comments: 11
Picture this
A friend of mine was in town during the summer break. A Brit who lives in Hong Kong and who is a journalist, he had come to Thailand to visit a monastery that holds a regular fair devoted to the art of tattooing. He doesn’t speak Thai, and he was travelling alone. Wandering around the fair, watching the tattoo artists plying their trade on the large number of Thai men who thronged the grounds, he gratefully accepted the offer of a seat from one of the stallholders.
He thought something might be amiss when it was indicated that he might like to take off his shirt, and this was confirmed when the tattoo needle began pricking into his back. To cut the story short, he now has a beautiful Buddhist tattoo between his shoulder blades. You’re not even a Buddhist, I told him, when he showed me. It would have made more sense if you had had a pair of tits tattooed on your back, or the Manchester United badge. That would be more in keeping with your religion.
“Har har har,” he replied. “I’ll have you know this is an entry-level Buddhist tattoo, and now I can have any other tattoo I like. I could even make myself bullet-proof with the appropriate tattoo.”
Thais have always, throughout their history, taken tattooing very seriously. Time and time again, I will be photographing a ladyboy and I will see a tattoo: very often a tiny, personal little tattoo such as a small swastika on the inside of the right ankle, a tiny T-shaped mark or character on one of the fingers, or a more elaborate religious symbol on an arm or the back.
Very often these are not particularly aesthetic: some of them look as if they were done with a biro. Others however are very fine little pieces of artwork, and I wonder what their significance is – my knowledge of Thai not being good enough to understand metaphysical matters, for these tattoos do have a spiritual significance.
Then again, there is the fashion for pictorial Western-style tattoos. This started to become evident in Bangkok a decade or so ago. Now of course there are tattoo artists everywhere. This style of tattoo has become popular amongst ladyboys, and some of them seem to regard themselves as a living canvas.
I frequently discover a large tattoo on a shoulder blade when I am taking photographs. Dragons are an especial favourite. My very dear friend Ice, who appears on the main site many times, has a swirling dragon pattern running horizontally across the base of her spine. I was really depressed when I saw she had had that done, because she has a most beautiful bum and to my mind that ugly bruise-coloured tattoo detracts from it.
Prize for the ladyboy with the most tattoos goes to Apple, also on the site in two sets. I have known Apple for more years than I care to remember, and for quite a while we had a steamy affair going. She was a gorgeous girl. Then she went off the rails a bit, and I lost track of her. When she re-emerged a couple of years ago, she had become The Amazing Illustrated Lady. Much as I love her, I find it all pretty off-putting.
Anyway, I have resolved to have the official Thai name for Bangkok tattooed on my willy. The longest place-name in the world, it is: Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Yuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Phiman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit.
It would, of course, only become completely visible when I am looking at a ladyboy.
Posted: October 14th, 2010 under General.
Tags: travel tales
Comments: none