Got To Have A Katoey..................

[Nongwahyay]

Here´s a bit of drivel...........on a recent trip to Thailand I noticed that in several "Black Canyon" cafes we visited, there always seemed to be a katoey employed..............in "Central" in Chiang Mai I noticed her 2 years ago when we were last there...... looking pretty tartish and dragging her feet. This year she was still there, looked just as tartish....and just cannot pick up her feet.....(anyone else noticed her???). There was also one in Black Canyon in The Mall, Nonthaburi (Tanon Ngam Wong Wahn), although he/she looked pretty malish. Does a Katoey, who looks obviously still pretty malish, used "krap" oder "ka" at then end of the sentence???? I couldn´t quite catch it........(yes, I obviously had nothing better to do while drinking my cafe rorn.....!!!), but I thought I did catch a "ka"............................... Do cafes have to employ a minimum of one katoey to get their licence????

[leisurely]

I don't know, but they do tend to freak out my youngest daughter. She is very tolerant of 'alternative' lifestyles ("Mummy, when will K+J have a baby?") but some khatoeys really are out of her acceptable things folder

[altman]

Here´s a bit of drivel...........on a recent trip to Thailand I noticed that in several "Black Canyon" cafes we visited, there always seemed to be a katoey employed..............in "Central" in Chiang Mai I noticed her 2 years ago when we were last there...... looking pretty tartish and dragging her feet. This year she was still there, looked just as tartish....and just cannot pick up her feet.....(anyone else noticed her???). There was also one in Black Canyon in The Mall, Nonthaburi (Tanon Ngam Wong Wahn), although he/she looked pretty malish. Does a Katoey, who looks obviously still pretty malish, used "krap" oder "ka" at then end of the sentence???? I couldn´t quite catch it........(yes, I obviously had nothing better to do while drinking my cafe rorn.....!!!), but I thought I did catch a "ka"............................... Do cafes have to employ a minimum of one katoey to get their licence????

coming from a country where they hang gays up on fence posts and beat them to death, (this in dick cheney's home state), i was surprised and elated to find that i had stumbled into a land where the furthest fringes of the 'gay' community were accepted and fairly employed.

perhaps there are 'bad' katoeys, just as there are 'bad' bar girls, but i welcome their presence. to me, they represent everything that is good about chiang mai.

and most of them look really, really good....

[Ulysses G.]

perhaps there are 'bad' katoeys, just as there are 'bad' bar girls

"Bad ones" are known for groping and robbing (pick-pocketing ) men walking down the street minding their own business and also pretending to be women and peddling their butts and then robbing customers who want to cancel the deal when they discover that they are with a man with a 5 O'Clock shadow and a 9 inch member.

They are also known for attacking people with razors who make fun of them.

However, there are many good lady-boys too - like Bambina on the TV forum.

[lannarebirth]

I don't know, but they do tend to freak out my youngest daughter. She is very tolerant of 'alternative' lifestyles ("Mummy, when will K+J have a baby?") but some khatoeys really are out of her acceptable things folder

I'm pretty tolerant too, but I must say the Khatoey monks are a little hard to fathom. One wonders if the Dharma lessons are really taking hold when they fashion their simple robe like an evening gown and can't pass a reflective surface without looking at themselves. They are not only a few either.

[altman]

I'm pretty tolerant too, but I must say the Khatoey monks are a little hard to fathom. One wonders if the Dharma lessons are really taking hold when they fashion their simple robe like an evening gown and can't pass a reflective surface without looking at themselves. They are not only a few either.

now that is something i've never seen... not to say it doesn't exist, but that is something i've never seen.

now that i am aware of it, i am sure it is something that i will see soon enough.

but regardless, i suspect it will not effect me in the same way that being beaten to death would. so again, i welcome them in their representation of inclusiveness.

and being groped? seems that happens frequently in some of the bars.... many go there to be groped. or hope to be groped. but to each their own. if you find yourself in a place where this happens and it disturbs you, then change places or change your mind.

[Johpa]

I don't know, but they do tend to freak out my youngest daughter. She is very tolerant of 'alternative' lifestyles ("Mummy, when will K+J have a baby?") but some khatoeys really are out of her acceptable things folder

Too bad, my kids always got a real kick out of that tacky little caberet show in the corner of the night market next to the equally tacky Thai boxing ring. For some families, dinner with a little mildly outrageous behavior is good family entertainment.

[chanchao]

> Does a Katoey, who looks obviously still pretty malish, used "krap" oder

> "ka" at then end of the sentence??

Can be either, or in between, much like they themselves. I'd say those making an effort to dress & make up female, especially when having had some surgery done, would be almost guaranteed to say 'ka'. The ones who are more towards the male end of the spectrum may say either, or go for the in-between option 'ha' ("Sawadee haa" through their noses). I find that the most unattractive option. I'd prefer them to pick sides and make it a polite 'khrap' or effeminate 'kha', but dislike the wishy-washy in between stuff.

BTW I think hair-styling is the only industry where a legal requirement exists to reach a 25% workforce quota on latter-day converts to the female persuasion.

Cheers,

Chanchao