the third sex

I have mentioned before how I like to go tramping around some of the more obscure corners of Bangkok at the weekends, and last Sunday afternoon I found myself at Klong San market, which is next to the ferry pier on the Thonburi side of the river.

I’m not really a market kind of a person. I find markets to be hot, crowded and irritating, and it doesn’t help that I’m one of nature’s non-shoppers. I was actually there because in this area is an old Portuguese church, and I wanted to take some photographs.

The market is where many Thai girls come to stock up on their wardrobes, because it is well known for its fashionable yet inexpensive clothing. If fact, if you want to ogle young Thai girls, and who doesn’t, this is the place to come. You can catch the ferry next to the Royal Orchid Sheraton Hotel: it will take you across the river and land you directly at Klong San.

Anyway, I was looking round briefly before trudging on when I saw a group of four ladyboys. They were doing their clothes shopping. And I realised, this must be the ideal spot to go looking for ladyboys during a weekend afternoon, because they will be shopping here for fashionable and inexpensive clothing, just the same as their GG sisters.

I got talking to them. At first they were a bit shy. They all said they were at college or at school. I asked them what they wanted to do when they left.

One said she wanted to be something in IT, and said she was taking a computer studies course at college. Another was on a clothing design course, a popular choice amongst many ladyboys, and said she had an ambition to open up her own shop. “Like this,” she said, nodding towards the market stall at which we were standing, which was more like a small shop.

This is actually quite a viable career for a ladyboy. I meet many who come along for a photoshoot who say that they help a friend run a boutique or clothing shop, and given Thailand’s huge fashion and garments business, at all levels of price and expertise, as long as you have some business sense and some quality designs, I would think you can make a reasonable living.

The perpetual question, where do ladyboys go when they retire, can partly be explained by this area of business. Some will go back to their home province and open a shop or market stall, others will stay in Bangkok and open up in somewhere like Klong San, while others who have a little more capital will rent space in somewhere like the MBK shopping centre at Siam Square, or one of the other malls in the suburbs.

Of the other two ladyboys I was talking to, one said she wanted to go into showbusiness, and added that cabaret might be her first stop. Not into bar work, I asked. She wrinkled her nose. “Maybe, I know can earn good money, but I not like my family to know.”

The fourth one, who was small and cute, said she wanted to marry a foreigner. “You!” she said, linking her arm through mine. I took her phone number. I don’t actually have marriage in mind, but I’m sure we can reach a compromise.