the third sex

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.

I found an interesting article the other day about tastes in internet porn. It was based on a new book by two academics named Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam, entitled A Billion Wicked Thoughts. I don’t know how scientific their research was, but they have come up with some interesting facts.

One is that men, even straight men, like looking at pictures of dicks. I think this might go back deep into adolescence. When you are very young and everything is just springing into life, you don’t mind flashing your new manhood around in the changing room, and you are curious to see how your mates are doing.

That doesn’t mean that you are potentially gay: it is only a natural interest. But the feelings of emerging sexuality are so strong that it is likely that the intense curiousity and the excitement of the moment stays with you. Consequently, although you would never even consider a sexual encounter with another man, the sight of a big erect dick still arouses interest and admiration.

Which brings me onto a second point the researchers make, which is that T-girl sites, as they call them, are the fourth most popular category of website porn.

This to me is no great surprise. I have watched over the years, since the earliest days of the internet, as the popularity of the third sex has increased. In the long-ago days of the mid 1990s, you could have counted the number of ladyboy sites on the fingers of one hand. But a few years later that number had grown, and a handful of photographers, yours truly included, had discovered the potential of Thailand as a source for models.

That in turn has helped spur the growth of the ladyboy scene in Thailand, because so many visitors now come here either specifically for ladyboy companionship, or to go to ladyboy bars and cabarets.

So in that brief period of time, the ladyboy has emerged as a sexual force in her own right. Before the internet, few people knew of the ladyboys of Southeast Asia. Only those who had travelled to this part of the world, and I would venture to say that even they probably weren’t that interested: it was genetic girls they were after.

No one knew of the beauty of the ladyboy, the sheer seductiveness. It was only the photography that brought this out to a mass market. Beforehand, a ladyboy would have been regarded as a joke, or a freak. But suddenly, their true beauty was revealed.

I remember in the very early days when I was taking photos, I would take my laptop into the room in which I was working and because the camera memory chips had only a small capacity I would pause halfway through a shoot to download onto the hard drive. The model would come and look over my shoulder, and time and time again I would hear a little gasp as she saw how she looked on the screen. She quite possibly would never have seen clear photographs of herself in full makeup, and certainly not in the nude. Don’t forget – digital cameras were a rarity then.

Ladyboys of course quickly realised their own potential, and the potential they had for making a living. More and more youngsters decided to follow the course. The demand for hormones grew, and the prices fell. Soon it became so easy and so cheap to buy hormones that youngsters just entering adolescence were able to buy them. A whole new generation of ladyboys began to spring up. The number of websites continued to grow. The number of visitors in search of ladyboys grew. The number of ladyboy outlets grew. The supply of ladyboys grew in proportion.

I think I deserve a medal from the Tourism Authority of Thailand. But somehow I don’t think I’ll get one.

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.

Sometimes Sargent Shameless surprises me by revealing he really does have a soft and sentimental side. Not often, I have to admit. Here he relates how, during his recent debauchery in Pattaya, he was convinced he had rediscovered his high-school crush. She did however prove to have something he would never have guessed at during his misbegotten schooldays.

I never thought I would be writing about my high-school crush for no venue called third-sex.org.  The fact is that Shana (not her real name, but close) was in every way a girlie girl and, although I never actually saw, I am sure  there was nothing but sweet, pinky, soft-hairy teenie pussy where a ladyboy dick need not be.  Like all high-school queens, she had that perky-sassy beauty that pubescent boys cannot resist: deliciously petite, and she dyed her brown hair blonde, which in those days made her a sophisticated teenage vixen. Her best attribute was her bubbly and tightly packed butt, which inspired many a jerk-off session from me and my testosterone-rushed schoolmates.
 
Let’s jump the clock to a few decades later when your Sargent Shameless was out on the sois of Pattaya for another night of ladyboy buggering.  For this particular night, the plan was to take home this newly arrived hung beauty that I had been groping and fondling in her bar, and knew it was time to either barfine or forget her.  So what I did was I went to her bar around 20:30, had my kick-off Chang beer, played for 10 minutes with her oversize dick to make sure everything was functioning (it was!) and then bar-fined her but told her to wait for me until later. You see, it was kinda early in the night and I wanted to do some bar-hopping by myself and get the kind of attention that you can’t if you bring your own lady into other ladies’ bars.
 
And then it happened! I was walking past a row of outdoor lady bars and, waving at me from one of them, I saw Shana! Like she looked like when she was 16.  With her dyed long blond blow-dried hair hanging down her back over that bubbly butt to die for. Her dark eyes, pale skin and mischievous smile were just as I remembered her.  But the Sargent’s ladyboy radar never shuts down and immediately I knew that the Thai version of my high school Shana came with a hard little dick as standard equipment!

As I looked mesmerised at Thai-Shana, she grabbed my arm and dragged me into her bar (which had seven or eight ladies and one other ladyboy). We hit it off really well, but I had to tell her that I was busy for the night and would come back for her the next day. She was understandably disappointed and I, uncharacteristically, felt that I would regret it dearly if for any reason I did not get to be with her.
 
So I went back to the previously bar-fined ladyboy, took her to my hotel room, got my money’s worth with one hour of 69ing and taking turns at unclogging each other’s dirt pipes (the Captain says:  that’s the Sargent Shameless we know!) and even though we had agreed to a longtime sleep-over, I sent her off early and got on a motorbike myself and rushed back to Thai-Shana.
 
The rest is history! After the first lady drink, I knew I would be spending the remainder of my stay in Pattaya in the loving company of Thai-Shana. Even though she looked like my high school Shana at 16 years old, she was 22, she was from Bangkok, and, contrary to my initial impression, she was 100 percent Thai blooded, with no farang in her.  But soon she had THIS farang 7 inches deep in her sweet orifices as I had so often wished I had done to Shana (or any other girl for that matter) in high school.

For my remaining four days and nights in Pattaya we lived as high school sweethearts, going together to the beach, to movies, bowling, shopping, and, after taking HIV-tests together, having wild, passionate, unprotected sex three or four times a day.  At night, she would hold me in her arms as I fell asleep gently clutching her ever-erect little cock.  She was kinda emotional when the time came for me to leave, and I knew that Thai-Shana is one of those rare ladyboys that I will be looking up again.
 
Because, for a guy, can there ever be a fantasy more enticing than his high school crush?…Only his high school crush with a penis!