One Hundred and One
Three ladyboys came round to my place the other afternoon for a general social visit and to suggest friends I might like to photograph, and during our conversation two of them mentioned they both came from the same town in Isaan, Roi Et.
Now, the majority of ladyboys I photograph come from Isaan. And of that number, I would say the majority are probably from Roi Et. Why, I asked my two young friends, are there so many ladyboys in Roi Et?
“I not know,” they both said. “But many ladyboy in Roi Et. Many!”
They went on to tell me of a particular muban in Roi Et province that is famous for having a large number of ladyboys. There are, they said, at present 40 ladyboys within this muban. A muban is a village, the smallest administrative district within the Thai governmental system. Taken as an average across the country (I’m looking at Wikipedia here), a muban typically consists of 144 households or 746 persons. So 40 ladyboys represents a significant number of the population. 
Why, why, why, does Roi Et have so many ladyboys, I repeated. Why oh why oh why oh why? And I banged my head against the wall (I feel sorry for that wall, sometimes). They smiled at me again. “Not know!”
They went on to tell me that they were not only talking about ladyboys. “Many, many gay too,” they said. “Not easy find ordinary man in Roi Et.” They went on to explain that the gays sometimes morphed into ladyboys. “Most ladyboy, most gay, they know already from very young. Some want be lady. Some want be gay man. But they know already when still at school.”
I imagine that peer pressure must have some bearing on this. Otherwise I cannot explain why there is such a concentration of ladyboys and gays.
Roi Et (the name translates as “One Hundred and One”) is a rural capital on the northeastern plain of Thailand, depending largely upon agriculture, handicrafts and textiles for its local economy. Like the rest of Isaan the region is relatively poor, and much of the population migrates to Bangkok and Pattaya. Try asking a Bangkok taxi driver where he comes from, and chances are it will be Isaan, and quite possibly Roi Et. 
Career potential for young Thai men in the province is far from good, and the average trajectory of a young Thai male will be early marriage and fatherhood, followed by a lifetime of manual work, possibly enlivened by alcohol and drugs.
It must be a depressing prospect for any sensitive young man growing up there. So, in the earliest years of adolescence, when one’s sexuality is still a floating entity, why not focus on some kind of rebellion. Anything to get out of the trap.
Of course, the shortage of marriageable young men is a problem for the girls of the community. But then ask any Bangkok, Pattaya or Phuket go-go dancer where she comes from, and guess what the answer is likely to be.
Posted: April 25th, 2014 under General.
Tags: The ladyboy experience
Comments
Comment from sid
Time May 26, 2014 at 4:13 pm
another place with a lot of lb is udon. mate of mine brit guy has a bar there because he is married to a thai girl from udon. i have been there twice now and always 2 or 3 or more lb hanging around his place because he gets a lot of farang customers and the lb know they can usually find a farang to take them. but he says that the customers pretend they are going for dinner or going home but they meet the lb round the corner and go to a short time place. his wife always tells him about it later LOL!
Comment from derek from yorkshire
Time May 28, 2014 at 10:59 am
i went with my first ladyboy three years ago. where you from i asked her. bangkok she said. but then she was talking about going to see her mummy the following week and when i asked where she said roi et! they all like to think they are bangkok people. because there isn’t much to talk about and i don’t speak thai i usually ask about their home town. its usually Issan such as Surin, or places i have never heard of. a couple from chiang mai. never from the south, not yet anyway! ;)
Comment from Geoffrey from UK
Time April 26, 2014 at 4:51 pm
I spent a year teaching English at Roi Et, at a high school, and also providing lessons to adults.
I agree with what you say. At the school there were at least half a dozen youngsters in each of the years from 11 years old upwards who were experimenting with makeup and female clothing.
The school had separate toilets for them, and they were excused from both boys’ and girls’ games if they wished. Some preferred to take part, but others formed their own little volleyball team, which for some reason is a game that seems to have been adopted by ladyboys everywhere.
In Roi Et town you would always see very young ladyboys hanging around with their straight friends.
Some of the youngsters at school were really pretty, and seemed to have a natural girlish appearance. Although some of course weren’t, and didn’t!
There were briefly a couple of ladyboys in one of my adult classes. I had the impression they were planning to leave the town and go to Bangkok or somewhere, so probably they had the idea of improving their English skills before they went.