On Saturday July 23rd we had purchased tickets to go see a Kathoey Cabaret Show, otherwise known as a Lady-Boy show. A Kathoey (aka Lady-Boy) is an effeminate gay male or male-to-female transgender person. Kathoeys may dress as women, or some only wear makeup but still dress as men. Because of the predominance of Buddhism, which places a high value on tolerance, Kathoeys are widely accepted throughout Southeast Asia, much more than in Western cultures. They are also very common in every day lives here, and can be seen working in shops, restaurants, beauty salons and many other main stream jobs. A lot of Kathoeys work in the entertainment industry putting on Cabaret shows, so we were very excited about the opportunity to see one.
Unfortunately as we were leaving our hotel we were stuck in a major torrential downpour! The streets surrounding our hotel were flooded! We set out barefoot through the flooded streets trying to convince a taxi to drive us across town to the show. Not a single taxi driver agreed.
Once we realized we wouldn’t be attending the show, we decided to embrace the rain:
We bought some drinks and went for a foot massage while we waited for the rain to stop:
We then decided we would go see a different kind of show that night.
A few months ago while Mads and I were chatting about our trip on Skype she told me that when we were in Bangkok she really wanted to go see a Thai Ping Pong Show. I’m not really a big fan of watching sports, especially table tennis, but I reluctantly obliged. I figured if it was a traditional Thai show then I should be experiencing it. Shortly before I left Toronto, during my going-away lunch at my office the topic of my trip was brought up. My boss had been to Thailand before and I wanted his advice on things to do and tourist attractions. I innocently asked him about going to a Ping Pong show while in Bangkok, and his face froze. He carefully asked me whether or not I was referring to “Table Tennis” or a “Thai Ping Pong Show”. When my response was “um…. is there a difference…?” he was put into the very awkward situation of explaining to me (and the entire lunch table) that yes in fact there was a big difference.
A Thai Ping Pong show is an adult entertainment show where women use their pelvic muscles to do a number of interesting things with a variety of objects, including ping pong balls. They will shoot the ping pong balls into the air, shoot darts at balloons, open bottles, and even blow out candles. The shows take place in strip clubs and are very popular in Thailand. After learning about the real meaning of a ping pong show I was shocked. Most of my Contiki tour group went to see them 9 weeks ago when our trip started, but I decided not to attend. Mads and I decided that since we were in Bangkok we wanted to experience everything it had to offer, even the less appealing experiences.
The only problem was that we were two girls traveling alone, and we didn’t think that going to a ping pong show alone would be safe. So we decided we’d make friends with other travelers and go together as a group. We didn’t have to look for very long before we met our new friend Matt (aka. The Hulk). He was a 6 foot 3, extremely muscular man from Canada who was in Bangkok for a few days. He was super nice, and we decided he would be the perfect bodyguard for our ping pong experience. As a side note: he refused to put a shirt on all night, and as we walked through the streets people kept stopping him, calling him “The Hulk” and asking for his photo.
The Ping Pong Show was a very interesting experience. We somehow ended up in the front row, next to a very drunk Irish guy. The show lasted about 45 minutes, while girls would come out, one by one, and perform their trick. After each act the Irish guy would bow down and yell out things like “will you marry me!”, “that was amazing!”, “you are a God!”, “there’s no way the next girl can top what she just did!! No Way!!”, then he would turn to Mads and ask her if she had those talents. He was thoroughly entertaining.
It was really sad to watch the girls. When you looked at their faces you could see how miserable they looked,. You could tell they only worked there because they had no other options, and they are paid so little for their work. They also undergo a lot of injuries from the different objects used in the show. I am happy that I saw the show and am now aware of one more traditional Thai experience, but this is definitely not a show I would see again.
It was a very interesting night, one that we will not be forgetting anytime soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment