Lots of ladyboys in the Thailand news these days
I don't know what is going on because a week ago the English-language news about Thailand was all about foreigners behaving badly, which sadly is something that is certainly still going on, but now the news feed seems to be fascinated or inundated with stories about violent encounters with ladyboys in the popular areas of Phuket and Pattaya.
First off, I am going to do my usual and probably boring-at-this point thing where I state that Thailand is a wonderful and beautiful country, but if you travel to areas like Pattaya and Phuket, areas that are well-known for being full of scams, high-prices, and just a bad attitude that the rest of the country doesn't seem to suffer from, you kind of get what you deserve.
In just 4 stories, 3 of them were about bad interactions with ladyboys.
I'm sure this guy is really happy that the blurred out his face in the article but Thailand doesn't seem to really have the full extent of protecting privacy under control. While they do blur out his face in the two photos of him, they publish his entire full name (including middle name) as well as his nationality. That can't be a lot of fun as I am sure there are a bunch of people scrambling to find his real social media to be mean to him.
According to the report he was walking down the seedy streets in Pattaya when he and his group were approached by a group of ladyboy streetwalkers and they hugged him, likely grabbed his privates, offered "services" and when he refused they walked away. It took him a few blocks to realize that his $4000 necklace was missing.
A police report was filed and maybe there will be a CCTV search but honestly, I doubt it.
Don't walk around Pattaya and Phuket wearing thousands of dollars worth of neck jewelry, you dolt.
The next story also from Pattaya, involves a drunk Japanese man who hired a transwoman for "services" and they walked away together. He was drunk and his hotel was far away. Ladyboy didn't want to walk and asked to get money to leave as he was not going to get a taxi. When he refused a fist fight broke out and the Japanese guy suffered a cut. When brought to the police station and they started getting loud they were both warned to cut it out. In the end they were both fined the traditional "go away" fine of 500B and sent on their way.
I guarantee that money never made it into the country's coffers.
The last one I am not going to provide pictures of because they are pretty gross but it involves a situation where ladyboys go home with someone, but has a bunch of accomplices that are taking video of them along the way. They then threaten to publish the video of them engaging in "services" with a ladyboy in public if the person doesn't give them a bunch of money. When a Chinese man refused, the "lady" started to damage things in the hotel room and then cut herself as well stating she was going to tell police that he attacked her.
Quite dedicated to the con if you ask me.
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Even when the police were taking pictures of "her" she still didn't stop using her phone.
The Chinese man in question didn't stick around to speak to police but instead offered his side of the story via some other means like a phone call or via the embassy. The report says he climbed down the fire escape with some of his belongings because apparently the ladyboy's accomplices were in the hallway, and then he took a taxi to the airport and left Thailand.
These stories paint a scary image of Thailand but I am here to tell you that these bad stories are often amplified to appear to be a much larger problem than they really are. These are isolated incidents that get eyes on websites, and not much more.
I will say this though: If you are traveling to Thailand and knowingly go to areas that are well-known for being filled with "red light activities' that are themselves quite illegal, don't be surprised when the people operating in those areas don't have a great deal respect for the rule of law.