Day 5: Engendered Gender

I was greeted by one of the loveliest mornings I had ever witnessed. One thing I will always remember about Chiang Mai is its spectacular sunrises and sunsets.

The meeting we had with the director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand was nothing short of fruitful. Although slightly longwinded, the director was brimming with information and eager to share. In those two hours, I absorbed more information about Chiang Mai and its history with tourism than I had over the course of the entire trip. I learnt that Chiang Mai was rich not only in culture and heritage, but also in natural attractions like waterfalls, water rafting and… zip-lining? This particular aspect was interesting to listen about, as I myself had gone zip-lining through a forest in Chiang Mai when my family and I came here on vacation four years back. The whole journey through the forest took more than an hour and involved zip-lining from tree to tree. I learnt that the adventure aspect of nature attractions in Chiang Mai was a recent development, and that the Tourism Authority of Thailand was currently working to maintain a standard of safety for such attractions. I was slightly discomfited (and yet strangely thrilled) to know that perhaps my adventure through the tree-tops might not have undergone governmental safety procedures. But hey, I’m still alive!

 Following that, we were given free reign for the rest of the day. My group decided to take it easy… and we really meant it. We spent two hours eating lunch and another two hours having dessert and Thai milk tea at a café. By the time we had satisfied our stomachs, it was nearly five in the afternoon. Time had never flown so quickly before!

I went for a lovely full body Thai massage at a massage parlour along the red light district. Although the masseuses looked intimidating and disapproving upon entering the parlour, I left the parlour on good terms with her (perhaps because I started snoring midway through the massage and she took it as a compliment?). This little incident reminded me not to base my opinions of one’s character off my first impression.

Before I knew it, dinner had flown past and we went out to do a little Friday night gallivanting. Initially, Edward offered to bring the group to a Lady Boy show. I discreetly invited two other friends… and all of a sudden, half of the USP cohort was coming along. Edward and I were pretty stressed trying to reserve tickets for such a large number at the last minute, but thankfully we managed to do it without a hitch (and I managed to get almost all the money I paid for the tickets back from the USPians). The show was definitely an eye-opener for me, as I had never before been exposed to such gratuitous shows of cross-gendered confusion.

One of the performances involved a performer changing out of his costume and into a suit. The gradual shift of gender and its associated stereotypes and social stigmas made me think about how difficult it must be for the performers to be paraded around and objectified, when all they really want is to be accepted for who they are. Why must one make such a grand show over something as personal as one’s gender? Although Chiang Mai may seem more tolerant of transvestites because of their commonality, I felt that the tolerance only existed for the performers. Were transsexuals, on the other hand, so readily accepted by the community? It seemed that the pervasiveness of transvestites and lady boys made it almost impossible to be taken seriously as a fully committed transsexual.