I never thought I’d find myself drinking homemade wine from a bucket on the side of the road, but it’s one of the best decisions I’ve made since arriving in Thailand. The wine I was drinking is called “Sato,” which is made from fermented sticky rice and yeast, and it was delicious. I fell in love with Sato on the third night of the Songkran holiday on the Thai island of Koh Panghan. Songkran, the Buddhist New Year celebration, is a time when Thais celebrate family, honor tradition, and welcome in the new. However, unlike any family holiday I’d ever been part of in the US, this was a holiday time when people seem to feel free to be their full selves. As I explored in my last blog, I’d already spent my first few days of Songkran enjoying Songkran’s infamous water fights with my ...
Songkran Festival Part 1: Water Fights and Queer Dance Parties
During the Thai New Year celebration known as Songkran, I’ve learned there’s no better way to show love to your family and friends than by dousing them in water. Songkran is a Buddhist festival of unity, cleansing, and rebirth. It begins April 13, and officially lasts five days. As the longest holiday of the year when most businesses, schools, and government offices close, it’s a time for families to come together, and for Thais to let loose and have fun! I celebrated Songkran with a transgender woman named Plamy and her friends and family. Plamy, as I wrote about in my last post, owns a restaurant named Thai E-san on the Thai island of Koh Panghan. Plamy has become a close friend, and while I had previously shared a dinner with her mother and father, I was a bit nervous about ...
Interviewing a Thai Transgender Restaurant Owner
In Thailand, nothing builds new friendships better than a shared meal. And where better to meet new transgender friends than a transgender-owned restaurant? Koh Panghan is a small, tourist-dominated island off the East Coast of Southern Thailand, where most people come for the infamous parties, retreat centers, and Western comfort food establishments that dominate the island. I struggled at first to find Thai queer community or authentic Thai food at first. That was, until my transgender friend Irish (yep, that’s her name, but she’s actually Filipina) invited me to a restaurant named Thai E-San. When I arrived, Irish had already ordered and was chatting with Plamy, Thai E-San’s transgender co-owner. Irish then introduced me, and suddenly, Plamy sat down with us and proudly announced ...
Ladyboy: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Term
If you’ve ever heard someone describe their trip to Thailand, they likely told you about the food, the beaches, Buddhism, elephants, and perhaps they’ve also mentioned, with a wink, going to a bar to meet a “ladyboy.” Yet why has Thailand become so inextricably linked with the term “ladyboy,” and what does it mean? To many transgender people, "ladyboy" is seen as exclusively pejorative. While living as a transgender woman in the United States, I avoided using the term and admonished anyone who used it. Yet now that I am living in Thailand and studying Thai culture and language, I’ve come to appreciate the nuanced nature of the term “ladyboy,” and begun to understand why so many people here love to use it. So where did the term “ladyboy” come from? While “ladyboy” is a term often ...