Come fly with he/she! Thai carrier PC Air takes to the skies with 'ladyboy' flight attendants

Fasten your seatbelts! A Thai airline that hired transsexuals as flight attendants to set itself apart from competitors has taken to the skies.
PC Air, a new charter airline that plans to fly routes across Asia, originally set out to hire only male and female flight attendants.
But it changed its mind after receiving more than 100 job applications from transvestites and transsexuals.

Welcoming: The team of (left to right) Nathatai Sukkaset, Dissanai Chitpraphachin, Phuntakarn Sringern and Chayathisa Nakmai greet passengers in Thai tradition by clasping their hands together

Thai President of PC Air Peter Chan (third from left) and chairman Chatwiwat Klamkomol (fourth from left) during the airline's inauguration ceremony

In demand: Thai transsexuals flight attendants, from left to right, Chayathisa Nakmai, Nathatai Sukkaset, Phuntakarn Sringern and Dissanai Chitpraphachin inside an airplane

Four were chosen, along with 19 female and 7 male flight attendants.
They are Chayathisa Nakmai, Dissanai Chitpraphachin, Nathatai Sukkaset and Phuntakarn Sringern.

Now the new trolly dollies have made their first journey on a flight from Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok to Surat Thani province, southern Thailand.
The airline is hoping to expand with new routes later this month.
During the interview process the airline said that the qualifications for the ladyboy flight attendants were the same as for female flight attendants, with the additional provisos that they be like women in how they walk and talk, and have a feminine voice and the right attitude.

Flight attendant Chayathisa Nakmai introduces in-flight safety before the airline's first journey

Thai transsexual flight attendant Phuntakarn Sringern serves food during the first domestic flight

Though there is very little discrimination against ladyboys in Thailand, they are not officially recognised as women and their identification cards will always say 'male'.
Known as 'katoeys' or 'ladyboys,' transgenders and transsexuals have greater visibility in Thailand than in many other nations, holding mainstream jobs in a variety of fields.
They are especially common in cosmetics shops or health stores, which almost always have a ladyboy shop assistant.

Nathatai Sukkaset, right, and Phuntakarn Sringern serve soft drinks to passengers

Just the ticket: Transgenders and transsexuals are more accepted in Thailand than in most other nations, holding mainstream jobs in a variety of fields

President of PC Air Peter Chan said he want to open up opportunities for Thai ladyboys before the first plane set off from Bangkok

The annual monkey buffet festival at Pra Prang Sam Yot temple in Thailand

A long-tailed macaque eats fruit and vegetables during the annual monkey buffet festival at the Pra Prang Sam Yot temple in Lopburi

The Monkey Buffet Festival is held annually in Thailand to promote tourism. In 2007, the festival included giving fruits and vegetables to the local monkey population of 2,000 in Lopburi province north of Bangkok.
The festival was described as one of the strangest festivals by London's The Guardian newspaper along with Spain's baby-jumping festival. A photograph from the Monkey Buffet Festival at Pra Prang Sam Yot temple in Lopburi Province shows a monkey trying to get at fresh fruit and vegetable captured in blocks of ice.

A long-tailed macaque licks an ice block with fruits encased in it. The festival is held every year on the last Sunday of November to promote tourism in Lopburi

Bangkok losing its sex appeal

A bar girl waits for business in Bangkok's Patpong - a place that's lost its attraction for this reporter.

The bright lights of Patpong in Bangkok, Thailand. 

BANGKOK'S Patpong red-light district is fast losing its appeal.

It used to be a tourist hot spot - a place where you could be shocked, and awed, as you wandered the parallel side streets in the area celebrated for its sex trade, found between Silom and Surawongse roads.

The strip joints and bars offering girlie shows flank the night market where you can buy a knock-off Gucci bag or a Polo shirt on your way home from watching one of the shows.

At one time this was all done with a sense of theatre. And a sense of fun. It was a "must see" part of the Bangkok culture for visitors to Thailand.

But it is definitely losing its lustre.

I was in Patpong on the weekend and yes I did end up at one of those girlie bars after being dragged there on a hen's night.

OK, dragged may be too strong a word - I admit I went along willingly in a group of five women and two guys.

What we saw though was not "fun", it was not even bad theatre.

The undercurrent in the bar felt nasty, with the girls angrily demanding money after every show.

It was like we had been sucked into a freak show and we were now part of the performance.

We were all uncomfortable and the women on stage looked bored out of their minds.

There were more women guests in the bar than men, something that surprised me. Most people had one quick drink, and left.

We were approached seconds after we set foot on the pavement and asked if we wanted to go to the girlie bar.

Our tour leader, a Bangkok veteran, negotiated the entry fee deal right there on the street before we entered the venue.

This, we later discovered, was essential if you didn't want to get ripped off.

For 300 baht (about $10) each we were allowed in, given front row seats and one beer each.

Three young South African backpackers paid 2700 baht each for the same thing.

They entered the bar without negotiating a price first. As soon as they sat down, they were swamped by six bikini-clad women who hassled them for money. The young South African girls handed over the money out of fear, they felt they had no choice.

It was an expensive lesson to learn for travellers on a budget.

The plan was to spend an hour at the show but left after 25 minutes. The bride decided that she would actually rather look for a bargain at the night market.

Sadly, the vendors here were also nasty. The idea of markets, I thought, was to bargain.

But the prices were double that of other Bangkok markets and there was no sense of them wanting to bargain.

It is certainly not a shopper's paradise. The vendors just laughed when you offered a price.

For a tourist mecca there was not a lot of people around and nothing much was being bought and sold.

There was also little happening in the bars down Silom road.

They had one or two white males holding court with Thai girls pretending to hang on every word.

Business was not booming.

Bangkok will always have Patpong.

Despite what anyone thinks of the morals of a place like this, it will continue to exist.

It is a part of the fabric of the city.

Its days of prospering however may be over.

Today's Bangkok has so much more to offer tourists.

Patpong is now an oddity rather than a attraction.