Man Handled - an excerpt from Bali Raw 2

Lady-boys on the prowl

Many men that attempt to utilise Bali's sex industry while on holiday in Bali are duped by lady-boys. There are gangs of these feminine looking rouges that hang around Bali's back streets. They prowl the early hours of the morning like tomcats and they seek out drunken tourists looking for misadventure.

Lady-boy pickpockets

It is always wise when confronted by a group of these individuals to keep at least arm's distance away from them. The transvestites that hang around Kuta are often deft pickpockets. Their modus-operandi is for two or three to crowd the unsuspecting mark and distract him with questions and or groping, then once he is preoccupied pushing lady-boys away, to relieve him of his valuables.

Generally the lady-boys in Bali are not as good at covering their true sexual identity as their counterparts in other places in the world. So it is surprising just how many men are deceived into taking a lady-boy back to their rooms. It would seem that most men who dabble with Bali's sex industry have had the, "I took  home a lady-boy but I didn't sleep with her" experience. Alcohol consumption tends to have a lot to do with this as most of these characters appear less than convincing when looked at in the daylight hours. 

There are, however, now a lot of surgical procedures available to help transsexuals further the illusion of their femininity. There are the obvious breast implants and sex reassignment surgeries. Then there are the more innocuous procedures, facial feminisation, tracheal shave, voice modification, chin/jaw reduction and thigh implantation surgery to name a few. These procedures are becoming cheaper and more affordable in Indonesia.

The sure-fire lady-boy test 

The best way I have found to check if the person you are dealing with is of the same sex is a test I was taught by an expat who had lived in Bali for some years. If you are suspicious of the woman you are thinking of dating you may want to try this:

1. Ask the woman/man in question to extend their arm out and keep it as straight as possible.
2. Place one of your hands underneath the extended arm and cup their elbow.
3. Place your other hand on the person's open palm.
4. Apply a gentle downward pressure to the palm and a gentle upward pressure to the elbow.

If the arm bends down passed the 180 degrees mark then the person you are dealing with is likely to be a woman. If the arm remains level on 180 degrees then it may be a good idea to run like hell. This is the only sure-fire test that works and cannot be corrected by inexpensive surgery as far as I know.

©Malcolm Scott