While some tourists jet in from across the globe specifically to benefit from the androgynous charms of Patong’s legion of ladyboy prostitutes, there are nonetheless circumstances situations the place off-guard male tourists end up with a ladyboy underneath the misunderstanding that he is a real woman. Such misunderstandings can – and infrequently do – end in catastrophe, as two latest stories in the native press have shown. Green season: The first case happened on September 9, at about three:30 am, when Pol Col Prasit Yodthong obtained a report from staff at the Thara Patong Hotel that outside the lodge a bunch of enraged ladyboys have been beating senseless two Saudi tourists. Col Prasit and eight bike patrol policemen were quickly on the scene, pulling the livid ladyboys off the Saudi males and taking them into custody. Off to Kathu Police Station went the ladyboys, whereas their victims, with gashes on their heads and wrists from being slashed with knives, were rushed to Patong Hospital, conveniently located right throughout the street from the scene of the struggle. From their investigation, police discovered that the group of 5 ladyboys had been prowling for patrons in entrance of Tiger Entertainment Complex, on Soi Bangla, when they happened upon two drunken younger Saudis, each named Mohamad, aged 24 and 25. As is the widespread practice alongside the walking street round bar-closing time, the boys-turned-girls used a sequence of somewhat-less-than-coy gestures to attract the eye of the 2 Arab travelers. The heaving breasts having led them into considering their accosters had been truly engaging young females, the Saudis negotiated a value of two,000 baht each for the two ladyboys, named Nong Suzee and Nong Som-O, from Nong Khai and Chiang Rai Provinces, respectively. Taking the ladyboys again to their room on the Thara Patong Hotel, however, they quickly realized the truth: down below they had been nonetheless wholly male. Thinking that they had been tricked, the 2 males refused to pay and contacted the resort workers for assist to do away with Suzee and Som-O. But as they had been doing so, the two “girls” called their friends by mobile phone for back-up and a melée ensued exterior the resort. Police arrested the 5 ladyboys to cost them with assault, but the two Saudis determined not to press expenses, flying again to the relative sanity and tranquility of their house nation the following day. Faux pas: In the second case, at about 5 am on September 12, a 23-year-old Frenchman named Simon freaked out in the rented room of 24-year-old Nong Ple, a ladyboy who had not yet undergone the final step in gender-reassignment surgical procedure. When he discovered that the bargirl he had gone home with was actually a barboy, Monsieur Simon frantically tried to seize his garments and bid the ladyboy adieu. But the artful Nong Ple locked the door to his room, blocking the Frenchman’s most logical route of escape. In Quick for freedom, Simon went to the third-floor balcony – and jumped. He was last reported to be in a grave situation at Patong Hospital, where he was being handled for a head wound requiring 50 stitches and a