French Polynesia in search of the rae rae

[thaibound]

so i'm watching a tv show, 'no reservations', which is anthony bourdain's adventures in travel, writing and eating around the world and he's in french polynesia. i tune in because i've never been and i'm curious. it's so friggin beautiful. little did i know.

next thing i see he's having a late-night snack with 3 transexuals, known there as rae rae. the narration says they are relatively "accepted" there. a mini-version of the ladyboy scene in thailand? i'd never heard anything about it. so...

anybody ever been to french polynesia? know anything about the relative beauty and availability of the rae rae to mongers such as ourselves? think it might be excuse enough to venture to the world's most romantic paradise figuring i can pick me up a babe in the city and take her along to the boonies for a few nights of enjoyable relaxation? i don't think it's *anything* like taking a girl from club 131 out to samet for a week, but still...i am *very* curious.

anybody got experience/knowledge to share? thanks in advance.

ps he quoted gauguin as describing himself as a 'she-man'. wtf??
never heard that in art class!

[PigDogg]

I've never been there but heard that in Papete there may be some Mahu.

[thaibound]

i'm less than 48 hours away from booking my flight to bkk and am scrambling to see if i can/should add a stop-over...but it may have to wait for another day. i've been wanting to go to french polynesia for years, but i kept waiting til i fell in love because i didn't want to waste all that romantic beauty on my left hand.

but now i might just be a good mahu phone number away!

[PigDogg]

I just assumed a stop over would be prohibitively expensive, please let me know if you find out otherwise man.

But since you're an artiste you might never leave Bora Bora.

[thaibound]

so far you are correct, the $ triples for what i had hoped would be a simple stop "along the way". may have to ponder it further while eating at 'the world's best restaurant' on samet.

[Guest]

You will not find one single TS beauty (or ugly) anywhere in French Polynesia!!! And all the local gg on Tahiti have been wise to whitey for decades. Sounds like you already looked into hotel rates. Food was the second most Xpensive thing.

They do have great Tiki bars though.

Save your pieces of eight and read Getting Stoned with Savages on your flight to Bkk...

[thaibound]

(prime rib @ Aug. 24 2007,21:47) You will not find one single TS beauty (or ugly) anywhere in French Polynesia!!! And all the local gg on Tahiti have been wise to whitey for decades. Sounds like you already looked into hotel rates. Food was the second most Xpensive thing.

They do have great Tiki bars though.

Save your pieces of eight and read Getting Stoned with Savages on your flight to Bkk...

but i *saw* three of them on 'no reservations'. not babes, but one was totally doable. and spoke decent english. this was in papete i believe. did you go do a little first-hand research there, PR? come up empty-handed? not to mention broke!
maybe i'd have better luck on koh chang if i'm looking for a deserted tropical paradise with a ladyboy or two. or maybe samui is as about as de-populated as i can go successfully...
anyway, i'll check out 'savages', thnx for the tip.

[Guest]

Yeah, there was scientific research involved (pub crawls), but I dont claim to be an expert since I was only in Papeete 2 nights. Hell those 3 you saw could have been right around the corner from me! No Cascades or 131's were found on my visit. That was 5 years ago, things change.

No denying the natural beauty of the islands though (Bora Bora, Moorea), and there's plenty of eye-candy at the beaches!  

Unfortunately all the main islands were over inhabited with white honeymooners.

That book, GSWSavages, has a great scene where the author (Maarten Troost) is pursued by a pack of amorous crossdressers on Fiji.
Also check out - The Sex Lives of Cannibals. Another one of his comedy travelogues centered in the South Pacific.

[kahuna]

There is another great read too by Paul Theroux...The Happy Isles Of Oceania - Paddling the Pacific