Get me a pretty face (2, final)

I thought we could do better if we asked one of the younger Thai workers to pose instead. However, I did not expect my boss would broadcast the news.

The head of the assembly line smiled. She did not seem worried that I wanted someone prettier.

The owner found someone who took her place. She had dyed her hair an auburn colour, so she looked like a mix between an Asian and a foreigner.

Farang S was busy taking pictures. 'I would like to ask a handsome guy to pose instead,' I told him quietly.

'I am not selling pretty faces, but my product,' said farang S.

'Still, foreigners like Thai girls...and some like Thai boys, too,' I said.

I had my eye on one - a young man with a tall and willowy frame, who wears his hair long. He was sitting behind me, working at his desk. I have also seen him kicking takraw with friends during lunch breaks.

The young man has a pretty face. He knows I find him interesting, because I like to watch him.

He returns my gaze in a curious manner. Will he change the way he normally behaves, once he knows he has a fan? I shall have to keep an eye on him.

Earlier, farang S and I sat in his office discussing Thai boys and gay life.

'Sometimes a guy will have all the attributes of a good-looking gay boy - but not be one,' I said.

I told farang S which boy I liked.

He opened his computer, and found the spot where he keeps pictures he takes for work. He found one of a young man installing an antenna. His face was partially obscured.

'Is this the one? It's not clear, but I was taking a photograph of the antenna, not the boy,' he said.

'That's him.'

Farang S and the boy went on a work trip to Pattaya, to put in an FM antenna for a company there.

'He's not my type,' farang S pronounced.

Farang S keeps his work life and his private life separate. But as someone who has lived in Thailand for 15 years, he knows Thais well.

'The ones who wear their hair long just to ape fashion - they are never gay,' he said.

I suspect part of the young man's appeal lay in the fact that he was indeed straight.

A Thai gay boy would look more like a girl, but in a deliberate, showy way. He is on the hunt for other gay boys to ensnare with his charm and his wiles.

The straight ones can look fem, too, but it's often accidental. They want to attract girls, not boys, but sometimes forget to look like real men.

Thai women do not seem to mind. Their gay admirers won't object, either.