Ladyboys and Honeymooners

Well we're sitting in the Piano Bar chatting to a couple of French guys who used to live in Papeete and are back here on holidays and what looks like a very manly woman comes straight up to us, lifts her top and with an enticing wiggle shows her bare breasts. Interesting.

She's actually preening in front of a mirror and isn't interested in us at all. This is a bar frequented by Tahiti's own ladyboys, boys often brought up as girls who look a lot better than some of the women I've come across.

To get in we had to pass a convoy of angry-looking bouncers. One sits at a small table with what looks like a book of raffle tickets. But once inside the atmosphere is friendly, where the music is hip hop meets disco meets Hawaiian guitar.

It's OK for European men to be seen together, my new friend tells me, but not for Tahitians. It's taboo.

It struck me as kind of odd that today Tahiti and particularly resorts on islands like Bora Bora is a hotspot for honeymooners.

Ladyboys and honeymooners? Seedy clubs and overwater bungalows? There's parallels there, but I'm not quite sure what. Let me think about this.