Those that read me regularly will know that I've spent quite a while now travelling through SE Asia and have fallen hook line and sinker for the local women - they truly are beyond compare.

But why?

I used to think it was perhaps their feminity, something that Western women seem to have disregarded on the way to emancipation. Long, lustrous hair, swaying hypnotic hips, a playfulness and joie de vivre, a deep desire to please their potential or actual mate. Of course most societies here are male dominated, men are more important than women even if it appears that women do most of the work! Men are lavished with attention from the day they are born, a male paradise indeed.

But the downside of the utter femininity of women here is that it's hard to get a good conversation with them. Believe it or not voluntary organisations exist to provide Farang men and women with evenings during which they can engage in conversation with one another. There's no sex on the menu (the men have a Thai woman, the Farang women are largely ignored by Farang men) but both are starved of conversation with the opposite sex.

Talking to Ferang women working in BK, they become philisophical about the lack of opportunities for romance. They explain that Ferang men working here do the 'Thai thing' for at least a year until it gets out of their system. That means buying sex from bar girls, going to go-go bars, falling in love with women only interested in their wallets and generally making an idiot of themselves over a beautiful Thai woman or several. There are many repeat offenders that never seem to learn.

So that's the background.

But that doesn't explain the attraction. I can easily spend an entire day watching Thai (or any SE Asian) women simply walk by. There's a sexual element of course, but for the most part it's sheer joy of their innate beauty, comportment and shape. And it's the last part that intrigues me.

A recent study has shown that that in the 1950's British women's waists averaged around 27.5 inches. Today that has grown to 34 inches (my waist is 33 inches). 38% of British women are now classified as overweight and 20% of women are obese. But what does this really mean? It means that the average women have become similar to the average man in build. Women have become straight - instead of a bust tapering to a waist and blooming then curvaceous hips they're pretty much the same as a man that doesn't work out. Indeed, men are now developing breasts (hormones in the environment and no excercise/beer) that many a woman would envy.

Why should this be happening? There are the obvious culprits, too much of the wrong foods, lack of excercise and stress (stress induces the production of a hormone called cortisol which promotes fat cells). Probably all of the above. But there's also the health risks, as women become more 'masculine' they also encounter the same problems that overweight males face - heart disease, type II didabetes, strokes and something called 'all cause mortality' - frightening stuff. Women who's waists are 34 inches will expose themselves to all of these health hazards; a sobering thought is that the average American woman's waist size is now 35.5 inches, and climbing.

Which brings me back to the point of the post in the first place. I'm not attracted to men, and Western women have become increasingly similar to men in terms of body shape, attitude, comportment and vulgarity. There's no reason why this shouldn't be of course, for me gender equality is a given and on these travels I really miss talking to Ferang women of all types. But I do not miss their shapes and sexual politics.

Ferang women largely seem to have lost their sense of sanuk, Thai for fun, and it seems dangerous these days in Britain to approach a strange woman for a chat or even smile at her, whereas in SE Asia flirting with women is part of everyday life from the markets to the food stalls, from girl to grandmother. It's true of course that Ferang men back home are just as grumpy, but when they come here they are transformed, envigorated and spend most of their time smiling in this wonderful land of smiles. Whereas the Ferang women remaing grumpy.

I suspect I've gone native, in a land where most women are wasp-waisted, effortless beauties it's hard not to be captivated by their more obvious charms. I've done the 'Thailand thing' but remain in awe of Thai women's innate beauty. In a country where the women are increasingly well educated, successful and independent, one day I hope to meet a woman here who I can finally fall in love with. A pipe dream? Possibly, but more likely to be met here than in a man-cold unfriendly Britain.

yechydda,