Although Bachok is known for a heavy presence of trans-vestites, Kelantan, a state with different cashier counters for men and women at shopping centres, is not exactly the place for cross-dressers.
And what ambition! The beauty pageant was called "Miss Universe Asia 2008".
It was not surprising, therefore, that officers of the Kelantan Islamic Religious Department pounced on the transvestites and transsexuals participating in the beauty pageant at a resort in Bachok on July 25. Sixteen were arrested.
According to the department's chief assistant director (enforcement), Mohd Abdul Aziz Mohd Noor, about 300 people were present at the pageant, including spectators.
He said 50 other trans-vestites, getting ready for the contest, evaded arrest.
Most of the transvestites, he said, were professionals, teachers and bank staff.
Where did they find the courage to emulate transsexuals across the border in Thailand who participate in openly-celebrated annual beauty pageants?
Perhaps the proximity prompted this pageant.
Having seen pictures of Thai participants of the Miss Tiffany pageant and the pictures of our local participants, I have to say the locals are decidedly more manly.
It is exceedingly difficult to tell the difference between a Miss Tiffany and a real woman. Some (men, of course) say, the Miss Tiffanies look lovelier and sexier.
This was not the first time such a contest had been held in Malaysia, of course.
In January 2004, for instance, a "Ratu Jamboo" drag queen pageant was held at a bar in Kuala Lumpur.
It was reported that one contestant fell during the show and the clothes of another fell off, revealing things that are best kept covered.
This was also not the first time such a pageant had been forced to end abruptly.
On May 18, 1998, the Kedah Islamic Affairs Department raided a hall at Lebuhraya Sultan Abdul Halim where 13 finalists were parading on the catwalk. That pageant, apparently, was held to liven up a wedding reception.
Well, the arrival of the department's officers should have livened it up all right.
A total of 50 transvestites, aged between 20 and 45, were detained. Four came from Thailand's southern areas of Yala, Narathiwat and Satun and one from Dumai, Indonesia.
The others were from Kedah, Negri Sembilan, Perak, Kuala Lumpur, Johor, Terengganu and Penang. When some of them could not post bail, fellow trans-vestites flooded the Syariah court to help out.
Those detained in Bachock should consider themselves lucky as they did not share the fate of transvestite Mat Sahak Man, 30, who drowned while attempting to escape a raid on Dec 6, 1993, in Taiping, Perak.
He was among six transvestites who jumped into one of the lakes at the Taiping Lake Gardens to try to swim away in the night. He was unlucky.
Malaysians have never been certain about how to handle this group of people. An unsettling feeling grips most of us when discussing them and that, perhaps, explains the jokey tenor of our conversations. Our views vary from repugnance to amusement.
It could be that our views are coloured by the fact that many of them are said to be involved in drugs and sexual activities.
But how did this come about? Did we, by marginalising them, drive some of them to offer sexual services as a means of earning a living? Has any government agency reached out to them, not perfunctorily but in an honest manner?
While the more "normal" among us may chuckle or look with amusement when talking about transvestites, we forget that within those frames lurk human beings with likes and dislikes.
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