Bangkok's Patpong is the gaudiest and most unrestrained red-light district in Asia, probably the world. It is a by-word for all that is permissible, and much that isn't, to seekers-after-pleasures of the flesh. For years tourism officials have tried to play down Patpong's lurid attractions but it remains one of Bangkok's most visited areas.
Lying between Silom and Suriwongse roads, the four acres of bars and massage parlours that lie within Patpong's two main streets are crowded nightly with seekers after sexual pleasure, as well as curious tourists who come to gaze on the glittering neon and the boy and girl bait set to lure punters into the bars.
Patpong and Vietnam War
The original owners of the site were, and still are, a Thai-Chinese family named Patpong, who have owned the site since 1946 when it was a banana plantation. However, with the Vietnam war in 1960 hotting up, the bars and massage parlours moved into the houses that had been built on the plantation, in order to cater to USA servicemen on R. & R. in Bangkok and Pattaya, at that time a small fishing resort and only 3 hours away by road.
Sex Shows and Prostitution in Thailand
Technically what happens in Patpong bars is against the law. Prostitution is illegal in Thailand, but Patpong is a law unto itself.
Activities in the downstairs area pf the bars are relatively tame. Go-go girls sit in rows waiting to move in on a singleton, movies are screened from wall-mounted giant plasma screens, sex-shows from TVs on one wall, International rugby and football from another.
Upstairs is a different matter. What you may have heard about the live sex-shows is true, but exactly who is the exploited and who the exploiter is a moot point.
Patpong Bars, Bangkok, and Their Customers
Sweaty, red-faced, and invariably fat, the men in sleeveless vests and shorts (the obligatory garb for the sex-tourist), with bottoms and thighs bulging over bar stools sit drinking beer from bottles while ogleing tiny Thai girls (or boys) who gyrate around poles in the centre of the room. The performers pout prettily, smiling falsely back at the punters who through the intoxication of the beer and the beauty of the girls and boys, begin to see themselves as madly attractive and capable of being desired by the performers.
The girls tell sad stories, mostly fiction. Many men fall in love with Patpong girls but then comes the switch and the men's stories become more poignant than the girls. They run out of money and the girl runs out on them. C'est la vie!
Tourists walk safely through the neon-lit streets. If one is only sightseeing, then avoid the touts who will proffer a calling card listing, in up to four or five languages, the stuff of porno magazines. You can ignore them and shop in the outdoor market for fake watches or luggage, or have a meal at one of the excellent restaurants in the area, You don't need to even look inside a club to feel the buzz.
Patpong is unique. It is a red-light district with a sense of fun and almost as many women tourists are to be seen there as men. The Thais, even the “working girls” will not work unless there is “sanuk” involved (i.e. fun), and Patpong is innately Thai.
See also Soi Cowboy article
Mari Nicholson - Award Winning travel writer and historian, member of British Guild of Travel Writers.Travelwriters.co.uk, and Society of Women Writers and ...
