Prostitution, the CIA, David Bowie and Patpong – Undercover in Bangkok infamous red light district

[zydeco]

And at one point it was even a commercially respectable area. The Air France building inside which was AAM, I think.

[elliss]

13 hours ago, mlkik said:

I went there 27 years ago and remember the snake show ! Also the live sex shows and opening bottles of beer with their fannys.

 

      Mines a large Leo , those were the days , innocent fun .

       Then came the sex tourists ...555

[khaowong1]

14 hours ago, mlkik said:

I went there 27 years ago and remember the snake show ! Also the live sex shows and opening bottles of beer with their fannys.

I went there in the 80's once or twice, mostly remember way too many ladyboy shows.  

[elliss]

2 hours ago, Just Weird said:

Think you may be right, that rings a bell.   Motorbike lowered from the floor above through a hole in the ceiling with a soon-to-be-copulating couple on it.

 

    What was the make of the Motorbike ? , a Harley , make my dream complete .

     Fantastic topic , thx ...

 

     

[mauGR1]

15 hours ago, sanemax said:

No, the female  performers emit ping-pong balls from their vaginas

Yep, also other various objects.

I went there in 99' on my first trip, a cracker exploded into a performer's vagina, i was watching in shock, while she was carried away, the show went on.

We asked for the bill and left.

[Just Weird]

1 hour ago, elliss said:

What was the make of the Motorbike ? , a Harley , make my dream complete .

     Fantastic topic , thx ...

Honda. Love the sarcasm.

[lamyai3]

4 hours ago, Misterwhisper said:

FireCat

I saw it a couple of times when it was still on in the early 00s, though I remembered it as Supergirls. But then Firecat sounds familiar too...

[sunnyboy2018]

19 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Patpong was never as good as it's reputation, at least in the early 90s. Upstairs were ripoff joints for the unwary, and down stairs were bog standard gogos.

It probably survived more on notoriety than quality.

Nana Plaza and Soi Cowboy were both better entertainment places.

By the late 90s there were probably more bag shops than gogos and the horrible night market selling overpriced junk was a pestilence to anyone trying to get to a gogo.

Does anyone even go there anymore? I certainly wouldn't make the effort. Perhaps the Chinese tour groups go there like they do to Pattaya's Walking Street.

You are correct in many ways. Patpong lost its way by mid/late 90s. Why is unclear.  New municipal governance? New Police chief? However, Walking Street in Pattaya is much more fun still despite the tour groups.

[sunnyboy2018]

4 hours ago, elliss said:

 

    What was the make of the Motorbike ? , a Harley , make my dream complete .

     Fantastic topic , thx ...

 

     

It was a chopper with monkey swinger handle  bars....

Edited November 15, 2019 by sunnyboy2018

[sunnyboy2018]

5 hours ago, elliss said:

 

      Mines a large Leo , those were the days , innocent fun .

       Then came the sex tourists ...555

The innocent fun, pre 80s  included child sex shows and sex with ducks.

[sunnyboy2018]

5 hours ago, zydeco said:

And at one point it was even a commercially respectable area. The Air France building inside which was AAM, I think.

Commercially respectable concerns next to red light areas is  common, phenomenon not just in Thailand.

[HiSoLowSoNoSo]

12 hours ago, NanLaew said:

Lucy's, Madrid, Kings Castle, Star of Light, Kangaroo, Derby King that had Big Bill working making the best Reuben on rye this side of the Pacific. You could order delivery from the bar at Goldfingers. If we were up from Pattaya on a long weekend debauch in Bangkok, booking the 3-bedroom suite at the MMM (sahm em) apartments was a must. How the housekeeping kept us stocked with fresh dry towels was a mystery but we tipped them well.

Wonder if Big Bill is still alive?

[albertik]

21 hours ago, Cats4ever said:

In the 70's Patpong was a great place. I remember Sugar Shack as a cool place. Bobby's Arms in the car park was a good drinking spot, where all types gathered in a good spirit. Yes, the Foodland was a handy asset also. A military government brought in midnight closing at one time. The bar I was in organised a convoy of taxis (traffic was allowed then) to take all who wanted to some large house in the burbs, where the show continued. Nothing stays the same forever, sometimes good and sometimes bad.

Yeah,  they were called "blue shows" as I recall.   Early 70's

[mlkik]

12 hours ago, elliss said:

 

      Mines a large Leo , those were the days , innocent fun .

       Then came the sex tourists ...555

It would have been a Singha , Leo was not around back then 555.

I also remember the girls firing darts from their fannies to pop balloons and also put razor blades inside their marys and pulling them out on a string.

I sat and saw the girl who did this wrapping the blades in cellotape first.

[Damrongsak]

On 11/14/2019 at 8:47 PM, Dermah said:

Why do they do that?

Because they are older? The young ones would stick a pen or Magic Marker up there and write something on a piece of paper.  After awhile, the marker was a loose fit, so they went to ping pong balls I suppose.

 

Patpong was fun when I went there occasionally from up-country (Loei) around 1977-79. Still martial law with a curfew, so we had some exciting taxi rides at closing time.

 

Used to be a bar where expatriates would gather on a weekend afternoon and play Dixieland Jazz. 

Edited November 16, 2019 by Damrongsak

[Yadon Toploy]

18 hours ago, Duck J Butters said:

All that stuff still exists. You just need to be tech savvy to find out where it is. Some of the most posh clubs in Thailand are in the trampiest, dirtiest areas. For example, I had to travel 1000 feet through a sewer once to get to an orgy with Thai celebs. Thailand has gone digital 4.0. Many crazy parties and wild times in Thailand in 2020 that would make the 70s look lame. Way better designer drugs now too. Must be tech savvy to get connected. Everything isn't out in the open like it used to be. Great party in Bangkok called The Hush Hush but you won't be reading about it on Google or anywhere on the public web. Going to need to know how to use a Tor Browser to get updates on its shifting location...which will likely be in some random abandoned warehouse in Bangkok...somewhere...no one ever knows where the party will go down. 

No, it was way better before and you missed out.

[billd766]

20 hours ago, dcnx said:

Rubbish. All lies. That doesn’t actually happen in my Thailand and never did.
 

Thais are Buddhists who don’t engage in the sex industry.

 

Well in my Thailand 1993 to 97 it did and again in 2001 to 04 it did. I haven't been that for donkeys years now.

[thaibeachlovers]

18 hours ago, sunnyboy2018 said:

You are correct. All so called red light areas in Thailand offer plenty of other entertainment including bars,  restaurants and shops. Walking street has loads going on as does Soi Nana and Soi cowboy. They are entertainment zones but PP lost its mojo sometime in the 90s. New police chief? New municipal rules?

It lost it's "mojo" in the 90s when the bag shops began taking over gogos.

I guess not enough customers.

The horrid night market finished the job.

[LesT21]

A few years back a group of us dropped by the Crown Royal looking for some Crown Royal, no have. They did have a couple empty bottles on display. We probably should have dropped Izzy's name but didn't. Whenever in country always stop in at the Madrid for a bite to eat, a drink or two and soak in the atmosphere. 

[holy cow cm]

Patpong was a marvel for sure. Way of daily life actually. Sure miss it and the times as just isn't the same anymore or never could be the same. I did flip over there about 2 months ago and on Patpong one there is still some life but the gay scene has really crept in on the going from Foodland to Suriwong rd and that is a total disappointment. 

[zydeco]

1 hour ago, LesT21 said:

A few years back a group of us dropped by the Crown Royal looking for some Crown Royal, no have. They did have a couple empty bottles on display. We probably should have dropped Izzy's name but didn't. Whenever in country always stop in at the Madrid for a bite to eat, a drink or two and soak in the atmosphere. 

Not sure dropping Izzy's name would help these days. I believe he departed from the CR on less than friendly terms. 

[Sonhia]

Thailand is the biggest BROTHEL in the world!

 

Thais should be proud of such a distinction. They should hold yet another public holiday to celebrate National Prostition Day.

 

Thats all most Thai women, men and femboys can do, is sell their body. No wonder Thai are so low in the educational rankings.

 

Sad place

[DonaldBattles]

9 hours ago, HiSoLowSoNoSo said:

Wonder if Big Bill is still alive?

I paid 30k to get big Bill out of the hospital once. He never paid me back. Last account I had several years ago he was in Phuket. No word for many years.

[Narong Wongwan]

I remembered 2 restaurants (probably same owner) named Old Dutch and Old Siam. 

The motorbike live sex show was in Supergirls bar. 

I revisited Patpong last month (last visit was more than 10 years ago) and all of the upstairs bars are gone. It’s a shadow of its former self. 

[LesT21]

15 hours ago, zydeco said:

Not sure dropping Izzy's name would help these days. I believe he departed from the CR on less than friendly terms. 

Agree, this was a few years back, but think he had already parted ways with them then. Last time I saw Izzy was in 2006 at a gathering of old AAM, CASI, USAID and others in BKK. Was just regular USAF back in the day, but got hooked up with those guys in the late 1990's, lots of interesting conversations when they get together. Unfortunately, there are fewer of them every day.

[zydeco]

8 hours ago, LesT21 said:

Agree, this was a few years back, but think he had already parted ways with them then. Last time I saw Izzy was in 2006 at a gathering of old AAM, CASI, USAID and others in BKK. Was just regular USAF back in the day, but got hooked up with those guys in the late 1990's, lots of interesting conversations when they get together. Unfortunately, there are fewer of them every day.

There is at least one more AAM/CASI guy who lives here permanently, and who, until a year or two ago, was still dropping in every few months at the Madrid. Not to mention some AAM Thai chopper pilots and kickers still here, too. 

[Damrongsak]

Was anyone around Patpong when they filmed a scene for the movie "Deer Hunter" in 1977?  They paid to have the signs on one street changed to make it look like it was in Saigon.  The particular scene I'm thinking about had a bunch of GI's milling about on the sidewalk and bar girls propositioning.  My BKK-based buddy got hired as an extra to dress up as a GI and hit on bar girls.  He was very good at the latter.  He did make it into the movie for maybe 30 seconds, a big grinning face chatting with the girls. ????  He also viewed what was supposed to be a scene with locals storming the Embassy gates.  He said the Thai extras really got into that!  I think the pay was $25 a day.

 

I got word and came down to BKK from Loei but about a week too late. 

Edited November 18, 2019 by Damrongsak

[rumak]

On 11/15/2019 at 5:23 PM, PatOngo said:

Planning on going there some time! What's it like?

i think ol sunnyboy is not used to getting his leg pulled   .....

[ccarbaugh]

AHHHHH, 1973/74 - "Heaven-On-Earth!" 

[Jim1000]

On ‎11‎/‎15‎/‎2019 at 6:40 AM, sanemax said:

Full on live sex shows and  ping pong balls , blow darts and bananas flying all over the place .

  Holding a ballon up awaiting a dart to come flying out a vagina aiming to burst the  ballon is a frightening experience .

  You are trying to cover your eyes and look at the same time .

I assume you didn't have insurance cover in those days sanemax  ?