The History Of Patong, The Beginning.

[LivinLOS]

I dont want to derail this thread as I personally do love the old stories and pictures of Patongs / Phukets history and growth.. But I do love packing up and heading off to explore the coastal spots.. Turatao and Koh Lippe is well and truly 'discovered' but still a superb week away. I am hopeful to do a bike run up around the southern Cambo next month. Basically as a glass half full kinda guy I see we have the amenities and 'base' here now yet exploration is so easy to get to, the only thing lacking perhaps is the 'party' vibe in the quiet places.

[Sir Burr]

The backpackers find them first because they get off the beaten trail.

I think you'll find that the backpackers of today are a very different species from the backpackers of the 70's and 80's.

They are far less adventurous. They have phones, e-mail and they all seem to have that ubiquitous little yellow book (Lonely Planet) clutched in their hand and treat it as the Holy Bible. They only travel on "ant-trails" created by the book.

They need to go to the "In" places for boasting rights. They don't go off the beaten track anymore. They are a completely different animal to the earlier backpackers who were pioneers in their way.

Edited August 2, 2008 by Sir Burr

[OriginalPoster]

Being a whippersnapper and late arrival I cant comment on how it was back in those days..

But I always get curious, when guys say how great it was back when there were few tourists, no infrastructure, no supermarkets, etc etc etc. Cant that kind of environment be found simply by going to rural backwater places even now ?? I took a tour down the Trang coastline to Satun last year, it was beautiful, all those things that people say when talking like this.. I mean I couldnt live there but it was great to go and see it. I mean how much different is that now to how people describe the 'good old days' scenes ?? Or something like Cambos deserted coastline ?? Or the Islands off Cambo ?? Or even closer to home like Koh Sukorn or the Krabi Islands like Koh Jum ??

I am not asking this as a subtle dig or way to knock the comments, I genuinely wonder what it is that 'old Phuket' had pre development that places like that dont offer now ??

I'm not sure that it was that different, but maybe I don't go far back enough to know for sure. I think that part of it is that the "good old days" are always better, regardless of how good they seemed to be at the time. You can bet that these days (meaning today) will be to "good old days" for old-time expats in Thailand twenty years from now.

I went to Patong for the first time in 1991. At that time, Patong struck me as being a little bit out of control but in a good way. I think that I would compare the Patong of 1991 to the Chaweng of 2001, if that's a maeningful analogy to you. On the same trip, I went to Samui and Krabi. and while it was wonderful if you liked beaches and nothing else, there wasn't a lot of excitement there, but as long as you're not a person who's excessively susceptible to sunburn, and your goal was to do absolutely nothing for a while, you couldn't top it. But, as you point out, there are other under or undeveloped beach areas in the world, even in Thailand. I suspect that if they truly are less good than the Phuket, Krabi, and Samui of old that it would most likely be by coincidence. I think those areas took off mostly because they were "discovered" first by backpackers and subsequntly featured by the Lonely Planet and then by more upscale travel publications, whereas Trang was (or will be) discovered later.

Edited August 2, 2008 by OriginalPoster

[retirednavyman]

I came in via the USNS Spica back in early 1988 and we just dropped anchor not too far from the beach. The locals sent a small barge (with seats) out to our ship or you could take a jetski for a modest fee. We had a mixed crew of military personnel and civilian mariners and ended up anchored out for about a week. There wasn't much to it back then, the Banana disco was there right next to the Patpong Hotel (right next to the Banana) but almost directly behind it.

There were a couple of side streets with open bars and a few establishments (yes even the Hard Rock Cafe) which I believe was the newest establishment and pretty snazzy as well. There weren't very many hotels at that time but the area was still a work in progress and we had a blast there and the locals were so nice, outgoing and friendly to us which made our visit even more memorable.

Came back with an aircrew in 1991 landed at Patpong International and pulled a 48 hour power liberty and things hadn't changed all that much.

There's my 2 cents

........Patpong Hotel ? You mean the Patong Beach Hotel, at that time the first and only hotel and the only outlet which had a telephone (radio phone actually) service.

We (friend and myself) staid there just 2 nights and moved into the Patong Beach Bungalows with 'private' palmtree and motobike parked in front right ON the beach....ooohhh the old times...

That was the time we met Jeroen and Maarten (fantasea divers) from Holland; Maarten just sold the first-ever 'coffee' shop in Amsterdam on Rusland (street)...

LaoPo

Hi LaoPo

Yes that's correct it was the Patong Beach Hotel and coincidentally i stayed at the Patong Beach Bungalows as well after i checked out of the Patong Beach Hotel and yes you are so right i miss the old times too

Take care

Mike