Bangkok's Patpong Is Losing Its Sex Appeal

[Nisa]

Baccara is in Soi Cowboy, yet the photo caption in the article says "The bright lights of Patpong in Bangkok, Thailand".

You caught that too. Looks like they lifted it from this 2008 Flickr photo labeled Patpong http://www.flickr.com/photos/upton/4147810924/

[thaihome]

....People go to the Patpong strip with one sole goal,to participate in or to watch disgusting displays of depravity that would depress normal well adjusted adults. ...?

Actually the bars in which said activities take place are few these days and they have very few customers.

As another poster said, there are several very good live music venues which attract a very mixed crowd, mostly though mostly middle class young Thais,

Your statement is patently false and you are passing a judgment on a place and people that go there that is based on nothing more than your own ignorance.

TH

[renaissanc]

Did you ever stop to think it might be THAILAND that is losing its Appeal? One poster mentioned "slimy Phuket" another Nana before the prices and pressure raised its ugl head - Pattaya do you need any further hint when at least half the establishments are empty. As usual Thailand is the last to wake up Tourists like the frivolity, the mystique, etc they do not want the Scams, the Hassle, the one sided BiB - they are a moving to brighter and cheaper shores. (Sorry I forgot the most important SAFER)

Valid comment, I think! I've lived here 3 decades and I have seen these places deteriorate, such that they are not worth visiting anymore. I think that the Police and the other corrupt people who run Pattaya, Patpong, and Patong's red light areas, are so engrossed in their corruption and extortion money that they don't care how bad the places become. If their revenue falls because of a lack of tourists, they probably just demand higher payments. Endemic and deeply ingrained corruption will bring Thailand to its knees eventually, but then this is necessary; otherwise, people won't demand change. People have to "hurt" before they want change.

[xthAi76s]

All this is really just a natural progression of things as Thais realize the value of money, the wealth disparity across countries (and in their own country) and have to be more competitive in the global economy. My wife grew up here, left for the US for undergrad and grad school, and now that she is back, she says she notices a discernible drop off in how generally friendly people are as compared to when she was younger. Her parents say the same thing. From what friends who live in China say, the same thing is going on there. Competition makes you a bit 'nastier' -- esp when you're not prepared for it.

[KKvampire]

Girls or Boys for that matter in bars are only interested in geting your money , and ASAP, so they can move on to the next victim.

[freebyrd]

Patpong was great in the early eighties. Started going down hill when they opened the night market.

My first visit to Patpong was as a wide eyed 31 year old was in 1988, no market then and it still had its' 'fun' element. The night market came shortly after and it soon became grab and insult the farang. I was married to a Thai for 20 years plus and frankly the majority of Thai people that I encountered lost the plot back in '98 when the IMF 'forced' money on poor downtrodden Thailand . After that it became an even quicker gain for everything and bugger the consequences. I plodded on for another 8 years on and off in TL, 5 years ago I landed here in Phnom Penh and haven't looked back. Indeed there is prostitution here (in what country does it not exist at some level?) although thankfully the Khmers have yet to sink to the level of opening bottles with their genitals and the like. I once asked a tourist when I worked in a hotel in BKK whether he would still call last night's show 'great fun' if it were his 16 year old daughter performing for him and his friends?

'Na wai, lang lork' they say in Thai. Loosely translated as wai to your face and give you the finger when you turn your back. The LOS lost that tag long long ago and I don't know why users still call it such, but individual choice and all that.....

Edited December 9, 2011 by freebyrd

[phuketrichard]

Getting back to the topic ,Patpong is as slimy as Phuket, maybe worse.

Are u serious!!!

get a life. Patpong is a low class area full of old style bars with a tourist shopping market.

And again Patong is NOT Phuket

[Roota]

Patpong was great in the early eighties. Started going down hill when they opened the night market.

Exactly. The whole street had a nice kind of bar village feeling to it up till then.

The Patpong bars in their prime then, like Safari and Firecat, were to my mind the best Bangkok ever had. Remarkably less mercenary than today, and just a lot more fun.

[xavierr]

I have been living here in Bangkok for a long time. Some good friends one day told me in a conversation that they had gone to Patpong. I told them I had not been there yet, but that maybe one day I should go because it was such a representative place of nightlife in the city where I live.

My friends told me it was not worth to go there.The place was scary and it was not fun. They were relieved when they left.

[CockneyGit]

Have lived in LOS for over a decade now and you couldn't pay me enough to go to Patpong..!!

[DocN]

I came to Thailand for 12 years as a tourist/ for tourism business before I moved here in 2007. I never set a foot into ANY of these areas (Patpong, Cowpoy, Nana, Bangla...you name them).

Now I have been here for 4 years, my apartment is 5 mins walking distance from PP ...and I occasionally enjoy some of the places there.

You just have to find the "stuff" you like (for me that is mainly PP2).

It could all use a new paint, though.

[norwayeagle]

Have lived in LOS for over a decade now and you couldn't pay me enough to go to Patpong..!!

They have Good air inborn cheese there.Might be that's one of the reasons for the changes .The smell .

[boggle]

For some well done and shows with more class and a more pleasant atmosphere Angle Wish Nana.

Have taken friends and family there. Not a complaint.

Done Patpong under duress for friends, never a pleasant time.

As for Phuket it went off my return to list years ago.

[KimoMax]

Patpong Silom is and has been the Cess Pool of Thailand for the 20+ years I have been aquainted to Thailand. Especially the Upstairs Rip Off "Show Bars" offered by the Touts.

No differnet than Soho Bars in London.

Nana, Cowboy, Pattaya, Phuket all still at least mostly not hold you ransom for some lousy show.

Patpong is only fun for a couple of the Live Music Venues on the ground floor main road.

In my Opinion, I have never seen a Sexy side to Patpong Bars.

Give me Nana, Cowboy, Pattaya, Phuket Any Day or Nite.

Obviousley the OP and many others don't get it about Patpong. It is pure and simple Rip Off.

Go there at your Own Risk !

[waighty]

Getting back to the topic ,Patpong is as slimy as Phuket, maybe worse.

Phuket is slimier. No annoying Nepalese suit salesmen in Patpong and the taxis have meters. Having said that, the place went downhill many years ago. In the 80's and early 90's it was quite a spectacle.

Balderdash. Phuket is a large island with plenty to offer. Although Phuket has Bangla Rd. in Patong, which is considerably tamer than Patpong, the Bangla ping pong shows offer harmless G rated displays of guys smacking a ball back and forth and not some harlot expeling the ball from a well used body orifice. as is the case in Patpong. Patpong is a depressing strip that represents all that is wrong with Thailand and it should have been bulldozed decades ago.People go to the Patpong strip with one sole goal,to participate in or to watch disgusting displays of depravity that would depress normal well adjusted adults. On the other hand, plenty of people that visit Phuket do not go near Bangla road let alone set foot in the Bangla Rd. bars.

Sheesh. How can one even compare Patpong,the sleazy fire trap of a strip filled with filth, with the big island of Phuket with all the attributes that a big island has?

What a load of c%$p. A friend has just left Phuket and he saw the whole gambit. As a matter of fact the las nearly lost one of the frogs. Tamer than Patpong. Come back to planet Earth

[stoneyboy]

No one on TV likes patpong yet there are currently 600 users reading this topic.

[Arkady]

The market is now the raison d'etre of Patpong and without it the street would have been redeveloped or sold by the family long ago. The bars have been just a side show for 20 years.

[spidermike007]

The greatest loss of appeal, comes from the police allowing the scam operators to ply their trade, on the 2nd floor. I have had friends, who are savvy about Thailand get scammed for thousands of baht, after having one or two drinks. The waiter informs their valued patron that either you pay the amount we have asked, or you discuss it with 6 of our bouncers in the back, behind the bar. This is well known, and most people will not go near the place, for this reason. Since the mobs there seem to either control the police, or exert great influence over them, nothing gets done. And since there is zero fight against corruption or mod activity in Thailand, there seems to be little hope of change, or improvement. This is the unspoken reality of Patpong. It is indeed a sad place. I have NEVER, in all the years I have been going there had anyone try to scam me in Soi Cowboy. Of course the drinks are up to 150 baht (even for a soda water!), and the bar fines are up to 700 baht! At least in Pattaya one can get a drink for 70 baht all night long. When will the Bangkok bars get competitive on pricing?

[TeddyFlyfisherDavis]

This is actually good news for Thailand. A tourist pointing out that there are other places to go rather than girlie bars.

I agree 100%...Why would anyone want to have the first impression of Thailand as a sex hole...? A shaved "gash" between some mindless womans legs dancing in front of my face, IS NOT THAILAND...! If that is what you come here for then just stay home...It's obvious that these guys that DO come here for that, have the mentality of a 14 year old...When I arrived here for the first time I too was taken for a tour of the girly bars and thought it was a really bad PR move on the person that hosted me...I have better and more worthwhile things to do here than watch some hard up women perform for even more ugly,overweight, sex starved, hard up idiots...Good luck to all of you that promote this crap...But I can do without seeing a farm girl shove objects up and into places in her body that don't belong there...Not to mention the amount of money those idiots spend to satisfy some unfulfilled childhood fantasy there mothers could not provide...

[w11guy]

Did you ever stop to think it might be THAILAND that is losing its Appeal? One poster mentioned "slimy Phuket" another Nana before the prices and pressure raised its ugl head - Pattaya do you need any further hint when at least half the establishments are empty. As usual Thailand is the last to wake up Tourists like the frivolity, the mystique, etc they do not want the Scams, the Hassle, the one sided BiB - they are a moving to brighter and cheaper shores. (Sorry I forgot the most important SAFER)

The places you mention are a tiny fraction of Thailand. All countries have bad places. Seems maybe the problem is that most people want to visit the bad places. There are lots of great places in Thailand. Hang around dodgy areas and you will get scammed. The same is true of UK, USA, etc. I have lived here for almost two years and feel safe. I have never paid a bribe. I've only spoken to the police 3 times. Twice they stopped me to warn me that there were bag snatchers in the area and the other time I was eating in a shop house and there was a policeman at the next table who started chatting to me. All very friendly. But I don't hang around Nana, Patpong, etc. If you hang around those areas, what do you expect? Try hanging around the dodgy red light districts in London and you will get much more trouble than you get here. It's not about Thailand, it's about the dodgy tourists visiting dodgy areas.

Edited December 9, 2011 by w11guy

[RKASA]

Wonder how long until pp will be demolished to make way for another shopping mall/hotel. We are short of these.

How ever long it takes it won't be soon enough. Open space would be an improvement - an empty field with trees to start. No cover charge.

[HerbalEd]

Did you ever stop to think it might be THAILAND that is losing its Appeal? One poster mentioned "slimy Phuket" another Nana before the prices and pressure raised its ugl head - Pattaya do you need any further hint when at least half the establishments are empty. As usual Thailand is the last to wake up Tourists like the frivolity, the mystique, etc they do not want the Scams, the Hassle, the one sided BiB - they are a moving to brighter and cheaper shores. (Sorry I forgot the most important SAFER)

Where do you get your misinformation? Actually .... Thailand tourism keeps increasing every year. Even with the loss of tourism because of this year's floods, there is already evidence that in a month or two the tourist numbers will be up to normal. That's based upon numbers of tourists' hotel and flight reservations.

And .... SAFER?? Yes, there can be safety problems in Thailand .... as there are in USA, Europe, Australia, etc., but after living in Thailand for many years I must say that I feel very safe here and I know of many places that are much more dangerous than Thailand ... e.g., Mexico, Peru, Nigeria, South Africa, Brazil, parts of USA cities, etc., etc., etc.

Edited December 9, 2011 by HerbalEd

[khaowong1]

Did you ever stop to think it might be THAILAND that is losing its Appeal? One poster mentioned "slimy Phuket" another Nana before the prices and pressure raised its ugl head - Pattaya do you need any further hint when at least half the establishments are empty. As usual Thailand is the last to wake up Tourists like the frivolity, the mystique, etc they do not want the Scams, the Hassle, the one sided BiB - they are a moving to brighter and cheaper shores. (Sorry I forgot the most important SAFER)

Yes, I think you are probably correct.

[tragickingdom]

So nothing has changed than? In earlier times the police was running a scam in the second floor bars. Demanding an awful lot of money for a drink. What has changed though is the environment in the ground floor places, they became almost family friendly. Too much live music and other rubbish. But that is the sign of times. Rule number one is: Do not go to places where people with a white nose come.

People with white noses are no fun, so the girls and the staff are no fun.

[sfm]

I have been told there is a world of difference between Patpong and any other red-light place in Bangkok - was it "Nana", "Soi 33", "Cowboy"? They say that the good times are still alive and well there, while Patpong has become truly the rock-bottom.

In my email it said "Bangkok's Patpong is losing its sex appeal" which is true, the article says "Bangkok is losing its sex appeal". Not the same statement, and

I wonder who rightfully corrected the headline.

[RedNIvar]

That dump never had a sex appeal.

[ARGUSEYE]

Regarding ripp - off bars in PP:

In the good old days, you only had to read Bernie Trink's "Night owl" column in the afternoon "Bangkok World" paper. (ceased to exist a long time ago)

"Beware, this bar charges for drinks AND entertainment" was Bernie's warning. A real character he was, his Nightlife - columns priceless pieces of journalism,

unthinkable in today's times of political correctness. Of course, today's Patpong would drive Bernie to tears.

By the way, has anybody an idea what he does / where he is now?

[blix99]

Did you ever stop to think it might be THAILAND that is losing its Appeal? One poster mentioned "slimy Phuket" another Nana before the prices and pressure raised its ugl head - Pattaya do you need any further hint when at least half the establishments are empty. As usual Thailand is the last to wake up Tourists like the frivolity, the mystique, etc they do not want the Scams, the Hassle, the one sided BiB - they are a moving to brighter and cheaper shores. (Sorry I forgot the most important SAFER)

Uh, where are these "brighter, cheaper, SAFER, shores" ?? Or at least the ones that have some element of naughtiness to them......

[falangjim]

So nothing has changed than? In earlier times the police was running a scam in the second floor bars. Demanding an awful lot of money for a drink. What has changed though is the environment in the ground floor places, they became almost family friendly. Too much live music and other rubbish. But that is the sign of times. Rule number one is: Do not go to places where people with a white nose come.

People with white noses are no fun, so the girls and the staff are no fun.

People with white noses? I have a white nose and I'm a lot of fun. When I don't have fun is when I am hassled and ripped off by a low-life like you.

And I suggest you learn how to write before you attempt to make a comment here. Now go drink some milk; the adults are talking.

[hansnl]

The death for any venue in the branch is the very obvious money side of the business.

Of course, money is important, the reason for running a business or particiopating in the same business.

However, if the "greedy" side of the business becomes to obvious, it will be the eventual death knell.