PatPong, Bankok

Posted On 10 Jun, 2012 - By Party Destinations - With 0 Comments

Bangkok, Thailand: A Business Trip To Party Land

Featured Party Holiday Destination: >>> Barbados

(c) Ian R Clayton
No party discussion can be complete without mentioning something about Bangkok and Thailand. I stumbled into Patpong, a notorious den of sin in Bangkok, as a naive businessman on a jaunt to develop business ties in the Orient.

Thai Girls Enticing Passers By to Joing The party

Thai Girls Entice You to Visit Night Clubs on The Strip

My team was a handful of seasoned business people, several MBA students and a government guide orchestrating meetings and activities, and making sure the students got the right sort of education.

Young, beautiful girls hung in the PatPong seedy bars, they stood in street doors or danced in windows enticing us to party. My assigned student was visibly shocked and wanted to run home to her mother and abort this business knowledge which had suddenly gotten very carnal. It was a very different scene; a half-naked man strutted out of a doorway with a snake biting his arm in fierce strikes. He was bleeding and looked deranged. The girls too looked dangerous, with the kind of sweetness you know is trouble; many looked underage and seemed eager to engage in illegal activities.

The street is short and filled with exotic dancers, massage parlors and anything you can think of. You can do anything in Bangkok. No matter what sort of party animal you are you will find this place interesting, maybe even appalling but also fascinating. In the center of the street the vendors sell food and counterfeit brands. You can get a Rolex watch for under $50US.

Bankok street food vendor Making Pad Thai

Making Pad Thai on the Street in Bankok

The street food vendors cook right there and then, to-order, on the street. I was tempted to buy Pad Thai, from the food wagons and charcoal grills set up on the roadside. These mobile kitchens are ingenious adapted bicycles, with gas stove and grill. PatPond Street food vendors cook just about everything it seems from these makeshift kitchens on wheels. You can expect to find all varieties of Chinese and Thai foods, kebabs (satay), spicy duck, suasages, fried rice and noodles of every variety.

Our government guide suggested we don’t eat there for reasons I would later understand. We were led instead to the Hard Rock Café later that night. If you absolutely must go to a Hard Rock Cafe then Bankok is as good a place as any to do it. But for the adventurous it is a mistake. Bankok’s Hard Rock cafe is just like the Hard Rock in Georgia.

Tuk Tuks are a popular form of transport in Bankok

We did not stay long in the street and headed off to more upscale nightclubs in Silom where one can spend many dollars at classy clubs and bars. Here too is the Moon Bar, a luxury open-air rooftop to party the night away. Our team took to the streets in Tut-Tuts, racing to take us to a rendezvous at the Hard Rock Café. We raced back much later with the Tut-Tut drivers fully enjoying the excitement of the race and loving the competition presented in taking a large group to the same destination at the same time. The game was on, as to who would drive the fastest, get through the traffic, find the best shortcuts, avoid traffic lights and arive at the party destination first. My Tut tut was winning till our driver abruptly stopped to have a pee behind a tree on the sidewalk.

Late that night I walked back with a small group along the now quieter streets of Patpong, watching as the food vendors packed up their pots and pans, rinsing them in the gutter that ran along the road. I was glad I did not eat that delicious looking Pad Thai, which I am sure was far tastier than the safer chips and burgers at the Hard Rock Café. I suspect that the gutter was not the final rinse and that the pots would be cleaned at home before returning to the street for the next night party. On second thoughts I will try the Pad Thai on my next visit, burgers are just not exotic, and they surly must clean the pots at home!

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Footnotes and Credits

Street Food is Safe: I did some research and here is a remark worth noting: Steve of Thailand Musings says: “I’ve eaten probably hundreds of meals at street vendors all over Bangkok and have only gotten sick once in 12 years. Honestly I don’t even believe that was from the street food, I think it was from Chao Phraya river water getting splashed into my face during a trip upriver to Koh Kred”.

Read more: True Thailand Flavor – Bangkok Street Food | Thailand Musings on Thai Visa

http://thailandmusings.thaivisa.com/bangkok-street-food/#ixzz1xcGbpncx

Links

Moon Bar, 21/100 South Sathon Rd, Sathon (+66 2679 1200), www.banyantree.com;
Sirocco, 1055 Silom Rd, Bangrak (+66 2624 9555),www.lebua.com;
Q Bar, 34 Sukhumvit Soi 11, Klongtoey (+66 2252 3274) www.qbarbangkok.com

Similar Blogs see Asias Party Towns: http://www.smh.com.au/travel/anything-goes-southeast-asias-top-five-party-towns-20110816-1ivsx.html#ixzz1xPKseved