Patpong is one of the most well known naughty nightlife districts in Bangkok. Or at least it used to be. Nowadays plenty of tourists find themselves there but perhaps more for the expansive night market than the live ping pong shows that the place was once most famous for.
It’s not located along Sukhumvit but it is not so far away. The avid walker could probably make on foot in less than thirty minutes. Most people take a taxi or the BTS train system to get there.
Now it’s common to see a female tourist’s face express shock or even horror when they lift their glance from a table of knock off designer watches only to catch a glimpse of nude dancers strutting their stuff inside one of the district’s numerous go go bars.
Still it seems Patpong has already past the bottom of its long decline and things are starting to look up again. Some really good go go bars have set up on the end of Patpong 2 and quite a few of the better establishments are still going. The only real issues for many regulars are that the drink prices tend to be a little higher and some of the bars mix ladyboys in with the g girls.
There seem to be less scam artists around pushing fake sex shows (that may or may not ever happen) that come along with highly inflated drink bills and big bouncers to enforce payment of checks. That may come as a surprise since tourists continue to enter the area as always. Who knows why this is.
The only thing that’s clear is that the area is going strong and even seems set to grow stronger. Does that mean some of the darker places will disappear? Or does it mean they will take over?
