Nightlife at Patpong Street in Bangkok

Patpong is an entertainment district in Bangkok, Thailand catering mainly, though not exclusively, to foreign tourists and expatriates. While Patpong is internationally known as a red light district at the heart of Bangkok's sex industry, the city in fact has numerous red-light districts that are far more popular with Thai men. A busy night market aimed at tourists is also located in Patpong.

By 1968, a handful of nightclubs existed in the area, and Patpong found some use as a R&R (Rest and Recuperation) location for U.S. troops serving in the Vietnam War, although the main R&R area was actually along New Petchburi Road. In its prime during the 1970s and 1980s, Patpong was the premier nightlife area in Bangkok, and was famous then for its sexually explicit shows.

In the mid 1980s the sois hosted an annual Patpong Mardi Gras, which was a weekend street fair that raised considerable money for Thai charities. By late 1980s, however, the Patpongpanich family had begun to rent out small lots in the middle of Patpong 1 for a night market.

Today, the nightlife areas of Nana Plaza and Soi Cowboy provide strong competition for Patpong. However, Patpong is the only one within the official entertainment zones decreed by the Thai government in 2004. In recent years there has been a move away from the traditional sex venues in Patpong.

Twilo hip hop bar boasts two live bands every night and is very popular with both tourists and local Thais also Muzzik Cafe has been comletely renovated and is a very popular live Music bar playing a mixture of Rock, Hip hop and Pop. Next to Twilo is Funky Dojo with Djs regularly playing club and house music.

Park Bridge has just opened across Patpong 2 another high class music venue accessible from foodland car park or the building opposite (3rd floor). Radio City and Lucifer are also being refurbished which will mean by November2008 Patpong will be one of the main live music areas in Bangkok.

Most Patpong go-go bars feature women dancing on a stage. The dancers (and even occasionally the serving staff) are generally available to customers willing to pay a bar fine to take them out of the bar; the fees for sexual services are negotiated separately. Some establishments advertising "massages" are in fact disguised brothels, and a few famous "blowjob bars" offer oral sex at the main bar or in back rooms.

Several upstairs bars still feature (technically illegal) sex shows, with women performing various creative acts. Perhaps the most notorious of these features women performing exotic feats involving their genitalia and projectile table tennis balls.

Some of these second-floor bars are run by scam artists who lure tourists with offers of low prices and later present a wildly inflated bill along with a threat of physical harm should the bill go unpaid. The Tourist Police, usually stationed at Patpong 1 and Silom Road, can help in these situations.

Some establishments in Patpong employ kathoeys (or "ladyboys") either exclusively or as part of a mixed gender staff. As of 2005 the King's Corner bar on Patpong 1 was known for doing so. Unlike the kathoey bars in Nana Plaza, many of the staff at these Patpong bars are post-operative trans-sexuals.

With one or two exceptions, the gay bars in the Patpong area are not go-go bars, but simply traditional gay pubs, such as Telephone and The Balcony, which cater to both Thais and tourists. The commercial gay oriented go-go bars are mainly on Surawong Road or in small streets leading off Surawong.

Today, however, there are signs that parts of Patpong are turning away from the sex industry and providing other kinds of entertainment. There are now a number of live music bars that attract regular Thais and tourists as well as a number of very good restaurants. A new hotel has also opened on Patpong 2 offering very nice rooms at budget prices.