Big Mango Bar
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Patpong – The good, the bad and the oh so ugly….

Posted by sideshowBOB | Reader Submissions | Posted on November 20th, 2006

Not much I can do about it. I am in the Silom area all the time now so that means I am close to Patpong. If I want to grab a quick drink in between berating a contractor or a building manager, I usually run over to the Patpong area. It is close and for some reason I have been enjoying peeling back the covers a bit. I don’t like everything I see but sometimes it just feels different.

The good:

1. The music in many of the go go bars around Patpong is just better. Newer pop, house mixes and some decent DJ music. Mostly this appears to be the King’s group joints. My guess is that since there is a lot of cool copy music for sale in the Silom area that these places get more new music than the Nana or the Cowboy joints.

2. If u are used to Cowboy or Nana then going to Patpong will just feel different. This can be good. No one will know u. No girls will tell other girls about your presence cause they don’t know u. This can be liberating. Enjoy it while it lasts cause if u start going to Patpong often u may lose this feeling.

3. It is cheaper. Generally the drinks, the bar fines, the short time hotels and the girls are cheaper. Okay not a ton but nice to pocket the difference.

4. There is some good food around Patpong. Some great Italian places, French Food, Japanese steak houses and tons of street food. Not bad.

5. There are other clubs around like Funky Dojo, Silom Soi 4 and 2, Lucifer and I am sure others. Point is u can make a nice night out of eating, go go’ing and clubbing. Not too shabby.

6. Patpong has pockets of lateness. Some of th go go bars, beer bars and clubs go quite late. Kind of cool.

The Bad:

1. Some of the go go bars are just terrible. They should be closed, remodeled and the owner should start over. There are more than u think that are in bad need of something done to them.

2. All the shows suck. All of them. Don’t go to any of them. They are just horrible. The girls are old, they don’t want to be doing it and the bars will over charge u for just coming in to check them out.

3. The touts. Okay I hate the dudes and chicks who hang in the street and grab u and try to get u to come to there bar. If a bar has a rude tout don’t bother going in. I have found that the good bars and go gos don’t have rude touts. Why do they always have to touch u or grab u? There is a reason why I like how Thai’s wai u – they don’t have to touch u to do it. Remember that.

4. The street shopping. Drives me insane. The prices suck, the goods are not all that and they just clog the soi’s and make getting around very slow. Hate it.

5. Okay. I hate saying this cause I know it must be hard on some of these girls/women but a few of the bars have go go dancers that have been working in Patpong since Patpong opened. Plus some of them are the ones wearing the least amount of clothing and the first girls to come up to ask if u want to buy them a drink. Kills me. One of the women I see must be 50, wears a thong(more like an accidental wedgie), always comes over to beg for a drink, won’t take a polite no for an answer and has the worst BKK shuffle I have ever seen. I don’t want to deal with it and I have seen many a customer walk out once she comes over. I feel bad for her and the bar but do something about it.

6. They all try and treat u like u must be a new stupid tourist. Like a said – I like the fact that no one knows me and the place is different but I am not a tourist okay? So don’t try to rip me off like one.

I think that does it. Either way I will keep exploring. I have to.