Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
to build shophouses at the Surawong end of the road, and then Udom put the next part of
his plan into action. Familiar with the Western way of doing business, and knowing they
distrusted time-honoured Asian practices such as key money, a large upfront deposit that
the landlord puts in the bank to earn interest, he sought out potential tenants and offered
them straight Western-style rental deals. Companies began moving in, notably airlines,
as Bangkok began to emerge as a destination and as a staging post for other Asian cities.
News bureaux, shipping lines and the US Information Service all opened offices here, and
a Japanese man named Mizutoni opened the first restaurant, Mizu.
A sign on a go-go bar in the red-light district of Patpong.
The Vietnam War changed everything. Udom saw that the American GIs who were
stationed in Bangkok, or passing through, were going to be looking for somewhere to
spend their R&R dollars. He started offering leases to Western businessmen to open bars
and nightclubs. New Petchburi Road became the centre for bordellos and massage par-
lours, while Patpong quickly became a lively area for bars catering both for the local busi-
nessmen and the military. Only in the late 1960s with the opening of the Grand Prix Cock-
tail Lounge & Bar did Patpong start to emerge as Bangkok's premier red-light district.
Taking over the premises from a barbershop, this was the first bar in Bangkok to feature
girls dancing go-go, clad only in bikinis, if that. Like all great ideas in Bangkok, it wasn't
lonely for long.
Patpong's glory days were the 1970s and 1980s, for after the GIs had left the reputation
of the place kept on spreading and the tourists and tired businessmen took their place.
When the street market was opened in the early 1990s (being a private thoroughfare the
road can close whenever it wants to) the area lost much of its raunchy quality and a lot
of that business moved to Nana Plaza and to Soi Cowboy. Today, open-fronted bars and
music outlets cater for bemused tourists and shoppers, while many of the go-go bars with
their semi-nude girls remain half-empty (or so I am reliably informed). But if you wander
along Patpong in the daytime, admittedly not the best time to look at the place, you will
