Patpong - Sex-related Businesses

Sex-related Businesses

patpong has many shows featuring women doing stunts in the nude . these shows are mostly marketed by road side agents handing out pamphlets. please be aware that, most of these shows are places of extortion, where, the customers are fooled to come in and later charged with exorbitant amounts, resulting in frequent quarrels and uncouth scenes. earlier these places were not reported to deal with foreigners in such a way, however low season and bad business has forced them to resort to such practices. most of these cases go unreported as the victims are not sure whether such patpong shows go hand in glove with the police department. 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 such as Ping pong show. 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. Unlike the kathoey bars in Nana Plaza, many of the staff at these Patpong bars are post-operative transsexuals.

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 street Soi Pratuchai leading off Surawong.

Today, Patpong is increasingly 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.