Patong

Sometimes it's hard to figure out why I left Krabi to come to Patong

The whole place has a manic intensity to it. Even crossing the road is taking your life into your hands - I overheard someone saying 'it took me a day to figure out which side of the road they drive on' and I'm not surprised.

Back in the day Patong started out around a beautiful beach with fine flour-grained sand facing West - perfect for the sundown

I imagine it was the kind of place hippies would hang out watching the sun set, maybe whilst juggling

but there's no profit in the unwashed hurling balls in the air so the local population soon figured out there was money to be made and lives to lived - and to be fair, why not? So Patong beach quickly became a tourist attraction complete with beach beds, jet skis & parasailing

And what do you do after the sun goes down? Well, Patong developed Bangla Rd. This is the main party street on the island and after the sun goes down the volume turns up.

The main part of Bangla Rd is only about half a mile long but is full of touts & street sellers and is solidly lined with bars on either side. The whole place is pumping with the kind of music that makes you sound like your parents when you discuss it, but if you can cope with the new world of high-volume techno, high testosterone tattooed lads and even more highly pitched young Western female travelers / tourists, you can generally find a seat on one of the bars and watch the world go past with little interference. It's worth doing once or twice - the mix of tourists, working girls & Katoeys is something to be seen. Just try not to obviously wince when you accidentally overhear the next tables conversation. Innit.

Firing off at right angles from Bangla Rd are a number of different Sois (ie streets). These are in turn filled with many many tiny bars, generally with at least one scantilly clad young Thai women dancing on the bar (these shots taken early in the night to protect the non-innocent)

You can't sit at any of these bars and watch the world go past because the presence of a single European male means that you are considered a potential partner for the evening. So you are constantly engaged in polite conversation with pretty young things who want you to take them back to your hotel room.

Things get more lurid at the end of the Sois where there are go-go bars. These are apparently worse than the Soi Bars as the girls are actively parading for business instead of just suggesting it. There are also some go-go bars offering shows such as ping-pong shows, but after pretty much sculling my drink & running out of a Soi bar to avoid a reply that was never going to end well ('no') and never being a fan of table tennis I didn't investigate further.

Not far from Bangla Rd lies a local market with an accompanying outdoor 'foodcourt'. Here you can get awesome Thai food at cheap prices, eaten on steps or on plastic tables with the accompaniment of Chinese music and conversation in many languages

Not sure if it's a sign of my age, but I know where I'd prefer to spend my evenings.....