Patpong (พัฒน์พงศ์ ), Bangkok

Patpong, Bangkok, Thailand (22 October, 2006)


Patpong (Thai: พัฒน์พงศ์ ) is a district in Bangkok, Thailand, that has become internationally renowned as a red light district. Although there are red light district in almost every town and city in Thailand catering to the locals, Patpong caters mostly to foreign tourists and expatriates. Lately however, a touristy night market has taken over much of Patpong.

Patpong comprises two parallel streets located between Thanon Silom (Silom Road) and Surawong Road, called Patpong 1 and Patpong 2. These two streets have a multitude of bars for heterosexual men. Next to Patpong 2 is Soi Jaruwan, often called Patpong 3 as well as Soi Kathoey (transexual's lane), but officially it is called Silom Soi 4. This street has mostly bars catering to gay men. Next to Silom Soi 4 is Soi Thaniya, which has expensive bars catering to Japanese men.

The name Patpong is derived from the name of the family that developed it, the Patpongpanich family who are ethnic Hainanese Chinese from Hainan Island, China. They developed the streets that is today known as Patpong 1 and Patpong 2. Both streets are on the family's private land, and are not officially part of Bangkok's city streets. Silom Soi 4 and Soi Thaniya however do not belong to the Patpongpanich family.

The sex industry in Patpong traces its roots to 1968 which a small number of bars catering to US Troops serving the Vietnam War that came to Bangkok for Rest & Recuperation. By the 1970's and 80's, Patpong had developed into a top nightspot in Bangkok and its seedy reputation threatened to overshadow that of Bangkok itself.

The night market that exists in Patpong began around the late 1980's, when the Patpongpanich family began to rent out small plots to stalls, to create a more wholesome image of the area. However, with the night market comes stalls selling pornographic DVDs. A lot of tourists and backpackers still go to Patpong for its reputation, although generally, the prices at the Patpong nightmarket is higher than at more traditional nightmarkets elsewhere in Bangkok.

Getting there

Patpong is served by both the BTS Skytrain Silom Line and the Metro MRT train systems. The nearest stations to Patpong are Sala Daeng (S2) BTS Station (Silom Line) on Thanon Silom (Silom Road) and the Si Lom (SIL) MRT station on Thanon Rama IV (Rama IV Road).

Map of Patpong

Patpong Road 1, Bangkok (22 October, 2006)


Thanon Patpong 1 roadsign (22 October, 2006)

Nearby Sights

Nearby Shopping

List of Neighbourhoods in Bangkok; list of Districts of Bangkok

 Latest updates on Penang Travel Tips

 Share your travels and/or ask a travel-related question

Join the Penang Travel Tips Facebook Group to share photos, tips and anything related to your travels, or ask travel-related questions.

Map of Roads in Penang

Looking for information on Penang? Use this Map of Roads in Penang to zoom in on information about Penang, brought to you road by road.

Discover with Timothy

Let me take you to explore and discover Penang through my series of walking tours on YouTube. You may use these videos as your virtual tour guide. At the beginning of each video, I provide the starting point coordinates which you may key into your GPS, Google Maps or Waze, to be navigated to where I start the walk, and use the video as your virtual tour guide.

Disclaimer

Please use the information on this page as guidance only. The author endeavours to update the information on this page from time to time, but regrets any inaccuracies if there be any.

Songs about Penang

About this website

Hello and thanks for reading this page. My name is Timothy and my hobby is in describing places so that I can share the information with the general public. My website has become the go to site for a lot of people including students, teachers, journalists, etc. whenever they seek information on places, particularly those in Malaysia and Singapore. I have been doing this since 5 January 2003, for over twenty years already. You can read about me at Discover Timothy. By now I have compiled information on thousands of places, mostly in Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore, and I continue to add more almost every day. My goal is to describe every street in every town in Malaysia and Singapore.