Saying Bye Bye To The Pong

I have been a habitué of Patpong since early 1988 when making stops on the way home from missions in "exotic lands" (you know what they say we do in exotic lands) elsewhere. I moved here in 1993 and have been a fan of "The Pong" ever since. Can't put my finger on one specific reason but it's always been my "home area" and the other bar areas of Cowboy and Nana just didn't "do it for me" like the Pong USED TO.

When I was single back in 2001 I went to Patpong EVERY NIGHT for a YEAR, to deal with my recent separation, and every night I would always hit Goldfinger, Super Star and Kiss bars. Goldfinger mainly because in those days one could find many, many friends around inside Goldfinger. The other two always had nicer eye candy but I would say Goldfinger was my "local" and I started and finished my trips there.

I ended up married to two different girls from there and "knew biblically" several others that worked there over the years during my single years.

Well, Goldfinger now is a shadow of itself from the "Randy years" and often I was the only customer for hours. But I will no longer be patronizing Goldfinger any more.

The straw that finally broke the camels back was the owners of that string of bars – Goldfinger, Kiss, Super Star + others, has joined the Thai thinking club and since they have few customers THEY RAISED THE PRICES OF LADY DRINKS TO 250 BAHT as if that will magically draw in more punters. Well I know for myself it had the opposite reaction, when I found out I quickly told my friends in them BYE BYE I will NEVER be back.

IF, and it's a giant, IF they had stunners more than the other bars like Panther, Club Electric Blue and The Strip I MIGHT be tempted into buying a FEW lady drinks at that price but wouldn't make a habit of it like I do now and freely buy drinks for my many lady friends I have made over the years.

Copious quantities of "lady tears" met with my announcement that I would never be back LOL.

One other thing that irks the crap out of me is the same owner has instructed the DJs to turn the volume up as loud as it will go even when there is only me as a customer. When asked if they could turn the sound down just a tad so my ears would stop bleeding their answer, in all those bars, is a big NO the boss told us we would be in trouble if the sound was turned down.

Well, shit, where to go now? Cowboy only had two draw cards for me, Dollhouse and Crazy House, and with Dollhouse biting the dust with the death of Darel that leaves only Crazy House and it sure isn't the type of bar where you can sit and talk with anybody. So it is worth my time to make the trip to Cowboy…? Not for me.

Then there is "Uncertain Gender Heaven" that is Nana Plaza. I dread just getting in to Nana Plaza with all roads leading to the plaza filled with VERY AGGRESSIVE KATOEYS. One would think that my severe attempts to avoid these creatures and my look of revulsion at them would dissuade them from actively trying (and failing) to grope male passerby's but NO, it doesn't and it is one MAIN reason I try to avoid Nana. And then one still can't avoid them even in the plaza itself. With the downfall of Bangkok Bunnies that leaves only Billboards, Jailbirdz and Angelwitch (on good nights) to visit.

So my answer is to say "Fuck You, bars of Bangkok"! I'm out of here after 23+ years of residing here.

Like they say on TV, "I'm going to Sin City – Pattaya". I have located a new new house to rent and me and all my shit will be living in Pattaya on June 1st.

I have recently been making road trips over the weekends to Sin City and for me it still has the excitement that Bangkok HAD in the past so I made the big decision and I'm out of here as they say.

My Thai landlord of 20 years was apoplectic when I told him I was moving on and begged me to find another "farang" just like me to move in when I move out. Sorry, dude, there is only one farang just like me and I'm gonzo.

Stick's thoughts:

There are so many challenges facing the industry now that bar operators really need to try harder and be better to customers to keep them. But your experience shows that that is the complete opposite to what's happening. 250 baht for a lady drink is just too much and as a bar boss said to me, most customers object to the idea of lady drinks costing more than their own drinks. It's probably best not to mention that to these bars that have increased the lady drinks price because no doubt their solution would be to inflate the cost of customers drinks!