Soi Crocodile on Bangla Road - Patong

Soi Crocodile (aka Soi Katoey) is one of the most photographed places on Bangla Road. Every night, from 22:00 onward a group of ladyboys with fancy feathered outfits parade right in front of Soi Crocodile’s entrance and many people stop by to get photographed in their company for a small amount of money. These costumed ladymen’s main task is to promote the Moulin Rouge Cabaret Show situated at the back of the Soi.
Located between Soi Gonzo (Aussie Bar) and Soi Eric, Soi Crocodile is flanked by colourfully named beer bars such as ‘No Angels Bar’, ‘Boom Boom Bar’, and the rather to the point ‘Ann & Moon’s Dick Clinic Bar’ to name a few. But bar names and owners can change rapidly and without notification here as Bangla Road is a veritable basket full of crabs fighting to survive. From an outsider’s point of view, it’s entertaining though.

Soi Crocodile is the main gay area on Soi Bangla and most of the bar-girls/boys working here are in varying degrees of gender evolution. Right behind the busy Soi’s entrance gate in the centre of the street (on which is written D Club Crocodile, even though this disco has been closed for ages) there are two small stages surrounded by tables and stools. Ladyboys dance on these stages to exhibit their beautiful bodies (showing off seems to be second nature for transgendered people) to the beat of house and dance music played in the bars.
The usual bar games are played in Soi Crocodile’s watering holes: Connect 4, dominoes and ‘nail-down a cleat into the log’, they are fun but be careful as your opponents play these games on a daily basis, so if you like to gamble you’re more than likely to lose and, at the very least, will have to buy a round of drinks. To the left of the Soi, near the entrance, stands a large two-storey bar, the ‘Happy Night Bar’. Unlike the rest of Soi, most of the girls working here are genuine. Drink prices follow Patong’s standards; expect to pay about 80 baht for a small bottle of Thai beer.

Soi Sea Dragon on Bangla Road

Soi Sea Dragon is the hottest point of Patong’s nightlife scene. Recently upgraded (in 2012) by the addition of a lofty roof – highly welcome in low season – which makes it look like a huge booze-and-body emporium. The Soi is also an L-shaped link between Bangla Road and Thaweewong Road (the Beach Road) and stuck right in between the two streets, is the Kee Resort with its rooftop restaurant.

Soi Sea Dragon is a 100m long lane comprising something like 46 bars, beer bars and go-go bars, a souvenir shop, a guesthouse (good luck getting a decent night’s sleep there…), a tattoo parlour, and a hairdresser. It’s pretty obvious that Soi Sea Dragon’s character is easily summed up by four simple words: girls, girls and girls…

The central part of the Soi is dedicated to beer bars (which, by the way, also serve drinks other than beer). These bars are built in a two-storey design, and often the smaller bars located on the upper floor have nothing to do with the one downstairs. Butterfly Bar, Bangla Sexy 9 Bar, Hangover Bar, Nida’s Bar, Drinks & Dreams Bar are just a few of their names.
People-watching is the order of the day here, When a single man wanders down the lane, you can see the most vivid atavistic sights outside feeding time at Phuket Zoo with the bargirls eyeing their ‘victim’ up like a she-lion tracking a baby wildebeest lagging behind the herd. But strangely enough, there’s no harassment whatsoever, a few girls will ask him if he’d like a drink at their bar, but everything’s done in a gentle manner with a smile. You’ll find the usual bar games here – Connect 4, Jenga, and ‘nail a hammer into the log’; the ubiquitous bar bell (ring it and pay drinks for the house – you have been warned); and a lot of friendly company albeit not for free.
Oddly enough, in the heart of what some would call depravity, some of the bars have a Buddhist spirit house at which bargirls pray for a successful evening. Bar prices are standard; expect to pay about 70-80 baht for a small bottle of beer (prices of May 2013).

Soi Patong Resort on Bangla Road

Soi Patong Resort is the link between the long-established Patong Resort and the heart of Patong nightlife – Bangla Road. In Thailand, satellite businesses are a kind of an institution: wherever you open a hotel, even in the middle of nowhere, you can be sure that within six months, a few restaurants, bars and shops will have opened in the vicinity.
Soi Patong Resort is about 100 metres long and offers the type of venues geared to tourists, as of July 2013 it counts: nine restaurants, five bars, two massage parlours, six tailors, an internet café, a drinks shop, a souvenir shop, and four shops with space for rent.

‘International’ is the word which describes best the choices of dining available along Soi Patong Resort: Thai, Italian, German, Indian, British and Danish restaurants are all waiting for you here. Some of them are long-established venue: Rundetårn Steak House, a Danish restaurant, has been opened for almost 15 years; while The Islander Restaurant has been serving British/Thai food since 1993 (note that there is a similar The Islander restaurant in Koh Samui’s Chaweng Beach). The other restaurants available in Soi Patong Resort are Eurasian Restaurant, Sun Smile Steakhouse, Valerio e Luca Ristorante, Da Mari Inn, Navrang Mahal, Midnight Sun Restaurant, and a small Thai ‘no-name’ eatery.
The four bars along the soi are slightly less raucous than those found on Bangla Road, even though you could easily find some company in them if you don’t want to drink alone: With names like the Parrot bar, Pussycat Bar it isn’t hard to figure the score out, you’ll also find the Boogaloo Bar, The Oasis Bar, and a ‘Pepe Lopez Tequila Bar’ (no specific name figures on its front signboard). Apart from feminine company, most of them also broadcast sport events on TV, and offer happy hours (if you want to start early, 14:00-18:00 all beers 60 baht at The Oasis Bar).

Soi Gonzo Off Bangla Road in Patong Beach

Soi Gonzo is one of the streets situated on Bangla Road in Patong Beach. You can’t miss its entrance as it is framed by the huge and long-established Aussie Bar. Once past the Aussie Bar you find a corridor-like lane flanked by seven beer bars on each side. Soi Gonzo is a dead-end street with the smallest discotheque in Patong Beach, The White Room, at its end.
Basically, Aussie Bar and the White Room are the two places of interest in Soi Gonzo, no offense meant, but Soi Gonzo’s beer bars do not display more outstanding attraction than the 100 or so similar watering holes in the other sois off Bangla Road with the same beers and girls you wouldn’t take home to mother.

‘Gonzo’ means ‘foolish’ in Italian and the term was used to define the journalistic-style of Hunter S. Thompson in the 1970s, thus popularizing the word. Soi Gonzo is not crazier than its competing neighbouring sois, but it has its share of interesting joints. The Aussie Bar marks the entrance of the soi and it first opened in 2000. This large bar and restaurant (approximately 200sqm on two floors) is paradoxically a ‘family-friendly’ raft in the middle of a veritable ocean of lust and temptation – isn’t this gonzo? Pool tables, sport events broadcasting, Western and Thai food, and no bar-girls make the Aussie Bar a cool place for a stopover with friends and family while discovering Bangla’s urban jungle.
Soi Gonzo’s central part is made up of an alley with 14 beers bars: Luck Bar, Magic Bar, Sweet Bar, Night Relax Bar, Blade Bars 1 and 2, Duck Tonight Bar, Tahiti Bar, Off Side Bar, Boom Boom Bar, Paris Folies Bar, Lisa Bar, Hansa Bar, plus one closed bar with no name at the moment (August 2013). The nightscene of Bangla Road follows the same Buddhist principles as the rest of the world: ‘nothing’s permanent’; so bar names and owners may change in a matter of weeks. Nevertheless, what’s on offer here won’t change so soon: affordable beers/spirits (80 baht for 33cl beer bottle) and good company (for rates, you’ll have to discuss on site by yourself if it’s your call).

Patong Beach

Patong is the most famous beach resort on Phuket. With its wide variety of activities and nightlife, Patong is an ideal place to party and play. By night the town has a bustling nightlife which includes literally hundreds of restaurants, beer bars, GoGo Bars and of course discos. The nightlife is centred around Soi Bangla (Bangla Road) however there are quiet parts of town.

Visitors hoping for a glimpse into the exotic East might not find it here, though the steaming hot streets, neon lights and chaotic atmosphere of Patong can be overwhelming for the new arrival. The key to full enjoyment of the place is to pace yourself, drink lots of water and learn the meaning of 'mai pen rai' - which translates roughly to 'It doesn't matter' or 'Don't worry, be happy'.

Patong
Patong Beach is the most popular and well-developed beach on Phuket Island. Long recognized as one of the world's Top 10 diving sites, Phuket is now Thailand's most important tourist destination, offering a variety of beaches, attractions and exciting night life.
Phuket Island

Phuket Island has 17 sandy beaches.

Koh Phuket is Thailand's largest Island. It is 50 km long north to south and 21 km wide and joined to the mainland by Sarasin bridge.
Phuket has been inhabited since the early days of mankind by ancient tribes and this still keeps archaeologists occupied to find out the history from the early days.
On the ancient maps of the region around Thailand's South West coast, the name Junk Ceylon can be seen describing a way station on the route between India and China where seafarers stopped to shelter. This Island is today known as Phuket.
Phuket Island was assumed by geologists to be once part of the mainland in the form of a cape sticking out into the Andaman Sea but millions of years later the cape was gradually eroded by natural forces and finally detached from the main land.

One of the first known traces of Phuket is from a book written around the year 157 by Claudius Ptolemy, a famous Greek philosopher, that to travel to Malay Peninsula by ship, the travelers had to pass a cape known as Junk Ceylon. Located between latitudes 6 N and 8 N (which is the present site of Phuket Island), Junk Ceylon was at that time visited by merchants of several nations including India, Persia, and Arabia. The island offered a bay that protected its harbor from the wind and monsoon, making it a good stopover. Moreover, it had plenty of tin ore deposits that fetched high prices at that time.
A memorable moment in Phuket history was when a passing sea captain, Francis Light, sent word that the Burmese were en route to attack. Forces in Phuket were assembled led by the two heroines, Kunying Jan, Thao Thep Krasattri, wife of Phuket's recently deceased governor, and her sister Mook, Thao Si Sunthon. There was a shortage of men so she allegedly ordered 500 women to dress as soldiers with coconut palms daubed in soot to look like weapons. This tactic seemed to delay a full-on Burmese attack. After a month's siege the Burmese were forced to depart on 13 March, 1785. Kunying Jan and her sister were credited with the successful defense.
The Burmese attacked Phuket three more times between 1809-12 but armed forces from Bangkok arrived in time to repel further Burmese onslaughts. With Burma's capitulation to the British, ensured that there would be no more Burmese invasions of Thailand.
During the Nineteenth Century Chinese immigrants arrived in such numbers to work for the tin mines that the ethnic character of the island's interior became predominantly Chinese, while the coastal settlements remained populated essentially by Muslim fishermen.
In Rama V's reign, Phuket became the administrative center of a group of tin mining provinces called Monton Phuket, and in 1933, with the change in government from absolute monarchy to a parliamentary system, the island was established as a province by itself.
It was not until 1967 that Sarasin Bridge was built to connect the main land with Phuket.
Tin mining industry has played a specially important role in the economic development of the island province but it has declined especially after 1985 when the price of tin fell by half. Other important products of Phuket are marine products, latex, rubber, fuel oil and frozen fish.
With the opening of an international airport in 1976, Phuket effectively became a tourist economy. Over 4 million tourists arrived to Phuket in year 2002 and they spent about 72 billion baht on the island.
The permanent Island Population consists of a total of 292,245 (end 2005) with 140,703 males and 151,542 females. They consist of Thai-Buddhist, 71%; Muslim 25%; and Chao Le (Sea Gypsy) 4%. The majority of population live in Phuket town and at Patong Beach.
Thalang National Museum
If you want to learn more about the history of Phuket we recommend a visit to the Thalang National Museum. This museum was established in 1985 in Thalang just 200 meters from the Heroines Monument. Built in a southern architectural style, the museum exhibits the Battle of Thalang, the way of life, culture and history of Phuket and the South.


Photo Patong Beach 1977 ?
Patong Beach is a beach on Phuket's west coast. It is the main tourist resort in Phuket and contains the centre of Phuket's nightlife and cheap shopping on the island. The beach became popular with western tourists, especially Europeans, in the late 1980s. Numerous large hotels and chain hotels are located in Patong
Patong Beach is maybe more famous for its nightlife than the 2-kilometer beach that runs the entire length of Patong. Nightlife is centered on two main areas Bangla Road and Paradise Complex, with Bangla Road being predominantly straight and Paradise Complex being predominantly gay. Much mixing of the two scenes occurs due to Phuket Island's tolerant nature.
On December 26, 2004, Patong Beach along with many other areas along the western coast of Phuket and Thailand were struck by a tsunami caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. The wave caused a great deal of destruction to the waterfront of the beach although the destruction was not nearly as bad as nearby in Khao Lak. It took probably less than 6 months to rebuild 80% of what was destroyed and 1 year after you could hardly not see any traces of destruction caused by the Tsunami.

Patong Beach - History
Official permanent population is 14797 (2006) persons but the real number is probably as high as 60,000 in high season.
1827 Baan Kathu and Baan Patong are small villages without convenient transportation
1898 The Island is organized into five grades of local administration.
1947 The government approves 60,000 THB for a basic road over the hill to Patong
1969 Patong is upgraded to a "sanitation district" and taxes of 20,000 THB a year are collected.
1976 A sealed road is built to Patong.
1979 Electricity arrives
1994 Patong sanitation district is upgraded to a municipally
2004 Patong was hit by the Asian Tsunami 26 December
2005 Recovery year, tourism back to 80% at end of the year. Opening of Patong OTOP Shopping Paradise, Thanon Rat-U-Thit 200P (south end).
2006 Jungceylon, Patong's first full-fledged modern air-con shopping mall, complete with 200 shops, integrated hotel, etc. Still under construction and the opening has been postponed several times, but will probably launch some time in end of 2006

Patong Beach Restaurants & Food

The sunbed vendors also sell a wide variety of food, drinks, snacks and of course ice cream. Even better is that you don't have don't have to leave your sunbed, you're every need will be taken care of.

The whole length of the Beach Road is lined with restaurants and cafes (there's even a MacDonald's and KFC) so lunch won't be a problem, nor any other meal for that matter.