Ending up at a Ping Pong show

After snoozing off the Jet leg I left Jays house to look for a flat in the centre of Bangkok. I settled for the most convenient backpackers spot, the famous “Khaosan Road”, a strip of cheap hostels, bars and market stalls with a mostly white crowd in the district of Banglamphu. For 170 Baht (a bit more than 4€) I got a fan cooled little shag without window in the Baan Sabai (meaning comfortable house). The hostel itself wasn’t anything special but had a nice food stall just opposite where I got to know fellow travellers. For the first night I met up with two Canadians and one French to check out a live music bar just a little off the famous road. As we were all too tired for the crammed up touristy street the “Ad Here the 13th” with a Thai house band playing some refreshingly rocky - tunes (in a usually pop music centred culture) was the perfect place for a chilled night.

The second night on Khaosan I met up with an Australian girl to have a meal and a shisha. We were in the mood of shopping and headed out to the night markets in Patpong, somehow not realizing that this was one of the world's most (in)famous red-light districts. After looking at thousands of fake handbags and getting some touristy presents of the hawkers we were forced to realize that this area was more about the numerous neon-lit strip bars offering risqué sex shows. On every corner a sleazy tout was whispering to us: “Ping Pong show, I take you”. We had heard about it back on Khaosan but really didn’t plan on this. In the end curiosity took over and we went along to witness what it was all about. The tout took us upstairs to some dark club and we were seated with a view of a round stage. Monotonous music blared out of the speakers, women in bikinis walked around the club and an older lady seemed to be overseeing the scene. On the stage one completely naked woman lay down on her side, one leg stretched into the air, starting to shoot ping-pong balls towards the guests, later on changing to darts. One drink was included in the entrance fee (200 Baht after a bit of haggling), which we tried to sip as quiet as possible, not taking part in the activities. The other guests were holding balloons, which were shot with the darts or had rackets to play back the ping pong balls. The whole experience was surrealistic. There is a lot which needs to be said about Thailand’s sex trade and the lives of these women, but I will discuss that another time.


Ad Here the 13th

In the tuk tuk on the way to Patpong

A bus driver I came across during the first days