Pat(Ping)Pong
November 1st, 2008Andrew and I went to Somboon Seafood for dinner and had prawns almost as big as your hand:
We went to Patpong afterward. Beer is cheaper than at Nana, and it’s pretty tame compared to its reputation, but we didn’t see any of the “shows” on offer, so I can’t say for sure it doesn’t get worse. We walked down the nearby street that caters to Japanese tourists, and I marveled anew at the inflated prices Japanese people are willing to pay abroad to establishments that adapt to their culture. Everyone avoided us until we spoke Japanese, but we found that there is an hourly charge of 600 baht, plus 100 baht per beer, plus 200 for a “lady drink.” That’s 900 baht for an hour compared to 240 baht for the same thing (minus karaoke machine, but with no hourly charge) literally two streets down.
We ended up in the quieter side street sharpening up our pool game. There we saw the small but wide female bartender roust out a drunken German using a truncheon. Apparently he comes there regularly and she throws him out regularly, and sometimes beats him up too. It wasn’t entertaining — he may have been obnoxious, but I don’t think he should be beaten with a club. (Though maybe he keeps coming back because that’s what he’s looking for.) She smacked him twice and I had just decided to say something when he retreated.