Patpong ( Thai : พัฒน์พงศ์ , RTGS : Phat Phong , pronounced [pʰát pʰōŋ] ) is an entertainment district in Bangkok 's Bang Rak District , Thailand , catering mainly, though not exclusively, to foreign tourists and expatriates. While Patpong is internationally known as a red light district at the heart of Bangkok's sex industry , it is in fact only one of several red-light districts with some catering primarily to Thai men while others, like Patpong, cater primarily to foreigners.
32-848: A busy night market aimed at tourists is also located in Patpong. Patpong consists of two parallel side streets running between Silom and Surawong Roads and one side street running from the opposite side of Surawong. Patpong is within walking distance from the BTS Skytrain Silom Line 's Sala Daeng Station, and MRT Blue Line 's Si Lom Station. Patpong 1 is the main street with many bars of various kinds. Patpong 2 also has many similar bars. Next to these lies Soi Jaruwan, sometimes referred to as Patpong 3 but best known as Silom Soi 4. It has long catered to gay men, whilst nearby Soi Thaniya has expensive bars with Thai hostesses that cater almost exclusively to Japanese men. Patpong gets its name from
64-454: A "Super Groupie ". Odzer later claimed that the article was the reason for breaking off the "engagement". Shortly thereafter in 1969, Odzer recorded an album called The Groupies , produced by Alan Lorber , which essentially consisted of interviews with Cleo and some friends describing their adventures meeting (and sleeping with) rock musicians. In the early 1970s, Odzer traveled in Europe and
96-600: A designated "entertainment zone" in 2004, along with Royal City Avenue (RCA) and portions of Ratchadapisek Road , where the largest commercial sex venues are found. This designation allows its bars to stay open until 02:00, instead of the 24:00 or 01:00 legal closing times enforced in other areas. In October 2019 the Patpong Museum opened in Patpong Soi 2, housing a collection of art , antiques and displays covering 70 years of Patpong's history. The privately owned museum
128-521: A few days of the week, as the traders rotate around different neighbourhoods on different days of the week. Haggling over prices is a common practice at such markets. Today, several kecamatan (district) in Jakarta and also other provinces in Indonesia, hold weekly pasar malam , usually held every Saturday night in nearby alun-alun square, open fields or marketplaces. In Indonesia, pasar malam has become
160-556: A morgue in Mapusa for more than a month until finally she had been buried in Mapusa without a funeral, and that she had had AIDS. Saldanha also reports having seen Odzer use cocaine during an interview he had with her sometime before her death. The 2002 documentary Last Hippie Standing by Marcus Robbin covered the Goa scene and featured some of Cleo Odzer's old super-8 footage from the 1970s. She
192-475: A stroke related to very high cholesterol and serious circulatory problems that she was being treated for during her final year, and that her body had been cremated after a small service. But a researcher, Arun Saldanha, who interviewed members of the Goa community about Odzer, reports being told by a psychiatrist at the Goa Medical College some ten months after her death that her body had lain unclaimed in
224-853: A time she followed the teachings of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh in India. After her return to the United States in the late 1970s, Odzer underwent drug treatment at Daytop in New York. She entered college, then graduate school, and in 1990 obtained a Ph.D. in anthropology from the New School for Social Research in New York City with a thesis on prostitution in Thailand . Beginning in 1987, she had spent three years in Thailand to research this topic. In her dissertation, she describes case studies of 17 people connected to
256-600: A weekly recreational place for local families. Other than selling variety of goods and foods, some pasar malam also offer kiddy rides and carnival games, such as mini carousel or mini train ride. Night markets are popular in Auckland , the biggest city in New Zealand, Wellington , the capital city of New Zealand, and in small regional cities and towns like Hamilton , Flaxmere and Waitara . The first night market in Auckland
288-527: Is located on the 2nd floor of building 5 opposite Foodland supermarket and below Black Pagoda, and is open from 10 am to 10 pm. Many Western films have featured Patpong, including The Deer Hunter (1978). The final part of the musical Miss Saigon (1989) is set in the Patpong bar scene. In Swimming to Cambodia , Spalding Gray discussed the red light district of Patpong and its prostitutes, saying there wasn't much else to see in Bangkok save
320-586: The COVID-19 pandemic , the night markets in Auckland introduced the use of an app for contactless orders and payments so that social distancing can be managed. Night markets are also hosted in various areas of North America, particularly with large Overseas Chinese communities in the Pacific Northwest and the West Coast, with Taiwanese-American student organizations hosting annual night market events to emulate
352-659: The Gold Buddha during the day and the whorehouses at night. The song Welcome to Thailand from the 1987 studio album of the same name by the Thai rock band Carabao contains the lyrics: "Tom, Tom, where you go last night?... I love Meuang Thai. I like Patpong " . The song complains that Farang tourists (Westerners) are often attracted to the sleazy side of Thailand (the sex tourism of Patpong and Pattaya). The movie Baraka features several shots of strippers in Patpong. The 1994 book Patpong Sisters: An American Woman's View of
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#1732848692397384-756: The Philippines . Nevertheless, night markets are more prominent within ethnic Chinese economic and cultural activities. Some well-known night markets exist in Taipei , Kaohsiung , Shanghai , Beijing , Guangzhou , Hong Kong , Singapore , and Bangkok , but they also exist in Chinatowns worldwide. Taiwan has over 700 night markets. The larger and more formal of these markets might take place in purpose-built marketplaces while smaller or more informal ones tend to occupy streets or roads that are normal thoroughfares by day. Night markets are commonly known as Pasar Malam by
416-540: The Richmond Night Market features more than 400 booths and attracts in excess of 30,000 people per night (total attendance in 2005 was almost two million). Night It Up! (formerly Toronto Night Market and Asian Night Market), has been and continues to be Power Unit Youth Organization's flagship project, attracting hundreds of thousands to a three-day celebration of Asian food and culture in Markham, Ontario (attendance
448-610: The Bangkok Sex World by Cleo Odzer describes the experiences of an anthropologist doing field research in Thailand. Patpong: Bangkok's Twilight Zone (2001, by Nick Nostitz ) is a photographic depiction of aspects of the Patpong night life. The 2008 book Ladyboys: The Secret World of Thailand's Third Gender paints a portrait of Thailand's kathoeys . Patpong opera is a collection of songs written by Kevin Wood, manager of Radio City, to tunes of modern rock songs. Together they tell
480-661: The Cyber Citizen (1997, ISBN 0-425-15986-8 ), deals with cybersex . She appeared in episode 1.21 of SexTV in 1999, with a segment on cybersex. In 1999, disappointed with life in New York, Odzer returned to Goa, where some of the remaining old-time hippies disliked her because of the publicity her book had brought to the scene. She died there in 2001. A good friend of hers who had been corresponding with Odzer during her final stay in India, "Cookie" (with whom she had recorded The Groupies ), reports that Odzer's doctor (who had been away when she died) said she probably died of
512-517: The Middle East and worked as a model. She spent the late 1970s in the hippie culture of Anjuna , Goa in India . Her experiences there, including heavy use of cocaine and heroin , the international drug smuggling used to finance the stay, and her subsequent two-week incarceration, would later form the basis of her second book, Goa Freaks: My Hippie Years in India (1995, ISBN 1-56201-059-X ). For
544-607: The Thai prostitutes she got to know as quick-witted entrepreneurs rather than exploited victims, sometimes revered in their poor home villages. She also relates her own problematic affair with a Thai pimp boyfriend. Following publication of the book, Odzer worked at Daytop in New York, the drug rehabilitation organization she herself had attended earlier. From 1995 to 1998, Odzer produced several dozen episodes of her show Cleo's Adventures for Manhattan Neighborhood Network public-access television . Her third book, Virtual Spaces: Sex and
576-548: The area, and Patpong became an R&R (rest and recuperation) stop for US military officers serving in the Vietnam War , although the main R&R area for GIs was along New Petchburi Road, nicknamed "The Golden Mile". In its prime during the 1970s and 1980s, Patpong was the premier nightlife area in Bangkok for foreigners, and was famous for its sexually explicit shows. In the mid-1980s the sois hosted an annual Patpong Mardi Gras, which
608-615: The city. The Queens Night Market is held in Flushing Meadows Corona Park in New York City on Saturdays from April to October. It hosts as many as 100 vendors. Cleo Odzer Cleo Odzer ( née Sheila Lynne Odzer, April 6, 1950 – March 26, 2001 ) was an American writer who authored books on prostitution in Thailand , the hippie culture of Goa , and cybersex . Cleo Odzer grew up in Manhattan , New York City ,
640-454: The daughter of Rena Abelson Odzer and Harry Odzer. Her father, president of a textile company, died when she was 16 years old. She attended Franklin School (now Dwight School ) and Quintano's School for Young Professionals, graduating from the latter in 1968. At about that time, she began writing about the music scene for a small Greenwich Village newspaper. Odzer met Keith Emerson , then member of
672-419: The family that owns much of the area's property. Luang Patpongpanich (or Patpongpanit), an immigrant from Hainan Island , China , purchased the area in 1946. At that time it was an undeveloped plot of land on the outskirts of the city. A small klong (canal) and a teakwood house were the only features. The family built a road – now called Patpong 1 – and several shop buildings, which were rented out. Patpong 2
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#1732848692397704-534: The jovial atmosphere and celebrate the unique culture of night markets. In San Francisco's Chinatown , a large night market with almost 100 booths takes place every autumn Saturday in Portsmouth Square. In Chinatown in Vancouver , British Columbia, large night markets take place every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from May to September, as well as in an industrial area near suburban Richmond, BC 's Golden Village ;
736-646: The locals, which literally means night market , "pasar" being related to "bazaar" in Persian or also the meaning "market" in Malay/Indonesian, and "malam" meaning "night". A pasar malam is a street market in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore that opens in the evening, usually in residential neighbourhoods. It brings together a collection of stalls that usually sell goods such as fruit, vegetables, snacks, toys, clothes, movie discs and ornaments at cheap or at least reasonable prices. A pasar malam often takes place only one to
768-515: The rock band the Nice and later of Emerson, Lake & Palmer , at The Scene nightclub. After receiving a Christmas gift from Emerson in 1968, she reported to the press that they were engaged. According to Keith Emerson's account in his 2003 autobiography Pictures of an Exhibitionist, there was no actual engagement and Emerson learned about the "engagement" from the same February 1969 Time magazine article that published her photo and described her as
800-475: The sex industry in Patpong . She concludes that the economic opportunities provided by sex work do not translate into a higher status of women, because of persistent stigma and ideas about gender inequality in Thai society . Her experiences in Thailand were described in her first book, Patpong Sisters: An American Woman's View of the Bangkok Sex World (1994, ISBN 1-55970-281-8 ). In this work she describes
832-700: The story of the people in Patpong. Patpong serves as part of the setting in Tom Robbins' book Villa Incognito . Night market Night markets or night bazaars ( Chinese : 夜市 ) are street markets which operate at night and are generally dedicated to more leisurely strolling, shopping, and eating than more businesslike day markets. The culture of night markets originates from China and have spread globally with overseas Chinese populations. They are typically open-air markets popular in East Asia , Southeast Asia , and Chinatowns in several other regions of
864-1250: The world. The concept of the night market traces its roots back to the medieval Chinese Tang dynasty . The Tang government put strict sanctions on night markets and their operations in A.D. 836. Towards the end of the Tang dynasty, economic expansion led to less state regulation and restrictions being lifted on night markets. During the Song dynasty (960–1279), night markets played a central role in Chinese nightlife. These markets were found in corners of large cities. Some stayed open for twenty-four hours. Song period night markets are also known to have included restaurants and brothels due to being frequently located near business districts and red light districts. Night markets are popular in Chinese culture ; they are especially common in East and Southeast Asia , found in China , Hong Kong , Macau , Taiwan , as well as Overseas Chinese communities across Thailand , Cambodia , Vietnam , Singapore , Malaysia , Indonesia to
896-509: Was a weekend street fair that raised money for Thai charities. In the early-1990s, however, the Patpongpanich family turned the sidewalks of Patpong 1 Road into a night market, renting out spaces to street vendors. The consequence was that Patpong lost much of its vibrancy as a nightlife strip, becoming crowded with tourist shoppers who ignored the nightlife. Nana Plaza and Soi Cowboy drew away many of Patpong's thrill seekers. Patpong became
928-414: Was added later, and both roads are private property and not city streets. Patpong 3 and Soi Thaniya are not owned by the Patpongpanich family. The old teak house was demolished long ago and the klong was filled in to make room for more shops. Originally Patpong was an ordinary business area, but the arrival of bars eventually drove out most of the other businesses. By 1968, a handful of nightclubs existed in
960-406: Was interviewed by Robbins for the film in Goa shortly before her death, and said: I don't know what the future brings, but I know what I don't want: New York is what I don't want, that culture is what I don't want; it's not right. I don't know what is right. I don't think our old life was right. I don't see a new culture that is right, but we have to continue trying, that's the best we can do, that's
992-512: Was opened in 2010 in Pakuranga . By 2019, night markets can be found in Auckland seven nights a week. Typically, night markets in Auckland are being held in shopping mall carparks . They offer food from Asia and Europe, as well as Māori and Pacific cuisines. There are also specialist pop-up night markets that serve one kind of food (such as noodles). In 2019, food delivery services from Auckland night markets were also introduced. In 2020, during
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1024-693: Was over 130,000 in 2017). The 626 Night Market , held at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California , a suburb of Los Angeles , is stated to be the largest Asian night market in the United States. The Food Trust in Philadelphia operates a unique variant of a night market, with it being a temporary event only active for one night before moving somewhere else in the city; the market has thus far been held in East Passyunk , South Street , Northern Liberties , Mount Airy , Old City , Chinatown , and other places across
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