Phuket Island Thailand-Patong Beach nightlife, restaurants, hotels, shopping

Patong- Patong is one of the world’s most famous beaches. Whatever you want to find, you’ll be able to find it here.

Patong Beach- Years ago Patong beach was what brochure pictures dreamed of being. Crystal water, sparking white sand, gentle waves lapping with casuarina trees providing shade. Well a lot has changed since then.
Now the beach is famous for it’s rows upon rows of sun loungers ( even though after the Tsunami there was supposed to be a maximum of two rows with at least 10 metres in between each beach chair loungers territory). What you see now is a start contrast to that in that there are as many rows of sun loungers as the tide, weather and sand will allow.

What the beach is also notorious for are the jet skis. There are a multitude of jet skis available for hire, although we strongly discourage the use of these if you know what is good for your finances. There are countless documented reports of “jet ski scams” where aggressive jet ski operators will demand up to 50,000 baht from perceived damages. Most of the time there was some minor damage that was covered up by a very poor patch job, then when the unsuspecting renter returns the ski, damage shows up and then money is demanded. If the demands are not immediately met, the poor hirer is surrounded by a large group of this guy and his friends and is then coerced to go to the ATM. Usually after a few minutes a local policeman will show up and advise the poor hirer that he needs to pay, but the policeman bargains down the price a few thousand baht, then later gets his cut after the hirer has paid and gone.

Another thing that has changed over the years is the cleanliness and clarity of the water. At the southern end of the beach there is a klong (canal) that empties into the sea. Quite often it is very smelly and the water is very murky. Tests taken here show algae bloom which can be attributed to sewage runoff. Swim at the southern end at your own risk!

Now for the positive, there are a lot of wonderful massage stands where you can lay in the shade with a breeze blowing over your body and get a one or two hour massage for the price of a meal back home.

Other beach amenities include restaurants on the beach towards the center of the beach at Loma Park, Parasailing is available, and believe it or not, there are even public restroom facilities, which for whatever reason most beaches in Phuket do not have. If you fancy some pineapple or an ice cream, there will be plenty of passing vendors that will come right to your sun lounger. Use extreme caution when swimming between May and October due to very strong rip tides. .

Places to stay in Patong- Patong literally has tens of thousands of rooms available with new resorts, hotels and guesthouses opening literally every day. Where you want to stay and what type of accommodation you want to stay in is so varied, that we recommend you go to a website where you can select a hotel/room based on your selected criteria. Agoda is the largest and offers the cheapest rooms.

Places to eat in Patong- As in places to stay, Patong has a plethora of eating choices that range from 40 baht Pad Thai and noodle soups, to multi thousand baht fine dining choices. One of the great things about eating out in Patong is that for your two week stay, you could eat a different countries cuisine for breakfast lunch and dinner every day and still not be able to eat half of the variety of food from around the world that Patong’s eateries offer. There is every type of Asian cuisine available including Indian, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Russian, Vietnamese etc. African food is represented by North African food. European food includes restaurants from Scandinavia, France, Italy, Eastern Europe, Spain, the UK etc. North America is represented by American and Mexican food, while South America is represented by Brazilian Churascurrias. Oceania has some meat pie shops for our friends from down under and New Zealand.

Places to shop in Patong- When you are looking for that perfect souvenir, look no further than the hundreds of shops that line beach road and soi bangle. Whether you’re looking for a knockoff pair of sunglasses, shorts, shoes, or perhaps even the latest movie on DVD that hasn’t been released in theatres yet, you’re sure to find whatever you are looking for. One thing to note is that if all of a sudden many shops roll up their shutters in haste, there’s a good chance that someone has warned them that the police are coming and are looking for any counterfeit or fake goods. Most of these shops pay a couple of thousand baht to be forewarned of such events occurring, so the only shops that ever get caught are the shops that did not pay this extra monthly fee.
On the other end of the spectrum are the luxury and branded goods. As a general rule, you will be able to get these cheaper back in your home country as these goods are subject to import taxes along with having been marked up through the distribution chain. Patong sports one of Phuket’s largest and nicest shopping malls in Jungceylon. Here you will find local souvenir shops along with popular world wide name brands. You can even sip on a Starbucks latte or have a scoop of ice cream and watch the world pass by!

Nightlife in Patong- Nightlife is what put Patong on the map more than 20 years ago and is still one of the main draws today. From very humble beginnings of small bars along Soi Bangla which featured small bungalows, to what is now a multi million pound trade monthly, Patong’s nightlife has undergone great changes in 20 years. Over the past 10 years Soi Bangla has changed from a mixture of bars and small shops, to primarily bars with one shopping plaza, Ocean Plaza. However in the last two years, many bars have been knocked down to make way for a more family oriented street which includes a lot of upscale shops and markets.

OK, enough of the history and now let’s get down to what the nightlife is like today.

Some of the old long withstanding sois are still around. Soi Crocodile which has a lot of ladyboys and katoeys out front, still remains a popular venue for gawking tourists. Be warned about this Soi as the katoeys will come up to you dressed up in a costume, make the camera gesture, then after taking a photo with you they will demand 100 baht. If you refuse, you are quickly surrounded by a group of them and bullied into paying. Soi Gonzo and Soi Eric are still as popular as ever, although there are rumours that Soi Eric’s master lease is running out so no one knows what will happen in 2012.
Soi Sansabai which is just up from Soi Bangla, is a late night stop for food and after hours drinks. There is another area known as OTOP ( in Thai known as One Tambon One Product) which has a number of smaller beer bars. There is also a complex down towards the beach road at the south end of Patong where many of the bars that were on Soi Bangla moved to when their expensive leases were up on Soi Bangla.

Prices for drinks vary from 70 baht at some long standing beer bars, to 200+ baht for mixed drinks at some of the nightclubs. As is fitting for a beach resort, dress code is relaxed and casual with even singlets and flip flops being allowed at all but the few higher end nightclubs.

As Patong has a reputation for being a place for single males, expect to find most beer bars staffed by Thai women. The ago gos feature scantily clad females dancing to the mandatory pole. A word of caution about the ago gos. If a tout comes up to you ad promises a free show and accompanies you in, you will be hit with drink prices of 500 baht. The best thing to do is to go in without the tout and if you are shown a drink price menu with 500 baht drinks, tell the bartender to give you the other menu which will have normal 100 baht drinks. If they do not show you the cheaper menu, leave and go somewhere else.

In sum, Patong probably has close to 20 ago gos, 300+ beer bars, and 10 nightclubs, so there will be something for everyone.

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