Travel by Photo – A night at Bangla Street, Patong

This is a post what many travelers are missing out on! No introduction I think is needed for this place. Those who have been to Phuket and Patong Beach before must have also visited this travelers’ hot spot. For other travelers who are planning to visit Phuket, you must have also heard about these lively night scenes. Where am I referring to here? It has the most happening nightlife in Phuket. It sleeps at day and wake up at night. It’s also the heaven to those ‘desperate’ man. Bingo! It’s Bangla Street of Patong, Phuket. How much do I love Bangla Street?

We stayed in Safari Beach Hotel which is just around the corner from Bangla Street (highly recommended hotel if you’re staying in Patong). So on the night itself after we arrived at Patong Beach, tried some local foods, did some shopping in Jungceylon, dived into the sea of Andaman in the evening, shot some exciting sun-setting, and took a bath in the hotel, we headed back out again at night to take our first seafood dinner in Patong and off course, to do some pub crawling at Bangla Street!

Welcome to Patong!

The real crowds at Bangla Street drew in very late. When we passed by it at around 8pm, there were still not many people seen on the street.

But pubs and restaurants already started their business…

However, It was the best chance for me to take some photographs over those pubs freely without any obstructions from the crowd.

FBI in Phuket? It’s actually Finest Bar In Thailand night club.

We chose this 99 Restaurant along Rat-U-Thit Road at the end of Bangla Road because of this huge signboard of 99! We did not expect any surprises from here as what you can see from their signboard, they are mainly for tourists!

We picked and ordered some simple seafood without the lobster. The food tastes fine but not as good as our lunch at Jungceylon. The price is reasonable. It cost us RM200 for 6 of us.

Too full for beers? Nevermind, we took a walk along Rat-U-Thit Road. Rat-U-Thit is the main road in Patong and you can find various souvenir shops and stalls along both sides of the road.

Jean loves these very much…

These lanterns are beautiful… but not the Chinese wording. I know Chinese language but I don’t understand what they are writing. They are just single words being copied and pasted.

This is interesting…. tools and weapons for self protection. Do we need any in Phuket?

We were a bit thirsty and we caught this Gelato shop. We tried a scoop. Not bad. But I’m looking forward to try the original in Rome this May!

Along the Beach Road, there are many up market seafood restaurants and bars also.

What a contrast. A pinoy band singing in front of the ‘Four Faces Buddha‘ statue.

Alright! It’s time to go back to Bangla Street. First look at this Bangla Area Map. It’s the directories of all bars along the road. There are easily more than 100 drinking holes there. Read also the warning on top right corner: Have Fun, Be Safe, Look After Your Bag. Let’s go bar hopping!!

Crowds started to come in from all over Phuket…

Drinkers started to fill the space of all bars…

The highlight of the street! Lady boys in action!

Look at the crowds. People were drawn into the frontage of this lady boy bar.

Not only lady boys performance, they are also pole dancing show on 1st floor.

The best spot to see these show is not inside it (though we did drink inside to get them up close… and up skirt) but the bars opposite the road with road side seating.

Lay boys podium dancing! Oh my god! Do you have the same body figures as them, ladies? It’s actually against Buddhism restrictions to disclose their bodies in public. If you are coming to Phuket for Buddhism travel, stay away from Bangla Street at all times.

Instead of mugs on coasters in Europe, bars in Patong serve bottled beers in beer jacket with attractive graphics.

The red light district of Patong and Phuket. It was stimulating indeed. Most of them are on offer to be tourists’ ‘escorts’.

Apart from drinking, there are also dancing clubs and snooker centers around the area. We had a really good time on the first night in Patong. Beers are cheap at around THB50. Cigarettes are being sold at dedicated stalls only for THB90 per packet of 20′s. There were so many bar girls for patrons to grab away (that’s what Bangla Street is infamous for) but just try to behave yourself. Drugs are illegal in Thailand though many patrons having fun here are taking soft drugs such as Cannabis and Yah Bah. I’m not one of them. Alchohol had made me high enough to do anything crazy… – Travel Feeder, the ultimate travel photo blog

You can view all photos in full resolution in my Flickr page or slideshow below. Happy viewing!

All photos was taken with Nikon D60 with Nikkor 35mm f1.8 lens.