THE LEGEND OF PATPONG

Patpong is a Cinderella story: in 1893, Tun Poon arrived in Bangkok as a poor Chinese immigrant, was taken in by a relative who taught him the business of rice trading, rose through the ranks to become the manager, expanded into sawmills and ice plants, became wealthy and philanthropic, was conferred by King Rama VII the title of Luang and the name Patpongpanich in 1927 in recognition of his charity work, became wealthier from selling calcium carbonate to the Siam Cement Group, and in 1946 purchased a banana plantation at an auction of confiscated land from the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank.    

Part 2 of the story is about one of his sons, Udom Patpongpanich who was educated in the UK and the US, trained by Jim Thompson to resist the Japanese invasion during World War II, transformed the former banana plantation into commercial area, and because of his OSS connection had American corporations and CIA cover companies in Thailand as tenants.

In 1969, a retired US Air Force personnel opened the Grand Prix Bar that was the beginning of Patpong's transition into the red light which is the third part of the story.  

I had a dinner of Crying Tiger steak in Patpong which is 650 meters away from Nai Meng along Silom Road where I had a bowl of its famous noodles with shrimp wonton, crispy pork belly, sweet pork barbecue and shitake mushroom in another dinner, 500 meters from Convent Road where I had two other dinners of an also famous chicken rice and not so famous fried chicken and rice, which is 850 meters to The Commons and its expensive craft beer menu.  

Shady characters are frequent visitors to Patpong with Tony Poe where the character of Colonel Kurtz in "Apocalypse Now" was based, and Charles Sobhraj, a serial killer in the 1970s nicknamed as The Serpent, as the most notorious.

And there is Asshole, also known as The Big Mistake who could easily qualify in their company with his cunning masking his incompetence and thriving in a culture of tolerance despite being hugely disliked probably because he is white and European.

He could have been thrown off the Royal Princess and no one will miss him had he joined the Chao Phraya river cruise where those on the top deck rioted at the buffet table...