Chinatown and Patpong

Spent Monday during the day in Chinatown. Not much to say: more teeming masses, more people buying things, more unfamiliar food, Naomi in pocketbook heaven. (By my unofficial count, Naomi has now shopped for pocketbooks in 43 in 4 continents countries without ever buying one, still well short of the world record of 108 countries in five continents--but she still has time.)

Spent the evening in Patpong, the best know red Light district in Bangkok, maybe in te whole world. (Used to be Pigalle in Paris, right? Interesting how red light districts follow the path of the American military. I'm not ready to rule out the possibility that this is what Kabul will look like in ten years.) But, if the Royal Palace and Chinatown and the markets were all more than we expected, Patpong was less. It is entirely contained in roughly three streets. Walk two blocks away and there's barely a hint of a red light district nearby. It also seemed very safe. Men and older women walked up to us--especially but not only me (RZ)--but never a young woman. All had little cards in their hand (see the picture below, all the Patpong pix are from the internet) with a menu for sex shows that seem more comical than titillating. Inside each of the bars that line the streets, there were a few Thai women swaying--undulating would be much too strong a word--in bikinis slightly more modest than what pregnant women wear on the beach in Rio. There are a fair number of older Farang (foreigner) men walking around with younger Thai women but our sense is that's more an internet operation than a red light district phenomenon. How interesting was Patpong? Well, Naomi and I both reverted to type pretty quickly. Once Naomi got over her first blast of feminist indignation, she realized that there were pocketbooks to look at in the stores that were part of the Patpong night bazaar. I might have had some interest in exploring a little more, but I figured pretty quickly that suggesting going to one of the sex shows wouldn't be worth Naomi's probable indignation and, even less, the couple of dollars it would likely cost. Maybe, if we could get grants .....

Note to everybody: Please keep writing comments. They're fun to read and Naomi and I both like the reminder that our friends and family are as contentious as we are.

Note to Jim and Jim, in particular, I think all you have to do is sign up. It's free.

Note to Barbara: Sorry about my mistake on Lost Horizon. Serves me right for saying anything without checking on IMBD first. Insofar as I was thinking of anything, it wasn't that i had confused Bing Crosby with Ronald Colman or Dabney Colemen or Gary Coleman. I think it's that I confused Lost Horizon with Road to Bali or Road to Singapore. (And did you know that there's a Road to Rio, co-starring Jane Wyatt?)