Going “My Way” ... all the Way to the Redlight District!

It’s not what it sounds! My “tour guides” decided it might be fun to give me a sense of what the Patong nightlife is all about. So they took us to My Way Phuket, in one of the several “Red Light Districts” along Patong (it rhymes, hah hah). It’s essentially a cabaret type show where there is singing and dancing and gaudy costumes of all sorts. Only all the characters on stage are male – er, or at least some of them used to be –“Lady-boys,” as they are known in Thailand. The area itself is all lit up in neon, so it felt like I was stepping onto the main boulevard in Las Vegas, only in miniature!


The act we walked in on was something straight out of Bollywood, costumes, music, dance and all the usual fanfare. I think there might have been some sort of story line, but we must have missed it. It was over the top tragic! I loved it!


Would you like a drink, sir?

Just orange juice for me, thanks!

Anyway, my friends explained the whole phenomena of how in places like these, you could “buy” company for the night. I didn’t see anybody who was overtly for sale – I learned this after we had left. So prostitution is technically illegal in Thailand, apparently, but there are ways of getting around it. These escorts, if you will, technically work for the bar. So if you wanted to take a particular one “off-site” you pay the bar. Seems quite technical to me.

The act that I can’t possibly NOT tell you about is the Michael Jackson look-a-like who jumped on stage and lip-synced to his “You Are Not Alone.” I was appalled. I didn’t know what I was watching. It was something like when you drive past a traffic accident and you just have to look and can’t pull your gaze away. Anyway, we stayed long enough for a couple more acts before we left. I must add, that most of the performers looked like very convincing and beautiful women! Um, except for the Michael Jackson one.


Thanks for the uh, introduction, guys!

Oh, you’re welcome! Fantastically tragic, wasn’t it?

Hah hah, yeah…

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So I totally forgot to mention that two of guys I’m running around Phuket with are up and coming young fashion designers for the fashion boutique “Tube Gallery.” Actually, I should say they own and operate Tube. Check out some of their stuff at: http://www.soiwat.org/Tube-Gallery_r41.html

Oddly enough, in a city of over 12 million and a ton of universities big and small, these two are graduates of Chula, the university out of which I’m based. It seems like many of the successful people I’ve met so far in Thailand come out of there. I hope this means good things!