Ever since we were in China, there was talk of the ping pong shows in Thailand. Once we got to Vietnam, and the new group started with us in Hanoi, the talk of the shows started to escalate; and when we discovered that the end of the tour occurred on Thanksgiving Day in the United States, we determined to celebrate the holiday in traditional Thai fashion – by going to a ping pong show. Okay, technically, that’s not how American Thanksgiving is traditionally celebrated in Thailand yet, but we decided to start a new tradition.
I noticed on the internet that Soi Cowboy was close to my new hotel. Soi Cowboy is a red-light district in Bangkok known for its bars and strip clubs. Since it was close by, I was meeting my friends at my hotel for the Thanksgiving festivities. While I waited, I went by and scouted out Soi Cowboy. When I returned to my hotel, my friends had just arrived. They asked what Soi Cowboy looked like. Two words – Slut Vegas.
Soi Cowboy was just a few blocks away. When you walk down a large side street from the main road, you continue about two blocks when, to the right of Soi 21, you see a festival of neon lights belonging to strip clubs and bars all up and down Soi Cowboy. Soi Cowboy isn’t very long, maybe half a kilometer, but there isn’t a centimeter on either side of the street that isn’t used for quality Thai entertainment.
Our group began by walking down the street and absorbing the atmosphere. As we walked by, we were solicited by scantily clad, let’s call them dancers, at virtually every club extolling the virtues of their respective clubs. We soaked in the culture until we reached the very end of Soi Cowboy. At that end, there was an Irish pub and we decided to stop for a few beers before continuing on to the performances.
After a few drinks, we returned to Soi Cowboy where we went looking for a ping pong show. Now, Soi Cowboy isn’t really the home of ping pong shows in Bangkok – that would probably be Patpong – but we figured we’d be able to find one.
We stopped in a few places after asking if there would be ping pong shows inside. After being assured that we could find one, we entered into these places only to find that there was no place for the five of us to sit once we entered because they were all pretty full. Finally, we reached a place – I forget its name but it’s something like Long Gun – that had seats at the dance floor for all five of us. After some basic strip club preliminaries, we were privileged to witness the main attraction. I won’t go into great detail, this is a family blog after all, but we witnessed smoking, the playing of a recorder, the blowing up of balloons with a dart gun, and yes, the moving of ping pong balls into a beer glass all performed by a very talented woman who was able to perform these feats in a non-traditional manner – at least a non-traditional manner outside of Bangkok. I’m not sure if the show quite lived up to expectations, but I think that we were all glad we went because it would have been a shame to visit Bangkok and not see one of its main claims to fame.
At the end of the show, we went back to my hotel and all said our goodbyes. As it turned out, this was the last time that I saw anybody from the group and it turned out to be the last unofficial group event. I have to say that it was fun while it lasted. From here on out, I was running solo, though there would be plenty of opportunities to see old friends.
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