Patong is the main beach on Phuket and thirty years ago it must have been absolutely beautiful. Now it is as good an example of how untrammeled tourist development ruins beautiful places as you will find anywhere in the world.
Whilst Patong’s sand is still white it is now home to throngs of people, polluted water, legions of jet-skis (along with their aggressive, scamming owners) and armies of touts. The town is now a city and it is raucous, vulgar and overpriced. The traffic around Patong is gridlocked much of the time and this does nothing to dispel the general air of aggression that pervades the place.
Bangla road at the heart of the city is a wide street devoted to gogo bars and beer bars peopled largely by both female and transvestite bargirls. If you like vulgar, raucous, overpriced tackiness then Patong Beach is the place for you.
