Today, I walked from Surawong to Silom roads, through the Patpong, on my eternal search for space. I walked down the Patpong, Bangkok's touristy sex strip, in the flat, white light of early afternoon. And I noticed something that you can't during nighttime, when the seedy strip is crowded with merchandise of all kinds. I was amazed by the entrances there, which are strange and wonderful and were eerily transformed in the sunlight.
The bars have evocative names - Safari, Madrid, Heaven - and seem childish in their thematic simplicity. But there is also an uncomfortable beauty in those battered, smutty spaces. The Germans probably have a word for that.
