What a bizarre place this is! I gotta say I travelled all the way to Thailand and did not even get in the ocean water, excluding dabbling my toes. Really the beaches are nice, but nothing compares to beaches on the mid north coast of NSW, you can get on most beaches and be the only one there!
It is also a hot spot for gay people to visit, man did not know that when I took this picture of the dude in the budgie smugglers!
The nightlife is something else apparently, never hung around long enough to see thank goodness!
Patong Beach – History
Official permanent population is 14797 (2006) persons but the real number is probably as high as 60,000 in high season.
1827 Baan Kathu and Baan Patong are small villages without convenient transportation
1898 The Island is organized into five grades of local administration.
1947 The government approves 60,000 THB for a basic road over the hill to Patong
1969 Patong is upgraded to a “sanitation district” and taxes of 20,000 THB a year are collected.
1976 A sealed road is built to Patong.
1979 Electricity arrives
1994 Patong sanitation district is upgraded to a municipally
2004 Patong was hit by the Asian Tsunami 26 December
2005 Recovery year, tourism back to 80% at end of the year. Opening of Patong OTOP Shopping Paradise, Thanon Rat-U-Thit 200P (south end).
2006 Jungceylon, Patong’s first full-fledged modern air-con shopping mall, complete with 200 shops, integrated hotel, etc. Still under construction and the opening has been postponed several times, but will probably launch some time in end of 2006