Old Patong: The U-Boat[early 80’s]

Along the north central end of Patong beach was where the former German U-Boat Captain Hans started building his U-Boat!

We’d drive by for months, watching the cement cylinder take shape, the local talk was how the machine was being built, it’s various technology and if it would sink to the bottom of Patong Bay as quickly as rock?

Captain Hans seem to have great pride in the ships craftmanship, he was there on hand to supervise every laddle of fresh,wet,hand mixed cement creating an ever fatter supository looking craft!

By night, Captain Hans ran the U-Boat bar on Soi Bangla[Bar Rd]and always had a group of northern Europeans gathered round his table for tales of WWII and how “shares” of his new [hopefully] floating machine would make them all rich when he would charge tourist a grand amount of Baht to tour the beautiful undersea coral reefs of Patong Bay and beyond!

It seemed like the work on the U-Boat lasted not more than 6 months, by monsoon, the locals were “salvaging” the iron ree-bar by hitting the flakey concrete orb senselessly with large hammers…:-(

I wish there were a picture of what was to make Patong beach and Captain Hans famous, but sadly, none were taken! Maybe there are some old timers out there in internet land that have a picture or two of the fabled U-Boat or atleast the U-Boat Bar, which lived on for several seasons after the demise and complete destruction of the U-Boat.

While the contruction was going on, many gawkers, tourist, travellers, expats and locals spent many hours sipping a cool brewski and wondering where it would all end.

Like most pipe dreams, it went up in smoke… but, maybe that’s how it started!