Bangkok -- Khao San Road
Mar 1, 2009 16:32:47 GMT
Post by Deleted on Mar 1, 2009 16:32:47 GMT
Anybody who has ever been on a travel site has heard about Khao San Road in Bangkok. It has long been considered the absolute epitome of disgusting tourist behavior, total travel ignorance and the absolute opposite of an authentic travel experience.
Well, I have travelled far and wide, to numerous difficult places. I have lost one passport and have had 4 passports stolen, which may give an indication of the extremes that I have experienced (or my total and absolute stupidity). I have been threatened by gangs with knives twice and I have been placed in 'suspicious person' immigration interrogation offices at least 8 times.
I have also stayed in some of the finest hotels in the world (but I confess that I have never slept higher than the 48th floor), as well as a number of places that cost less than US$2 a night which I shared with rats. I have been to Bangkok more than 20 times and have stayed in every category of hotel. Just so you'll know, the absolute worst are the medium class hotels where every single employee constantly asks you if you require female (or male) company.
I therefore feel qualified to profess an opinion about the infamous Khao San Road, and I would like to say that I absolutely love it. It is the ultimate Inter-Zone from Naked Lunch, where all sorts of people whose paths should never cross do. It is any port in a storm.
Khao San Road never sleeps, and it tries to make sure that you don't either, unless you are in a room with noisy air-con. I have learned to do whatever I can to just get a fan room, so that the window must remain open and the Khao San night can jump in.
However, I confess that I am a good sleeper, so I have to force myself to wake up to go out and see what is happening at 2 a.m. That's when it gets interesting.
I am up for the day at 7 a.m., perhaps the most incredibly calm moment of the day. The 24-hour places have turned off their sound systems, and the night owls are sleeping on the tables next to their last untouched beer. A few tourists are up for the early bus departures to far away places, but there are very few people with time to kill like me.
Oh, how I love the banana pancakes, the fruit salads with yogurt, the muesli covered with papaya, mango and durian and the indifferent coffee or tea -- and the empty street, so rarely calm. Buddhist monks walk slowly up the middle of the street to the temple on the corner, bank employees on motor scooters fill the ATM's with zillions of bahts with absolutely no security, and the Coca-Cola trucks carry away countless empty bottles and leave a million new bottles of Coke and Fanta.
An hour or two later, the countless shop start setting up their wares, the sun beats down and it is time to sweat again.
Well, I have travelled far and wide, to numerous difficult places. I have lost one passport and have had 4 passports stolen, which may give an indication of the extremes that I have experienced (or my total and absolute stupidity). I have been threatened by gangs with knives twice and I have been placed in 'suspicious person' immigration interrogation offices at least 8 times.
I have also stayed in some of the finest hotels in the world (but I confess that I have never slept higher than the 48th floor), as well as a number of places that cost less than US$2 a night which I shared with rats. I have been to Bangkok more than 20 times and have stayed in every category of hotel. Just so you'll know, the absolute worst are the medium class hotels where every single employee constantly asks you if you require female (or male) company.
I therefore feel qualified to profess an opinion about the infamous Khao San Road, and I would like to say that I absolutely love it. It is the ultimate Inter-Zone from Naked Lunch, where all sorts of people whose paths should never cross do. It is any port in a storm.
Khao San Road never sleeps, and it tries to make sure that you don't either, unless you are in a room with noisy air-con. I have learned to do whatever I can to just get a fan room, so that the window must remain open and the Khao San night can jump in.
However, I confess that I am a good sleeper, so I have to force myself to wake up to go out and see what is happening at 2 a.m. That's when it gets interesting.
I am up for the day at 7 a.m., perhaps the most incredibly calm moment of the day. The 24-hour places have turned off their sound systems, and the night owls are sleeping on the tables next to their last untouched beer. A few tourists are up for the early bus departures to far away places, but there are very few people with time to kill like me.
Oh, how I love the banana pancakes, the fruit salads with yogurt, the muesli covered with papaya, mango and durian and the indifferent coffee or tea -- and the empty street, so rarely calm. Buddhist monks walk slowly up the middle of the street to the temple on the corner, bank employees on motor scooters fill the ATM's with zillions of bahts with absolutely no security, and the Coca-Cola trucks carry away countless empty bottles and leave a million new bottles of Coke and Fanta.
An hour or two later, the countless shop start setting up their wares, the sun beats down and it is time to sweat again.
