Goodbye Khao San Road
Sept 4, 2023 15:28:54 GMT
Post by kerouac2 on Sept 4, 2023 15:28:54 GMT
Just about every budget traveller to Bangkok is familiar with Khao San Road, a place so overrun with backpackers that most people don't even know its real name Thanon Khao San. People have always despised it or loved it. There is absolutely nothing authentic about it since it exists only to serve the farang with travel agencies, cheap hotels and bars that are complete dives. Since the vast majority of my trips to Bangkok have just been quick transit situations before moving on, I never really worried about it and found it quite convenient. I would arrive and set up a bus trip to Cambodia or Laos or to southern Thailand or wait from my next flight to some other place.
It has always been relatively awful but exercised a weird attraction over me. I enjoy seeing lost travellers in the inter-zone, not know if they are coming or going. The cheap food and cheap beer were pretty good even though it took a bit of work to find more authentic items on the menu, but it is also where I discovered the joy of Australian breakfasts of banana pancakes covered with chocolate syrup or muesli drenched in yogurt and sliced exotic fruits. Places where all of the cultures mix indiscriminately have always appealed to me perhaps even more than totally "authentic" places.
I also found a hotel that appealed to me -- the Khao San Palace, a very modest establishment right in the middle of the area. I must have stayed there at least 10 times over the last 30 or 40 years. It had cheap "fan rooms" which were my favourite, because you kept the windows open and listened to the pounding music of the bars until at least 2 a.m. (I admit that for certain things I am the opposite of most people.) And they also had "nice" rooms for 3 or 4 times the cost. Unfortunately, now they only have nice rooms, so I reserved one for two nights because I didn't want to look around at unknown establishments, especially when I saw that just about all of the names from the old days have disappeared, probably with a lot of help from covid.
I arrived at Khao San in searing heat that made me regret the rain of Hanoi and Luang Prabang. There is a direct non stop bus from the airport for 70 baht (1.84 euros) that takes about an hour, and this is an excellent price to pay when you think that I spent 600 baht (15.77 euros) for a taxi to go back to the airport. I know that such prices seem ridiculous in our part of the world, but you have to totally change your mental scale in such countries, or else you shouldn't come at all. Of course plenty of people go to the giant hotel towers along the rivers where they can spend the same amount they could spend in Dubai or some place like that. Total luxury in a temporary fantasy world.
I will confess that for about 2 or 3 years when I started working for an airline, I fell victim the the attraction of things I had never thought were possible in my life, due to my 50 or 60% discount in the luxury hotels. But it did not take too long for me to understand that when you stay in a Marriott or an Inter-Contintental or a Hilton or a Hyatt or whatever, you feel that you are exactly in the same place in Manila, Singapore, Cairo, Hong Kong, Montréal or Jeddah and you have practically no contact with the country. Lots of people love this. I do not.
It has always been relatively awful but exercised a weird attraction over me. I enjoy seeing lost travellers in the inter-zone, not know if they are coming or going. The cheap food and cheap beer were pretty good even though it took a bit of work to find more authentic items on the menu, but it is also where I discovered the joy of Australian breakfasts of banana pancakes covered with chocolate syrup or muesli drenched in yogurt and sliced exotic fruits. Places where all of the cultures mix indiscriminately have always appealed to me perhaps even more than totally "authentic" places.
I also found a hotel that appealed to me -- the Khao San Palace, a very modest establishment right in the middle of the area. I must have stayed there at least 10 times over the last 30 or 40 years. It had cheap "fan rooms" which were my favourite, because you kept the windows open and listened to the pounding music of the bars until at least 2 a.m. (I admit that for certain things I am the opposite of most people.) And they also had "nice" rooms for 3 or 4 times the cost. Unfortunately, now they only have nice rooms, so I reserved one for two nights because I didn't want to look around at unknown establishments, especially when I saw that just about all of the names from the old days have disappeared, probably with a lot of help from covid.
I arrived at Khao San in searing heat that made me regret the rain of Hanoi and Luang Prabang. There is a direct non stop bus from the airport for 70 baht (1.84 euros) that takes about an hour, and this is an excellent price to pay when you think that I spent 600 baht (15.77 euros) for a taxi to go back to the airport. I know that such prices seem ridiculous in our part of the world, but you have to totally change your mental scale in such countries, or else you shouldn't come at all. Of course plenty of people go to the giant hotel towers along the rivers where they can spend the same amount they could spend in Dubai or some place like that. Total luxury in a temporary fantasy world.
I will confess that for about 2 or 3 years when I started working for an airline, I fell victim the the attraction of things I had never thought were possible in my life, due to my 50 or 60% discount in the luxury hotels. But it did not take too long for me to understand that when you stay in a Marriott or an Inter-Contintental or a Hilton or a Hyatt or whatever, you feel that you are exactly in the same place in Manila, Singapore, Cairo, Hong Kong, Montréal or Jeddah and you have practically no contact with the country. Lots of people love this. I do not.
Well, I instantly discovered that Khao San is not at all the same place anymore. At first it didn't look too bad. At least it looked like Bangkok.
I really liked this mobile gardening shop.
A bit of relief when it rained. Hallelujah!
But it was all so dead compared to the past.
