What I love About… Khaosan Road, Bangkok

On average, it probably sees more people per day than some places in South East Asia see in a year. It’s been mimicked and copied in Phuket and it embodies all that is good and bad, in equal measure, in South East Asia. It’s backpacker central in Bangkok… So what is there to love about Khaosan Road.

If you travel around South East Asia, or to be even more specific, Thailand, Cambodia or Central / Southern Laos, you do well to avoid a trip through Bangkok. A trip to Bangkok, when you’ve got a backpack in tow, usually means at the very least a visit to, if not a few nights on Khaosan Road. Although I saw the movie first, Khaosan Road was immortalised in legend for in the opening few chapters of Alex Garland’s cult novel “The Beach”. There was something so cool and seedy, fun loving but dangerous, the kind of place that if you didn’t have your wits about you, could swallow you whole leaving you to never see the light of day again. Before I’d even stepped foot off the airport bus in October of 2005, I had a rose tinted view of what Khaosan Road was going to be like… and it didn’t disappoint.

Glorious Khaosan Road during the day!
Photo by me 2009

OK, a small confession. My first trip to Khaosan Road wasn’t from the airport. I spent my first ever night in Bangkok in an Australian run backpackers some trek away from the main hub. The following morning though – and running on about 4 hours sleep – I hitched a taxi with a fellow backapacker and we set off in search of the promised land – or in this case, road. I don’t know how important that night away from Khaosan was. My first night in a strange new continent (I had spent the 11 months prior to that living in New Zealand and a week in Australia in between) felt like the first really real adventure I had taken. Not that New Zealand hadn’t been without its charms, but it was narrow streets and exotic smells and the idea that the feint hearted would succumb to this part of the world and be devoured by it. Asia was a major deal for me and Khaosan Road was central to that ideal. The Beach had sold me a dream and Khaosan Road was where that dream would begin. To back track… my first night – away from Khaosan Road – would hopefully serve perfectly as a buffer between the obscene weight of expectation and the potentially crushing disappointment of reality. Thankfully, it found a middle ground between the two. To contextualise even further, having arrived at the Hostel in Bangkok and checked into to my room, a then single occupancy triple room, on the roof of the 5 story high hostel, I stepped out onto the roof to get an  idea of where I was (The Hangover Parts 1 and 2 converge!)...  I remember it all slowly sinking in that I really had cut the metaphorical umbilical chord, had removed the relative comfort of familiarity, predominantly English speaking people, predictable if unexciting food choices… and landed right in the melting pot… right in the middle of Bangkok. I think without this sense of perspective initially, Khaosan Road, for me, would have just been an overload. As it was, I got it just about spot on! The next morning, I ventured down to Khaosan Road and had a look round. Checked out some guesthouses (“flee” pits), found out some prices and eventually made a reservation at one for the following day (I’d committed to 2 nights at the other hostel). My adventure in South East Asia was about to begin. I spent the remainder of the day walking around some of the sites in Bangkok before heading back to my original guest house for one final night. The last supper. The calm before the storm!!! The following morning, I hopped in a taxi with some fellow backpackers and set off towards Khaosan Road.

There are a handful of things I remember about that first night on Khaosan Road, each one certainly playing a part in the early gestation of love towards Khaosan Road (the hate would come at a later date but would eventually be forgiven!), the first being my accommodation… and the cost. Before I got there, the dream I’d been sold of Khaosan Road wasn’t so much a dream as it was a dirty, grotty, dingy but ultimately real, nightmare! My small room, literally a single bed and barely enough room at the side of it to either walk along or stash my backpack, was exactly what I had expected and in some masochistic way, hoped for! The matress was that in name only, there was a thin sheet to wrap around you – not that it was cold; when I was there we were getting mid to high 20’s in the middle of the night. The lock consisted of a small flimsy deadbolt on the inside and a lock on the outside – you had to provide your own padlock or rent one from reception. The location of my room faced out on to Khaosan Road so you can imagine, by late evening, the room was bouncing to the beat of the nearby bars and bootleg CD stalls. I realised pretty quickly that I wasn’t going to get much sleep so, trying to beat them at their own game in a away, bought a CD (I won’t say which one but it became one of my soundtracks to the rest of the trip and to this day is one of my favourite albums) which when the time came for sleep, I blasted out through my earphones, rocking me gently to sleep.

Khaosan Road at night... the beat of the drum...
(Photo by me 2012)

After I had checked in to my “cupboard under the stairs” I ventured out, ending up at a nearby restaurant eating a chicken burger and watching some football highlights on the small TV in the corner. A fellow backpacker sat in the empty chair next to me and after we had been talking for a while we both decided that we would do a little travelling together so we ventured off the next day to Kanchanaburi. For me, this encounter sums up Khaosan Road in a nutshell… A melting pot for people to meet and go, stay if you want, either way… Bangkok is your entry point to South East Asia and Khaosan Road is the noticeboard on the wall helping you on your way.

Since that first encounter, I’ve passed through Khaosan Road many more times, staying for hours, days and even on one occasion, a couple of weeks. I have some great memories from that trip, doing a run down to Bangkok on the local bus to pick up my passport from Khaosan Road (Visa) before getting the local bus back out to the Railway station to take the standing room only train out to Ayutthaya on the same evening (and surviving to tell the tale!). There have been bad moments as well but I look back on them as character building rather than demoralising or negative. An overnight from Pai to Chiang Mai to Bangkok arriving at 6am in the morning and an ill fated choice of cold egg from the street stalls leading to a horrible bout of illness is the instance I refer to… where I had to take refuge in a guesthouse, cancel my onward journey down to Hat Yai (Visa / Border run – when it was still viable) and try and keep something down without passing out unconscious over the toilet bowl… yes, that was certainly character building to the tune of “I think I’m going to die here…. But I survived!”

The two trips I’ve taken since have both featured Khaosan Road in a significant way. In 2009 with my then girlfriend, now wife, we landed in Bangkok from Singapore late in the evening and took the now defunct Airport Bus 2 (AE2) to Khaosan Road, optimistically tried to get a cheap room at the same sort of rates I had experienced 4 years earlier and ended up discovering what then was one of the grimy bargains just off Khaosan Road… namely Rainbow Guest House. A quaint Indian Restaurant across the road opposite the western end of Khaosan, Rainbow Guesthouse became our best friend. Always good for a cheap room if you just needed a place to crash between buses. The number of times we paid for the night and checked out before the evening was even young are too numerous to count. The Lomprayah ferry leaves at 10pm but you need a place to crash for the day because your bus from Chang Mai gets in a 6am… I know… 450 baht a night Rainbow will do! Got a flight to catch during the day at 6pm but don’t want to pay the late check out fee or additional fee for another night at one of the flashpacker Hotels? 450 baht a night Rainbow will do!!! To be honest, the last time I visited will probably be the last time, it had fallen into a state beyond what even I would be able to tolerate although on the plus side, it is now available on Hostelworld for the same prices you pay at the desk as a walk in. But Rainbow was such a key part of my experiences on and around Khaosan Road, it had to be mentioned.

There's a storm a comin'!!! OK, by this stage
 it was already here! (Photo by me 2005)

Of course, you can’t talk about Khaosan Road without mentioning the incredible atmosphere that seems to build through the day and reach its crescendo as the night gets darker and later. The daytime calm before the storm, soaking up heat while fishing for a bargain vest top or T-shirt (about 80-120 baht for a good quality one) amongst the multitude of other great souvenirs on offer. As the arrival point into South East Asia for a lot of travellers, there’s an innocence, a naivety, a buzz, a fear factor and above all else a level of excitement and anticipation. There’s also the smell… as wonderful and as horrible in equal measure... 

Khaosan Road doesn't like the rain.
(Photo by me October 2005)

The horrible aspect is easy to pinpoint… Khaosan Road doesn’t handle heavy rainfall particularly well which means while there isn’t raw sewage floating down the street, there are times when it smells like there could be some close. But thw wonderful smells, by contrast make the bad tolerable. The street food (which we will come to in a moment) is all around you. The flavours of a whole region all crammed into one small hole. OK, those flavours include pizza slices, Big Mac’s and Meatball subs (amongst other things) but they also include the best street Pad Thai in Thailand, the Curry’s from the Indian restaurants, the rice and noodle dishes that line the streets, the smell of Chang, Singha and Sangsom and Red Bull… it all adds up to one incredible feeling. The feeling that you’re somewhere different.

I can’t talk about Khaosan Road without mentioning THE Pad Thai guy. First discovered on our arrival in December 2009, this is the guy who, having sampled various other samples across not only Khaosan Road, but most of Thailand, can certainly be described, albeit subjectively, as the guy who makes the best!!! There will be video below of the genius at work!!! Not only is the food great but the self-contained kitchen cart has everything you could want. Various samples of Soy and Sweet Chilli. Condiments galore!!! The guy also sells some awesome spring rolls which although not as fresh as the “watch me make it before your very eyes” Pad Thai, are still exceptionally good.

Pad Thai Guy on Khaosan Road
(Photo by me 2012)

Add to this the ludicrously low price of around 30-40 baht for the Pad Thai and less individually for the spring rolls and you know why the guy is held in such high regard. Thankfully he was still there throughout the 2009/10 trip (up to the last date sometime in late March / early April and even more thankfully, on our return in 2012 he hadn’t moved an inch!!! He can be found in and around the D&D Inn area or near the popular money exchange center across from / near Silk Bar. Once you have found him, you end up going back again and again and again!





Admittedly there are times when you just want a good night’s sleep and there are times when on Khaosan Road, you aren’t going to succeed with this but there is certainly the facility to dull the senses… A favourite pastime of mine and one of the other reasons, admittedly one of the main reasons I love Khaosan Road is venturing in to one of the numerous 7-Elevens,

People watching from Silk Bar
(Photo by me 2012)

purchasing a bottle of Chang Beer for a fraction of the price the bars are setting half the amount for, getting the mostly friendly staff to pop the bottle top off for me, then walking up and down Khaosan Road, with a beer and taking it all in. People watching at its best! The Chang (when I was last there) was about 40-45 baht, the Singha was about 55-60 for a large bottle. You don’t need many of these to be on the floor!!! That’s a cheap night out in my book!

Silk Bar Happy Hour!!!
(Photo by me 2012)

So in summary, why do I love Khaosan Road? It’s got everything, its easy for a newbie and like an old friend for an experienced pro. The street life and people watching is some of the best in the region and it will always be a place that creates memories. It is also an integral part of South East Asia travel as an onward travel booking mecca with cheap fares easy to come by on every corner of the street. Khaosan Road does seem to be changing though and the introduction of a second MacDonalds at the western end along with the KFC (at the expense of one of my favourite gift shops no less) is a sad sign of where it might be going. But as long as I can still dip a toe into the rooftop pool at Khaosan Palace and so long as the 7-Elevens keep churning out cheap beer for me to enjoy on the street. So long as my Pad Thai guy sticks around for a little bit longer and ultimately as long as good people keep going there in their droves everything will be fine. Khaosan Road isn’t the sort of place that suffers from being over-crowded and having too many people there, quite the opposite, it thrives on it and in the same sense as visiting an old friend you don’t see often enough… I hope I get back there soon.