Dan's Adventure

Before Bangkok the most backpacker centric place that I had been was Vang Vieng in Laos. It was filled with bars and cafes, companies offering activities and a lot of drunk tourists. That wasn’t a patch on Khao San Road.

Along the length of Khao San Road are stalls selling fake name brand clothing, sunglasses and flip flops, everything that a tourist may need. In between are small food stalls selling everything from banana pancakes to pad thai, and people selling beers from cooler boxes for less than the surrounding bars but more than the 7 Elevens which are always near by. People walk down the street sipping from plastic bags containing cocktails whilst every tuk tuk driver wants to take you to see a show in the red light area.

Every building contains a guesthouse, a bar and a restaurant as well as a few shops, but if you want to get a good sleep you really should look else where. I stayed a few streets away at a place called Peachy Guesthouse. The room was basic but it was only $5 a night which is a lot cheaper than the guesthouses on Khao San Road. The food is also better a few streets away. The road that runs parallel to Khao San Road has a number of good food stalls congregated around the 7 Eleven where you can get 2 choices and rice for under $1. I ate around here almost every night.

On my first night in Bangkok I went out with some guys I met at the guesthouse to sample Khao San Road’s nightlife. Cheap buckets and beer towers are everywhere, but finding somewhere that stayed open late proved to be a problem. Most places shut down around 1am.

The area around Khao San Road is a great place to stay if you want to meet other travellers and want to go out partying, but it is a bit of a trek from most of Bangkok’s sights. The number 15 bus comes to the rescue if you can’t be bothered walking as it passes by Khao San Road and runs past a lot of the main attractions on the way to the ultra modern shopping centres.