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  1. #1
    Thailand Expat tomcat's Avatar
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    Khao San Struggles On

    How Bangkok's Khao San Road evolved from a rice market into the world's most famous travel hub

    Joe Cummings, CNN • Published 29th January 2021















    • Khao San Road, Bangkok: An influx of backpackers that started out as a trickle in the 1970s became a tidal wave in the 1990s, transforming Khao San Road into the world's largest backpacker center. According to the Khao San Business Association, in 2018 the road saw an astounding 40,000-50,000 tourists per day in the high season. CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT/AFP/AFP via Getty Images


    Bangkok (CNN) — Once upon a time, the locals peddled rice on Bangkok's Khao San Road. Lots of it.

    Barge after barge paddled, and later motored, down the vast Chao Phraya River and into the mouth of Banglamphu Canal, where they dropped off thousands of tons in jute sacks to wholesalers in the neighborhood.

    By the end of the 19th century, Banglamphu district was by far the largest rice market not only in Bangkok, but anywhere in Siam, the world's largest rice growing nation.

    Smaller vendors opened shops south of the canal, where a dirt-track alley became so thick with the rice trade that King Chulalongkorn ordered a proper road built in 1892. Running only 410 meters, the cobbled strip wasn't grand enough to be named after a historic Thai figure or nation-building principle, unlike other city thoroughfares, so it was simply called Soi Khao San (Milled Rice Lane).

    As Banglamphu flourished on rice profits, the district expanded into clothing (including Thailand's first ready-made school uniforms), buffalo-leather shoes, jewelry, gold leaf and costumes and regalia for Thai classical dance theater. Local demand for entertainment gave birth to two musical comedy houses, Thailand's first national record label (Kratai), and one of the kingdom's first silent-movie cinemas.

    Yet only 100 years later, an invasion of international backpackers almost completely eclipsed local market culture. Starting as a trickle in the late 1970s, when Bangkok was a terminus for the Asian hippie trail, the influx became a tidal wave in the 1990s.

    Guesthouses proliferate


    I don't think anyone could have predicted the inexorable evolution of the road and surrounding neighborhood.
    When I first strolled down Khao San Road on a research trip for the first edition of Lonely Planet's Thailand guide, 40 years ago, it was lined with late 19th- and early 20th-century two-story shophouses.

    At street level were rows of shoe shops, Thai-Chinese coffee shops, noodle vendors, grocers and motorcycle repair shops. Owners or tenants lived above.

    A few rice dealers hung on, but as 10-wheel trucks had taken over from river barges, rice transport and trading had for the most part moved elsewhere.

    While Yaowarat, Bangkok's Chinatown, was the main commercial focus for Chinese merchants and residents, and Phahurat served the Indian community, Banglamphu was clearly a more Thai realm. Around the corner on Chakkaphong and Phra Sumen roads, artisan shops still crafted costumes and masks for classical Thai dance-drama performers.

    I had a spent a long, hot day jotting down notes on the Grand Palace, the Temple of the Emerald Buddha (Wat Phra Kaew), the Temple of the Reclining Buddha (Wat Pho), and the Giant Swing, all of which lie within a kilometer's radius of Khao San Road.

    These are arguably the city's chief sightseeing attractions, so when I noticed two Chinese-Thai hotels on Khao San Road, I immediately thought to recommend them in my guidebook as a convenient base for travelers. Nearly identical in their modest amenities, Nith Chareon Suk Hotel and Sri Phranakhon Hotel cost $5 a night at the time, and catered to Thai traders buying wholesale goods in Banglamphu to sell upcountry.

    Down a narrow alley nearby, I was even more thrilled to stumble upon VS Guest House, recently opened by a Banglamphu family taking guests into their 1920s-vintage wooden house for $1.50 per head. Further alley exploration turned up two more family-run, similarly priced guesthouses, Bonny and Tum.

    “Foreigners back then traveled so quietly. They were interested in history and culture, unlike youngsters we see nowadays, who seem more interested in getting drunk and partying.”Rintipa Detkajon, Khao San Road guesthouse owner

    These two hotels and three guesthouses formed the sum of Khao San Road accommodations I listed in the first "Thailand: A Travel Survival Kit," published the following year, 1982.

    When I returned a year later to update info for the second edition, five more guesthouses along or just off Khao San had appeared, so I dutifully added these for the 1984 edition.

    From that point forward, every time I came back to Banglamphu for the guide's biannual update, the number of places to stay had multiplied exponentially. Within a decade, the choices proliferated, block by block, from Khao San Road out to other streets and alleys in the district, until backpacker hotels and guesthouses numbered well over 200.

    "The Beach" effect


    By the mid-1990s, the neighborhood was a global phenom, the largest backpacker center among the three Ks -- Kathmandu, Khao San, and Kuta Beach. Besides housing and feeding the largest transient backpacker population in the world, Khao San Road became a world-record contender for its black market in unlicensed cassettes, CDs and DVDs, fake IDs, counterfeited books and brand-knockoff luggage.

    Dozens of bucket shops offered unrivaled bargain fares on little-known airlines flying imaginative routes to virtually any airport on the globe.
    Alex Garland, an unknown writer at the time (now famed for directing sci-fi films "Ex Machina" and "Annihilation)', boosted Khao San's bad-boy rep further with his 1996 cult novel, "The Beach." Based on Garland's own travels in Thailand, the first seven chapters take place on Khao San Road, where Richard, a young English backpacker, meets an eccentric Scot calling himself Daffy Duck who gives him a secret map to "the beach."


    Prior to the pandemic, Khao San Road was a popular spot for travelers and locals to celebrate Songkran, the Thai new year festival.
    PORNCHAI KITTIWONGSAKUL/AFP/AFP via Getty Images

    The novel describes a room in a typical Khao San guesthouse of the era: "One wall was concrete -- the side of the building. The others were Formica and bare. They moved when I touched them. I had the feeling that if I leant against one it would fall over and maybe hit another, and all the walls of the neighboring rooms would collapse like dominoes. Just short of the ceiling, the walls stopped, and covering the space was a strip of metal mosquito netting."

    A film adaptation directed by Danny Boyle and starring Leonard DiCaprio hit world cinemas in 2000, and probably introduced Khao San Road to a larger audience than either the novel or my Lonely Planet guides.

    That same year Italian electronic music producer Spiller released a video of his dance track "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)," shot in Bangkok with a prominent scene at the end where Spiller and singer Sophie Ellis-Baxter dance in an underground Khao San Road club.

    A New Yorker article that year described Khao San Road as "the travel hub for half the world, a place that prospers on the desire to be someplace else," because it was "the safest, easiest, most Westernized place from which to launch a trip through Asia."

    Khao San Road today

    According to the Khao San Business Association, in 2018 the road saw an astounding 40,000-50,000 tourists per day in the high season, and 20,000 per day in the low season.

    With such numbers, it wasn't much of a surprise when the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority announced in 2019 that it was investing $1.6 million to transform Khao San Road into a regulated "international walking street."

    Initiated perhaps in part to counter Khao San's somewhat unsavory reputation, the project was to be completed in late 2020, with a repaved road and footpaths, and retractable bollards designating spaces for 250--350 licensed Thai vendors, selected by lottery.
    Vehicles would be banned from the road from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.

    Former Lonely Planet author Joe Cummings stands with VS Guest House owner Rintipa Detkajon during a January 2021 visit.
    Ian Taylor

    When the coronavirus pandemic forced Thailand to close its borders in April 2020, international tourist arrivals fell to zero almost overnight. Khao San Road partially recovered when domestic travel re-opened in July, however, and by the time the renovated Khao San was launched in November 2020, weekends found the road packed with Thai youth as well as lesser numbers of expats.
    Pubs along the street that typically boasted 80% European customers became almost 90% Thai.

    A vibrant 10-day series of light installations called Khao San Hide and Seek attracted a steady crowd in November. The installations were supplemented by live performances from nearly 20 bands. Local studios led workshops focused on traditional Banglamphu arts such as embroidering khon (classic Thai dance-drama) costumes, preparing traditional khaotom nam woon (sticky rice triangles steamed in fragrant pandanus leaves), and crafting thaeng yuak (fresh banana tree trunks carved into intricate patterns, for use in funerals, monastic ordination and other Buddhist ceremonies).

    The neighborhood suffered another setback when a second wave of coronavirus cases spiked in early January 2021. The government quickly ordered the closing of all entertainment venues in Bangkok, and once again Khao San Road emptied out almost completely.

    When I re-visited a deserted Khao San later that month, I decided to stop in at VS Guesthouse, the first and oldest guesthouse still standing. Every other neighborhood guesthouse I passed by that day was shut tight, but to my surprise the vintage wooden doors to VS stood wide open.

    I chatted with the members of the family who owned the house, now in their fourth generation. Rintipa Detkajon, the elder of two sisters who look after the home today, recalled how her late father, Vongsavat, started taking in foreigners around 1980, allowing them to sleep on the family's living room floor.

    "I was around 16 years old when our first guest, an Australian man, stayed the night," she recounted. "Foreigners back then traveled so quietly. They were interested in history and culture, unlike youngsters we see nowadays, who seem more interested in getting drunk and partying."

    The family added to the wooden house over the years, at one point reaching a peak of 18 rooms. They now operate 10 rooms going for $10 a night. The day I visited, just one room was occupied, by an American who was staying long-term.

    I asked Rintipa about the lack of business due to the pandemic.
    "It's not just us, it's the whole world," she said. "We're all in this together. This is our home, so we'll survive."
    Last edited by tomcat; 31-01-2021 at 09:20 AM.
    Majestically enthroned amid the vulgar herd

  2. #2
    Thailand Expat
    thailazer's Avatar
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    Khao San is one of those places that I would never return to. Not sure why it was such a draw.

  3. #3
    Thailand Expat tomcat's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by thailazer View Post
    Not sure why it was such a draw.
    ...probably because so many others thought it was a draw...

  4. #4
    Thailand Expat Saint Willy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Paleo Robbie View Post
    Also noticed that the author of the story is the same guy that used to write the Lonely Planet guide books
    Very observerant. did you actually read the article?



    Quote Originally Posted by thailazer View Post
    Khao San is one of those places that I would never return to. Not sure why it was such a draw.
    It was fun to occaisionally troop down to Khao San for a night out. Nouveau chic.

  5. #5
    Hangin' Around cyrille's Avatar
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    It was never any kind of 'chic'.

    VS was always the best place to get hold of whacky baccy, which doubtless was its draw for Cummings.

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    กงเกวียนกำเกวียน HuangLao's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by thailazer View Post
    Khao San is one of those places that I would never return to. Not sure why it was such a draw.
    Blatant Farang Ghetto?
    That alone would be enough to turn some away.

  7. #7
    Thailand Expat
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    ^Yet, if it was like the old days you'd still be there wearing Elephant pants and thinking you're like a local now because you ordered a Banana pancake.

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    Thailand Expat Backspin's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by thailazer View Post
    Khao San is one of those places that I would never return to. Not sure why it was such a draw.

    People watching

  9. #9
    Thailand Expat
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    Quote Originally Posted by Headworx View Post
    Yet, if it was like the old days you'd still be there wearing Elephant pants and thinking you're like a local now because you ordered a Banana pancake.
    Directed at Jeff but fitting skidmark so perfectly. Just perfect.

  10. #10
    CCBW Stumpy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by thailazer View Post
    Khao San is one of those places that I would never return to. Not sure why it was such a draw.
    Same me. Rode by it a few times on my motorcycle when I was living in Pink Lao but never stopped. Every corner loaded with Rasta looking backpackers and you know how pungent that smell is.

    Quote Originally Posted by Paleo Robbie View Post
    Its a nice place to spend a few days acclimatising after arriving from abroad , gently easing yourself onto Asian life
    Huh???... easing into Asian life? Nothing in that area is about Asian life. Its loaded with bars, western food, cheap charlie's and backpackers.

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by JPPR2 View Post
    Its loaded with bars, western food, cheap charlie's and backpackers.
    Sums Flake up. I think he and skidmark could be besties..

  12. #12
    CCBW Stumpy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Paleo Robbie View Post
    The weather , the different language, the different currency , different people, different Country , different food , different prices .
    KSR's a good place to make the change over
    Ok so lets break this down

    Weather: ..OK I can give that one to you depending on where you just came from
    Different Language: Pigeon English by Thais is not really a different language. Its an adapted language to get the foreigners to spend money.
    Different Currency. Only true one being you have to pay for all in Thai Baht.
    Different people: Really? 90% are westerners or middle eastern folks. Thai folks are rare and the ones there are lining up to pilfer from the unsuspecting westerners.
    Different food: Maybe in a few places but who travels to SE asia to eat bugs and animal guts?
    Different prices: Yes. for the novice they can find cheap elephant pants for $2 and a bowl of soup for $1 and a find a cheap bug infested room that the bedding hasn't been changed in months for $10

    Honestly I wouldn't say its a way to ease into Asian culture. Its way to land and settle in and get your wits about you. Its the same in Baja Mexico, Nassau Bahamas. etc etc.

  13. #13
    Hangin' Around cyrille's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Headworx View Post
    Yet, if it was like the old days you'd still be there wearing Elephant pants and thinking you're like a local now because you ordered a Banana pancake.
    And hoping for some ethnic appeal as he burbles on to the customer at the next table about how the banana pancake is part of a hegemonious construct of triangulated atrophy and that he normally has Khao Tom with a garnish of Surin dirt.

  14. #14
    Hangin' Around cyrille's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JPPR2 View Post
    I was living in Pink Lao
    Well that explains the 'I'm in Central Lampang, wearing.....' post.

  15. #15
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    joe cummins, the man who singlehandedly made it possible to travel the world and never have to have any contact with a local, other than handing over a few dollars for a meal or a nights accommodation.

    the man whose lonely planet books took all the adventure, all the fun and all the excitement out of real travel. the man whose books enabled packs of travellers to follow each other around the world like sheep, never having to figure out anything for themselves.

    you see the end result of that today with the hoards of chinese walking around with their eyes glued to their phones open at google maps and trip advisor.

    whats the point? might as well stay home and watch it all on you tube.

  16. #16
    CCBW Stumpy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by cyrille View Post
    Well that explains the 'I'm in Central Lampang, wearing.....' post.
    This goes back to 2005. I was a Bangkokian. Lived in Pink Lao, Rangsit, Lak Si. and downtown BKK. Later came the move to Phetchaburi, then Ao Luk then later to the north after meeting my now wife.

  17. #17
    Hangin' Around cyrille's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JPPR2 View Post
    Pink Lao




    Pinklao.

    Nice to be out of BKK, eh?

    I lived there for over a decade. That was definitely enough.

  18. #18
    กงเกวียนกำเกวียน HuangLao's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by taxexile View Post
    joe cummins, the man who singlehandedly made it possible to travel the world and never have to have any contact with a local, other than handing over a few dollars for a meal or a nights accommodation.

    the man whose lonely planet books took all the adventure, all the fun and all the excitement out of real travel. the man whose books enabled packs of travellers to follow each other around the world like sheep, never having to figure out anything for themselves.

    you see the end result of that today with the hoards of chinese walking around with their eyes glued to their phones open at google maps and trip advisor.

    whats the point? might as well stay home and watch it all on you tube.
    Rather oddly ironic regarding old Joe's current status and lifestyle.
    Today, as a long time Bangkok resident, he knows little but of the very exclusive Farang circles/associations that he keeps and promotes.

    Even the likes of that boy scout, Richard Barrow, touches upon things local - and comes by that accidently.

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