Bangkok's Khao San road - hippy haven or essential budget travel hangout?

by Andy Burrows
Property owners on and around the street were wise to the fact that a potentially lucrative situation was staring them in the face and subsequently sought to capitalise on it by opening up their homes to those seeking accommodation cheaper than was available at the established hotels in the Grand Palace area.

Word quickly got around and Bangkok's Khao San road's reputation as a cheap guesthouse provider brought progressively more business to the area, ensuring the growth and development that has led to the booming mecca that it is today.

Khao San road Bangkok in the 21st century is more popular than it has ever been, still drawing its unusual mix of 'trustafarians', aging radicals, societal drop-outs and of course, budget travellers. Should you not fit neatly into any of the aforementioned categories, then be warned that Khao San road is a love it or hate it type place and your own lack of bohemian tendencies or desires to do it on the cheap may well predispose you to detest this hippy haven.

There is no doubt that this bohemian paradise is teeming with clichés and stereotypes, but this does little to dissuade more from coming here. Introduction to Khao San road Take the street in the spirit in which it's intended and it is indeed a destination offering plenty to the average backpacking holidaymaker.

The atmosphere is electric, especially of an evening when the street is filled with those in search of affordable cuisine, cold beer and cheap consumer goods. Few who desire these and other budget holiday necessities can fail to be drawn into the carnival atmosphere that presides, irrespective of its obvious detraction from traditional Thai culture. The fact that Khao San road Bangkok is so westernised and subject to such a diluted level of eastern ambience does not matter to the majority of its visitors.

Here is a place where like-minded individuals can meet for the first time and exchange ideas or form future plans together, or where those who have met previously elsewhere in Thailand or Southeast Asia can rendezvous to catch up on their respective antics. Here is a place where Thai food is geared to suit foreign tastes, where western food is ubiquitously available and where few business owners are not capable of speaking competent English.

Here is a place too where travel agents provide everything necessary for individuals to organise and execute ongoing travel plans, covering everything from getting around Thailand, to visiting other Southeast Asian countries and getting back home. Bangkok sightseeing tours Serving such essential roles as these, as well as providing some of the city's cheapest accommodation options, it's difficult not to be enamored by Bangkok's Khao San road, warts and all.


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