When I first came to Thailand I had not been overseas for a long time. I had been booked in for my first three nights at a small hotel on Khao San Road in Bangkok. I arrived at 2 am and found the whole street full of foreigners who seemed to be enjoying themselves greatly.
After three days I moved into better accommodation on Khao San, and stayed there for three and a half months! The new hotel, Rikka Inn, did not take credit cards. Few Thai businesses seem to take credit cards. The new hotel was clean and comfortable, but noisy and each day it was fully occupied. The rooms were all taken by about 1 pm.
Khao San Road proved to be an interesting place but a long way from the centre of things in Bangkok. It was nowhere near Skytrain which made it quite difficult for travel around Bangkok. There were taxis, tuk-tuks, and motorcycles. It became obvious that traveling from the foreigner dominated Khao San Road was expensive. For example, to go to Siam Paragon is a trip that will cost over 120 baht (about $US 4) by taxi. The return trip also had to be made so it is a reasonable cost for a budget traveler.
The taxi drivers often did not want to use their taxi meters and one would get in and out of a number of taxis before finding a taxi driver who would agree to a metered fare. Tuk-tuks can be more expensive than taxis. Tuk-tuk drivers will quote an extremely low rate if they think you are a recently arrived tourist. On one occasion I was quoted 10 baht.
It was 10 baht to show me around Bangkok. We began by going to different places which included a Wat (temple), a gem place, a tailor, and some other tourist places. As I left each place the tuk-tuk driver got angrier and angrier. Eventually I asked him why he was angry? Apparently, the deal was that I had to buy something at the places we went to and he would receive a payment from the operator of that place.
Unfortunately, there was nothing I wanted to buy although some of the products looked good. I had to give him 100 baht to drive me back to Khao San Road. It is important for tourists to understand the requirement to buy goods or services when they take a very cheap tuk-tuk ride.
Khao San Road has been changing rapidly in the two years since I first came to Thailand. It is moving up market and more foreign brands are in the area. When I was first there, Khao San Road had Starbucks, and one of the American fast food chains.
One type of Khao San Road shop which I have not seen elsewhere in Bangkok is the silver jewelry shop. There are a few of them in Khao San Road that sell ear rings, necklaces, bangles, rings, and much more. They do not seem to sell silver bullion though because I have been back a few times to ask about purchasing it. There are many gold shops in Bangkok so I think Thai people see gold and not silver as a way to store their money.
Khao San Road has been described previously as a ‘backpackers’ ghetto’. It is true that budget traveling foreigners in Bangkok still seem to congregate there. My favorite ‘hang-out’ was Starbucks which is located in an historic building at the end of a small lane that bisects a single restaurant! There are also many open fronted restaurants on Khao San Road and these become very full at evening time.
With the general improvement in Khao San Road and the increasing prices for accommodation, goods and services, Khao San is not the cheap place that it was. But if one arrives in Thailand for the first time and one has no Thai language skills, it is a singularly good place to begin one’s travels in Thailand.
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