Khao San Road

Hey! Long time no.. write? I'm back because this weekend I did something fun and unusual to my normal time in Thailand and took the tourist plunge to the #1 backpackers destination in Bangkok, Khao San Road! Woo! I even tried to make a movie for YOU, my imaginary avid follower of my trip, consistently checking my blog for updates, but the camera card I brought was filled with random music that I definitely didn't put on there and forgot about so... That didn't happen. 

To start we went to Wat Arun and a sky bar to see the temple lit up at night (video) and that was amazing. I had a giant beer-a-rita in classic Thai (?) fashion and then we made our way to tourist central. Khao San Road is an interesting place to say the least. It's not unlike many other heavily tourist destinations in Bangkok although it's one of the most popular ones. But while it has the same generic shirt booths and street food of the other tourist markets, what is unique is the willingness of Thais here to put aside traditionally held Thai conservatism in order to swing a profit.

Generally Thai culture is very respectful. You dress business casual or better all the time, you don't raise your voice to others in public places, you pay respect to the buddha and your elders.... Not in Khao San (well, everything except the elders part). Girls in skimpy dresses trying to get guys in bars, LOTS of yelling, Buddha tattoos (super not cool to most Thai People and Buddhists in general)... Whatever they can do to get western tourists to spend their money. I got comfortable with the setting uncomfortably quick. It's just normal western culture. Is it bad or worse? Whose to say, but I've gotten very used to the conservative nature of Thailand that it was a complete shock to me, even if it only shocked me for about 5 minutes. 

However, other than that it was a pretty fun experience. We stopped at lots of bars, heard lots of live music (all covers of English pop songs of course), got drunk, found a different side road way better than Khao San and had a nice late night snack on some good Thai food in a weird Latin/Thai fusion place. Overall, worth it. If you ever make your way down to Bangkok, I think Khao San is something you can skip over if you're only here for a few days. You aren't in Asia to experience western culture. Go find a smaller market and try and buy something with a Thai who speaks zero english if you want the true experience. If you're here for a longer stay though, I say go for it, if not to remind you of why you needed to get to Asia in the first place.

All for now,

Max