Khao San Road, The Backpacker's Paradise

Date Visited: 19th & 20th October 2012

14th February 2013

One of the main reason I went Khao San Road was mainly to book the Damnoen Saduak Floating Market tour and also this was the drop-off spot after back from the eye-opening and exciting tour. Here in Khao San Road, there are many relatively inexpensive travel agents which not only offer tour around Bangkok city, but they also arrange visas as well as transportation to the neighbouring countries such as Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Malaysia.

#1: Mama Tours & Travel, one of the local travel agent I would recommend. Click here for more info

For backpackers and budget travellers, Khao San Road is known as "the backpacker's paradise" in their dictionary as there are countless of budget guesthouses to reasonably priced of mid-range hotels. This is the place that draw backpackers from every corner of the world, as it has by far the cheapest place to search for accommodation in all of Bangkok. But bear in mind, if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. Although most of the accommodations here are dirt cheap, but literately they are dark, unclean and poorly lit, and if you are unlucky, you might spend your night with bedbugs.

#2: Khao San Road - Backpacker's Paradise Spot

Besides the cheap accommodation, this 1km long road is packed with plenty of bars and clubs, restaurants, internet cafes, cheap massage parlours, travel agents (like I mentioned earlier), bookstores, convenience stores, pharmacies, tattoo shops and much more. Even the global chain of fast foods restaurants like McDonald's, Burger King, Subway and even Starbucks can also be found in the area.

#3: Khao San Road during the day time

#4: Lunch break in McDonald's - Pork Burger which not available in Malaysia #nonhalal

In case you are not planning to stay in this area, why not come and visit Khao San Road during the night time as the road becomes alive and filled with vibrant atmosphere. The streets are lighten up with sprawling neon signboards, hundreds of street vendors appeared along both sides of the road selling almost everything including fried inserts as well as numerous of crowded pubs and bars serving drinks at cheap price.

#5: Khao San Road during the night time

#6: Good place for street shopping as well

Although Khao San Road doesn't have any huge shopping complexes like those other areas, but it is a good place to bargain for cheap shopping along the shopping bazaar on the both sides of the road. Expecting cheap clothes, souvenirs, counterfeit merchandise such as CDs, VCDs or even fake student IDs and graduated certificates are available here. Based on my past experience, besides Phuket, I think the bikinis sold here were freaking cheap. I even bought two sets of bikini for my best friends and how much they cost? 250 baht for a set and if you are buying more, more discount would be given.

#7: Chill out in a cafe while sipping a cold Chang beer. By the way, that's not mine cause I don't drink

How To Get To Khao San Road

As there is no connection to Khao San Road by Skytrain and metro, the only options are by taking express boats, buses or taxis. Taking meter taxi would be cost less than 100 baht either from Victory Monument, Siam or Silom. As for bus, take the bus numbers 157, 171 and 509 from Victory Monument (Rajavithi Hospital bus stop) pass Ratchadumnoen Road. You can get off at Khok Wua intersection (one stop away from Democracy Monument). Khao San Road is only a short walk from there. For more adventurous like us, we took tuk-tuk but remember to negotiate and fix the price before hopping on. Most likely will cost between 150 baht - 160 baht for one way from Khao San Road to the nearest Skytrain (BTS Siam).

[Credit To: Wikipedia, Wikitravel, Bangkok.com]