Night time in the Khao San Road district is beyond description. We can however say that the human interactions that punctuate our experience enrich us.
We don’t just walk by vendors. We stop, talk & connect. Laughing with the guy from Myanmar who works at La Moda Suit (30 Ram Buttri, Phra athith) who tells us how they are trying to recover economically from COVID and make a living in the custom-made suit business. The woman crafting beautiful hand-made beaded bags who negotiated in our only shared language—laughter. The tattoo covered young man in the back alley polishing his bike and thrilled that we wanted a picture of his bike and him. The English teacher who places his students at tables & chairs then invites tourists to sit and converse with them so they can build their language skills with English speaking people of all nationalities. The happy young man with his tray full of lasers and lighters for sale who wants Randy to be “happy happy”with his new purchase.
Khao San at night—pounding music, and cannabis vendors every 20 meters. Cannabis not your style? Try some laughing gas for a little fun. If you have the bhats, you can buy anything you can imagine. Want to munch on black scorpion on a stick? (Maybe the laughing gas helps with that) Men, women, ladyboys, undefineds—gender diversity thrives. As we looked around one thing was clear—Night time on Khao San is an alternate reality that will sear itself into your entertained and stimulated memory bank forever.
We sat down on a side street just to people-watch, drink beer (water for me), eat spring rolls and take it all in. We noticed five dogs all laying about our feet (literally). We are ok with that (remember, we made peace with the dogs of Thailand?). A little convo with the vendor we learned she has 13 dogs at her home and these were a few of her pets.
You never know what you will encounter. If you get bored standing in your current location, just walk another 50ft and you’ll encounter fascinating new things. Like the street dancing (break dancing?) show-down that we happened upon. They held us mesmerized with their skills, entertaining us and enriching our evening. We recognized that they too are trying to make a living and we were more than happy to contribute to their livelihood when we noticed a collection box circulating
Bangkok at night is an intense experience and is anything but boring! It’s like trying to describe the Grand Canyon to someone—it simply must be experienced first hand to grasp it. Most of the time seeing Thailand by bike has been the most rewarding. In Bangkok however, we need to have feet on the ground to be able to live, breathe and feel the people and their culture
Video: Night Clubbing in Khao San
Video: The Khao San Craziness
Video: Custom made suits in Khao San area, Bangkok
Video: Street dancing (break dancing) show down in Khao San, Bangkok
Our greatest souvenirs of this trip will obviously be the memories. I am very grateful for Anita’s hard work writing and publishing these posts, for they will help capture these memories. Hopefully others will be inspired to visit this enchanted place.
I totally agree Randy. Memories are precious. The work that Anita has done is quite incredible…BRAVO!
Since Margaret’s death last October I’ve been sifting through 1,000’s of photos (she took 90% of them) but I can’t remember many details of our experiences from our travels. Wishing we had Anita along.
Are you planning a slide show when you get back, at some point?
We had not considered a slideshow…perhaps if there a a few people interested, we might!
Thank you so much for all the effort taken with the photos and just loved the videos. It’s been great sharing your Thai experience. If it wasn’t so hot there, would love to spend an extended visit to Thailand.
P.S. Is Randy bringing home a new suit? 😉
Haha! No suit for Randy. Though the did insist he could have one made before we leave here on Thursday!
I love this 💕
Beautifully written !!
Thank You 🙏
Thanks Greg! We are living every moment feeling gratitude toward the wonderful people of Thailand. We aren’t ready to go home on Thursday!
Aah you should have bought a suit Randy ….they are beautifully crafted and so inexpensive. You will regret that decision,for sure. Wonderful blog and you will have such a detailed diary of this adventure.