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Published: December 21st 2007
me & my friend Don
Don a cycle rickshaw driver with the hottest wheels in town takes a liking to me and presents me with a friendship bracelet.The thing is, there are no fat backpackers. Tans, dreadlocks, hardened torsos, the occasional symbolic tatt, chain smokers ... Khao San Road is seething with these characters. Fisherman's pants, leather necklaces with sharks tooth or similar, rip off brand name t-shirts, thongs (or flip flops ... depending where you're from!), headbands, masses of facial hair...
Famously depicted in the movie 'the beach' - Khao San Rd is a heaving backpacker bottleneck. 24 hour debauchery. I bump into fellow travellers I've previously met along the way - in Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. Bright lights make the street at night a kind of Bangkok vegas. It's a mecca of streets stalls and street vendors, red and blue plastic chairs and beer that sweats. Local touts try to draw tourists into tailors shops and bars, whilst hill tribe women walk around wearing traditional headgear and stroking wooden frogs with a stick. The tuk tuk drivers are relentless offering transport to all sorts of places you don't want to go (anyone for ping pong?!)! You can buy anything you want here - fake IDs, university diplomas, thai women, pad thai for a dollar. Massage parlours are everywhere - dark, dank rooms with rows of
mattresses and tiny Thai women contorting farangs into obscure and unnatural positions. Happy endings are an optional extra. Mangy dogs wander the streets. One study of tourists in Thailand reported that dog bite and dog lick were experienced by 1.3% and 8.9% of travellers respectively. 6% of dogs in Thailand have rabies. Good thing I invested in the injections!
Whilst here I befriend an intriguing group of people like Cobb, a Thai DJ who spins tunes at local hotspot Gulliver's and Don a cycle rickshaw driver with the hottest wheels in town who takes a liking to me and presents me with a friendship bracelet. Fellow guest at the $4 per night Mini Guesthouse are good value and the social scene revolves around a mobile bar in the street outside. Later bars selling flavoured she-sha pipes switch to plastic cups to evade loosely policed curfew laws.
Jane, a local lady I meet on the bus is an anecdote to the bright lights and late nights of Khao San. Her husband died 20 years ago and she lives alone in an apartment in Bangkok since her daughter moved to Australia. We meet for lunch at the enormous Central Pinklao
Department store and eat Japanese food. Jane is well dressed, attractive and works for an insurance company here. After lunch, my shout, she takes us to a day spa for locals, an oasis in chaotic Bangkok. Here I experience the best Thai massage of my life. Two hours of gentle contortions, so exceptionally good I fall asleep. Jane won't let me pay and drives me back to Khao San - relaxed and revived.
One day I do a day trip to Kanchanaburi - known for its WWII cemetery, the bridge over the River Kwai and the death railway. Around 13,000 Australians were sent here and 3000 died. The POW - including Thais and allied soldiers - were forced to work under horrific conditions to build the famous 'death railway'. I ride on the railway alongside the River Kwai - such a harsh history, in such a beautiful setting. The inscriptions on the tomb stones are heartbreaking. After the war history, we spend the afternoon at a nearby waterfall, before a never-ending minibus ride back to Bangkok in peak hour traffic.
After 6 days on Khao San it's time to get out. I catch a tuk tuk to the
Death Railway, Kanchanaburi
POW - including Thais and allied soldiers - were forced to work under horrific conditions to build the famous 'death railway' fancy Pathewan Princess Hotel - the meeting point for the India volunteer group comprising my uncle Kev and three other teachers - Michael, Ray and Michelle. I'm stopped several times whilst trying to enter the hotel. It must be something to do with my filthy pack and ratty state - 'where are you going miss', 'hotel very expensive miss' etc etc. Once inside I revel in the luxury - the spectacular pool, bright white bathrooms and thick mattresses. A one night holiday before the India stint! Goodbye SE Asia.
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Overlanders
Dave + Suze
Ah, the memories ...
Great depiction of Khao San Road - you had me reliving the memories! Hope the travelling world is treating you well. Work life doesn't agree with me at all ... but today is officially the end until Jan anyway. Dave will come back from Oz and join me, and then we'll hit some sun in Morocco and escape the Ireland chill. Take care, Suz