Dubbed the "Backpacker's Ghetto" by Rough Guides, today, I cannot think of a better description for Khao San Road. It is really living up to its reputation. I'm kinda wishing I spent the extra 200B so I could get a good night's sleep...oh well, too late for that now. Guess I'll have to go with Plan B and buy a pair of ear plugs!
It's the kind of place you have to be in the mood for...I'm just not into it tonight. Very similar to Phuket, the street is just crammed w/people and vendors and bars and clubs (except here you can also ride your motorbike, taxi, or tuk-tuk down it as well). Fruit vendors, Pad Thai vendors, Mango/sticky rice vendors, deep fried bug vendors...all with carts on wheels. Some parked on the sides of the street, some mobile and trying to negotiate the road which is next to impossible. Promotors for various clubs stand along the sidelines forcing you to take their slips of paper for the specials tonight, even though you have no intention of going there. Music is blaring from every vendor/shop/bar/club and all bleeding into each other in a haphazard collision of sound in the middle of the street. The heat, exhaust, smoke, trash, tiger balm, insence hits your nose like a mack truck. Everyone seems to be drunk (or otherwise impaired), and everyone is smoking cigarettes and carelessly waving them around in one hand, while the other works to balance their drinks (or buckets of alcohol) filled to the brim. You're getting banged into left and right and someone is always stepping on your toes or in my case, the back of my flip flops...you can't look at anything without someone being right on top of you..."what you like lady? I make good price for you"...when you ask, "how much", their response is always, "how much you pay"...if you happen to get close to the end of the street you're attacked by the taxi/tuk-tuk army...these guys slip in unnoticed just yards away from their vehicles whispering before their competition can hear them...'taxi? tuk-tuk? where you go lady?' ARGH. If I had to sum up Khoa San Road in one word, today it would be: overwhelming.
And I swear, if one more hilltribe lady shoves the wooden frog in my face again I am seriously going to FLIP out! You'd really have to be here to fully understand, but there are these stupid wooden frogs that come with a stick, crafted by the hilltribes of Northern Thailand. When you rub the stick over the back of the frog it makes a noise that sounds like a frog. Genius, right? Wrong. BY FAR, the most annoying toy Ever. Ok, ok, so in and of itself, it's not a terrible toy I suppose. However, say you have about 30-40 women dressed in traditional hilltribe gear walking up and down the same street (approximately 3 city blocks distance) rubbing the frogs constantly and pushing them in your face every 2 feet or so, well that's when it gets annoying. In fact, I joked with one guy about getting a group together and just buying them out...just buy up their entire supply...and then ceremoniously burn them in a bonfire in the center...sweet sweet revenge. Even if it was a few hundred dollars...it would be worth it to never see one of those things again!
I apologize for my negative tone...I'm just a little overstimulated tonight. I guess going from Ko Lanta to Phuket helped ease the transition back to Bangkok...but still. I'm missing the quiet, peaceful beaches of Ko Lanta...dreaming of being back in my hammock...
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