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ThailandIn the article we tell you about the main tourist street of Bangkok – Khaosan Road, how interesting it is and whether it is worth visiting, how to get there yourself by public transport and when it is best to walk along it. Well, if something remains unclear or you just want to talk about a holiday in Thailand or share your experience, we invite you to our 💬 Thailand travel chat.
Description and is it worth a visit
Khaosan Road (Khaosan Road) is the main tourist street of Bangkok, around which the most popular tourist area of the capital has been formed with a large number of budget accommodation options and a developed tourist infrastructure for independent travelers.
However, do not think that this is such a local "Arbat" for quiet walks and shopping for souvenirs. After all, Khao San Street is the noisiest and most popular place in the capital, especially in the evenings. And if during the day you can still take a quiet walk and go shopping, then in the evening you should forget about such walks, because it turns into the epicenter of tourist fun and debauchery, and so every evening without days off and rest all year round. Here sellers of street fast food offer edible insects, sellers of fake driver's licenses and other documents exhibit their underground goods, sell all kinds of goodies and exotic fruits, and at every turn barkers invite to massage parlors, nightclubs, bars and adult shows. And now they are also advertising and openly selling cannabis legalized in Thailand. And all this against the background of modern music from nightclubs and live instrumental music from bars coming from all sides. In general, there is plenty of fun here.
So to visit Bangkok and not go at least one evening to Khao San Road will be simply unforgivable. And even if you are not ready to join this noisy party because of your age or your tastes, it's still worth taking a walk here, if only to see how others are having fun. Well, if you want to take a break from all this noise and fun, you can go to the neighboring parallel street Thanon Ram Buttri, which is famous for a quieter atmosphere and a large number of restaurants and cafes.
On the web, in tourist blogs and in reviews, you can find the opinion that Khao San Road is such a seedy and unsafe area, where it is better not to meddle. In fact, this is complete nonsense, and it is no more dangerous here than in any other popular tourist area of Bangkok, and even at night. However, a reasonable share of personal security measures here, of course, will not hurt.
First of all, you need to understand that this is a very crowded place, and there can easily be pickpockets in the crowd who are hunting for wallets and phones. Of course, there are all sorts of crooks and crooks, and they, among other things, lure into bars with supposedly low prices, and then set unreasonably high bills from the menu. You can also hear a lot of stories about how tourists in a frenzy from alcohol and potent drugs lost control of themselves and ended up spending or losing all their money here in one evening, and we ourselves observed one such situation. And finally, in the evenings there is entertainment, alcohol, fast food and everything else is simply very expensive, so keep track of your expenses.
🕐 Working hours
You can walk along Khao San Road at any time of the day, but during the day there is nothing particularly interesting except trading, and all the fun begins with the arrival of darkness after about 18:00.
💵Entrance fee / ticket price
Free of charge.
🚶 How to get there
Khao San Road is located in the historical or old part of Bangkok on the Ratanakosin Peninsula (Khao San Road on the map). If you stay at a hotel in khaosan district, then obviously you can walk to the street at any time.
However, it is a little difficult to get here from other tourist areas of the city, since the metro does not go here. The cheapest way to get there is by city buses, the fare in them costs from 8 baht (about 0.24 USD, read here about the currency and money of Thailand) depending on the type of bus. To find out which bus you can take to Khao San, you can use the Google karat route planner or the ViaBus app. Another option that is suitable if you have settled in the pratunam area is to take a regular river boat along the Golden Mount Line canal (klong) to the final pier Panfa Leelard Pier for 20 baht (0.6 USD), but it's true that you still have to walk a little more than a kilometer directly to the street. Even from the conditional Riverside area (along the Chapraya River), you can take regular boats to the Phra Arthit marina, which will cost up to 20 baht, depending on the type of boat.
However, all of the above methods have a drawback – it is limited working time – only during the day. So you can get to Khao San by public transport, but you will have to go back to the hotel by taxi or motorcycle taxi. To do this, it is best to order it through the Grab, Maxim or InDrive applications than to catch it on the street or hire a tuk-tuk. A trip from the Pratunam area, for example, will cost about 200 baht (6 USD), you can pay with a card in the app (Russian ones don't work) or in cash to the driver.
Learn more about you can read how to use Bangkok public transport in a separate article.
Friends, we remind you that it is much more interesting to get acquainted with the sights of Bangkok with the help of excursions, and therefore we advise you to look at options with online booking and reviews on these excursion aggregators: