Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Emergence of an Icon
Th Khao San (
cow-sarn
), meaning 'uncooked rice', is perhaps the highest-profile bastard child of the age of in-
dependent travel. Of course, it hasn't always been this way. For its first two centuries it was just an unremarkable
road in old Bangkok. The first guesthouses appeared in 1982, and as more backpackers arrived through the '80s,
the old wooden homes were converted one by one into low-rent dosshouses. By the time Alex Garland's novel
The Beach
was published in 1997, with its opening scenes set on the seedier side of Khao San, staying here had
become a rite of passage for backpackers coming to Southeast Asia.
The Khao San of Today
Publicity from Garland's book and the movie that followed pushed Khao San into the mainstream, romanticising
the seedy, and stereotyping the backpackers it attracted as unwashed and counterculturalist. It also brought the
long-simmering debate about the relative merits of Th Khao San to the top of backpacker conversations. Was it
cool to stay on KSR? Was it uncool? Was this 'real travel' or just an international anywhere surviving on the few
baht Western backpackers spent before they headed home to start high-earning careers? Was it really Thailand at
all? Perceptions aside, today the strip continues to anticipate every traveller's need: meals to soothe homesick-
ness, cafes and bars for swapping travel tales, tailors, travel agents, teeth whitening, secondhand books, hair
braiding and, of course, the perennial Akha women trying to harass everyone they see into buying those croaking
wooden frogs.
