Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
pore. The palace's colourful history gave a certain cachet to the offices, and
UNICEF
staf
still show visitors the secret door in the library through which Pridi was said to have made
his escape, even though one official has pointed out that the secret door was hard to open
and creaked very loudly, and that it would probably have been safer for the fleeing states-
man to use one of the ordinary doors.
Enter the narrow little lane opposite the
UNICEF
building, Trok Rong Mai, and there is
a different world. Not that long ago, Khao San Road was a modest thoroughfare that spe-
cialised in selling temple accessories, and its only hotel was a small establishment named
Vieng Thai, which had opened for civil servants and businessmen in 1962. The area had
originally been used for rice growing:
khaosan
means “milled rice”. Development began
to take place in the time of Rama
V
and initially consisted of wooden shophouses whose
residents would have served the mansions of Phra Arthit Road and the government offices
that were built on the new Ratchadamnoen Avenue. The opening of the tramline brought
more people into the area, and for many years it remained as a middle class district, an
unremarkable mix of residences and shops, with a large number of eating-houses for the
office workers. Late in the 1970s, so the story goes, with tourism on a roll, young Western
visitors were invited to stay at a house on Khao San Road because the owner wanted to
improve his English. Word spread, and before long the owner sensed a business oppor-
tunity. He started charging his guests 20 baht a day for accommodation, food, laundry and
guide services. Others noted his success, and the first commercial guesthouse was opened:
named Bonny, it had six bedrooms, and charged 100 baht a day. Thus was born the Place
to Disappear, the Short Street of the Long Dreams, the Grand Central of the Banana Pan-
cake Trail. Khao San Road itself is only about three hundred metres long, but is packed
with guest-houses and small hotels, bars, restaurants, cafes, gift shops and tour compan-
ies. The tide of vest and shorts flows into Soi Ram Buttri, which runs behind Phra Arthit
Road and around the walls of the surprisingly large compound of Wat Chana Songkram,
a monastery built before the founding of Bangkok, when it was known as Wat Klang Na,
or “temple in the middle of the paddy field”. Rama
I
, upon the founding of the city, gran-
ted the temple to Mon monks in recognition of the help the Mon had given him in fight-
ing the Burmese, and it became a centre of study for their own sect of Buddhism. Prince
Maha Surasee, younger brother of Rama
I
and known as Phraya Sua, the “Tiger General”,
had stayed here after winning three decisive battles against the Burmese and had renov-
ated the principal Buddha image. Rama
I
changed the name of the temple to its present
name, which means “Temple of Victory”. Because of its association with the Tiger General,
many worshippers come here to pay homage in the hope that by so doing they will con-