First scence of the movie "The Beach" when Leonardo DiCaprio was on the tuk-tuk showed us a busy road that looked like a colony of foreigners. The road is the centre of backpackers in Thailand and it has now become the most popular tourist attraction in Bangkok. That place is very famous, everyone knows "Khao San Road".

When you step into the road, located in Bang Lamphu, you feel as if you are stepping into another world. Khao San Road is the place where you can find people from different countries around the world. Most of the tourists who came to Khao San Road said that they knew about this place from their friends who have been there before. The road is very close to major tourist attractions such as the Grand Palace and Rattanakosin island. The road itself is an attraction too.

Khao San Road provides many kinds of businesses. You can see an endless supply of guest houses, travel agencies, used book stores, and the booming internet cafes. You can also see many bars and restaurants where new Hollywood videos are shown all day long. As the centre for backpackers, it is a good starting point for them to get to know Bangkok and Thailand.

Friendships grow easily on Khao San Road. Just eating in the same restaurant, people soon find themselves talking about the places they have been. According to the Tourism Authority of Thailand, Khao San Road can accommodate 8,000 tourists a day. The high season is between January and April with the peak period at Songkran time. Then the number of tourists staying in the guest houses rises to 10,000 a day. Khao San Road offers all kinds of services to the tourists, including visa applications for Indochinese countries. Not only foreigners, but also many Thais come here for an inexpensive tour to other provinces.

Besides guest houses, food, travel services, and souvenir shops, Khao San Road is now the centre of silver ornament exports for the whole country. One good thing about Khao San Road is that, unlike Patpong, no sex-related businesses are allowed on the road.

Mr. Noppadol Chivara-monaikul, president of the Khao San Road Business Association, who was born and grew up in the neighbourhood said that he had never thought that the road would become like this. “Just 20 years ago, nobody would dare walk at night on the road because it was very dark. Now, the road seems to be busy all the time.” He said business on the road gets bigger every day. Seven years ago, buying a store cost only 100,000 baht, but today the rental rate alone is 70,000 baht per month. According to the TAT, the average spending by a tourist in Thailand is 3,600 baht per head per day. The figure on Khao San Road is just 1,200 to 1,500 baht.

For more information about Khao San Road, visit http://www.khao-san-road.com The offical web site for the gateway to South-East Asia

Copyright information: Student used with permission from Student Weekly. Additional information by Richard Barrow and Nattawud Daoruang. All pictures by Nattawud Daoruang.

RELATED LINKS: Learn about the Thailand that most tourists don't get to visit at ThailandLife.com. Coming to Thailand on holiday or to work? Learn some Thai today for free at LearningThai.com and ThaiPhrasebook.com. A list of quality web sites about Thailand can be found at SrinaiWeb.com.