- Khaosan Road
Khaosan road or Khao San road ( _th. ถนนข้าวสาร) is a short road in central
Bangkok ,Thailand . It is located in the Banglamphu neighborhood (Phra Nakhon district) about 1 km north from the Grand Palace withWat Phra Kaew . It has developed over the years into probably the most profound worldwide example of a "backpackers' ghetto", with relatively cheap accommodation compared to other areas of central Bangkok. The accommodation varies from 'mattress in a box' style hostels, to full Western-standard luxury.Many tourists use Khaosan road as their base for exploring the rest of Thailand as there are many direct coaches from the street to virtually all major tourist destinations in Thailand, from Chiang Mai in the North to
Ko Pha Ngan in the South. Many visitors will also take advantage of the abundance of relatively cheap travel agents to arrange visas and transport to surrounding countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Malaysia, though many (if not most) of these travel agents are scams of some sortFact|date=March 2008, and travelers would do themselves wise to use Thai public buses instead.Crafts, paintings, clothes, pirate CDs, DVDs, fake educational diplomas, fake driver's licenses, food, second hand books and many other items useful to backpackers are among the common goods traded along the road.
Khaosan road has in recent years also become popular among local people, especially artists and art students. The road hosts a number of pubs and bars, where people of many nationalities meet and discuss their travels. Khaosan and the streets nearby are also Bangkok's center of dancing, partying and splashing water during
Thai New Year (Songkran festival) on April 13 to April 15.It is one of Bangkok's most vibrant streets, host to people from around the world. One Thai writer described the road as "a short road that has the longest dream in the world."
"Khao san" means 'raw rice' in Thai. Before it became a tourist hotspot, the street was a major rice market for Bangkok.
ee also
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Banana Pancake Trail External links
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* [http://www.khaosanrd.com KhaoSanRoad.com is one website for the area.]
* [http://www.bangkokspace.com/Khaosan www.BangkokSpace.com/Khaosan is the social network of thai people.]
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