Khao San Road D-Day! Transformation set for August 1st

[Suradit69]

10 hours ago, happy chappie said:

Maybe Thailand can set up a committee to look into ways of  becoming the hub of d-days.

Looks like both usages were dependent on the creativity of folks at Thai Visa and Thai Visa is already the hub of so many things of questionable value it might be better not to encourage them.

[timendres]

1 hour ago, Zack61 said:

We bag the officials for not taking safety seriously. Phuket boat tragedy as the latest example. Now when they try to improve safety standards we bag them also. Sounds like people want to have a whinge about anything no matter how contradictory to previous stances taken. 

If there were a fire there tonight and the fire trucks couldn’t get in because of the vendors we’d be bagging them for incompetence for allowing it to happen. 

Khao San used to be charming and an exotic draw card but not sure it still is. Cheese and chalk compared to 30-40 years ago. I agree with their reasoning for rezoning but understand it will impact on quite a few people. They are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. Ultimately it’s going to be a policing problem and that’s where it may fall flat. 

Having been there a few times, I do not think it is an either/or question. I believe that you can leave the street vendors, organized in such a way that a fire engine or ambulance could navigate that street in an emergency situation. Which leads me to believe it is about more than just "safety issues". In my opinion, this example, lower sukhumvit, and many more examples, are simply the result of a government chock full of an@l retentive tards that have been unleashed and emboldened.

[travelling wilbury]

About time something was done to clean up the streets so traffic can use then 

Carry on the good work and widen the operation to all thailand

Everywhere you go the paths and roads have shops or carts blocking access for road users 

It took me 2 years and a lot of expence to legally get the street seller moved from blocking  my driveway with a broken down shack shop

[travelling wilbury]

1 hour ago, wvavin said:

These blokes really have no clue on how Thailand makes money!

You have no idea why this country is so poor do you 

if everyone actually paid some income tax the government wouldnt be broke as it is  . the reason everyone wants to sell on the street is ...it is tax free cash and untraceable

[fathersicksendmoney]

59 minutes ago, timendres said:

Having been there a few times, I do not think it is an either/or question. I believe that you can leave the street vendors, organized in such a way that a fire engine or ambulance could navigate that street in an emergency situation. Which leads me to believe it is about more than just "safety issues". In my opinion, this example, lower sukhumvit, and many more examples, are simply the result of a government chock full of an@l retentive tards that have been unleashed and emboldened.

Sure leave the vendors so the fire trucks can gently and delicately maneuver around them wasting precious time . These tinder box ramshackle backpackers can literally be a fireball within 15 mins.

Thailand is changing , its a developing country so this clean up is completely normal however on TV any type of progress is so the elite can get richer or that every official is a total moron as if safety first is moronic but do nothing its then because the BIB want it the way for vendor  bag money ?

The truth is expats came to Thailand for the relative lawlessness and want it to remain that way . But its changing and I hear Phenom Pen is still relatively police free and COMPLETELY lawless a few miles away from the tourist scene ..  but rest assured that train will be leaving the station soon so all aboard for the few years it has left toot toot?

 

 

Edited July 19, 2018 by fathersicksendmoney

[Nyezhov]

2 hours ago, duanebigsby said:

Khao San has charm? Bunch of backpackers seeking Western style bars and cheap food.

My first visit to Thailand was 1998. My first visit to KhaoSan was 2014. Nana was always a pigsty.

 

This is an English speaking Board. We live by different rules. It's their country, their rules. 

 

But hey Backpackers and Sex Tourists are like cockroaches,they will popup somewhere else after a cleanup.

 

Personally ilookforward to seeing both areas cleaned up when I arrive. Although iwill mourn The Flower Market and SOII38.a

 

It's called progress. If you want sleaze go to Cambo, that's what I'm doing for my fix

l

 

[Robbess]

Sounds like Hillary is coming to Thailand- runaway!

[George FmplesdaCosteedback]

I have not been to Pat Pong for over 15 years, but is the night market still there? Also has Walking Street in Pattaya had all the signs removed yet?

The vendors will be moved to somewhere the powers that be can charge exorbitant rents and kill the charisma of the backpacker's dream.

Times change.

[MaxYakov]

All under the auspices of "Peace and Order" I'm sure. As to "Prosperity" ... Eh, what's that?

[Mad mick]

19 hours ago, holy cow cm said:

Kosan Rd needs to be left alone, even though it is not my cup of tea.

 

Sorry I fully disagree with you. The circus needs to stay and hermits need to stay in their shells. I visit Nana several times a year, go there sit to drink beer and watch all the freaks walking around. I have taken many o people visiting from the US business and tourists and they all love it. I have been enjoying that area and place for over 26+ years now. So, if you live in that vicinity or stay when you are on holiday coming here, then I suggest pick a nice quiet dull area to go to and stop picking on a sanctuary area.

Your right i fully agree with you i have been going since early 70s enjoy going to Nana leave it all alone never had a problem, vendors have been doing business in most asian countries like this for centuries, make them clean up there patches daily/nightly or lose their patch, same with seaside beaches as in bali , vietnam, malaysia, must clean up properly or lose your patch. 

[TPI]

19 hours ago, holy cow cm said:

Kosan Rd needs to be left alone, even though it is not my cup of tea.

 

Sorry I fully disagree with you. The circus needs to stay and hermits need to stay in their shells. I visit Nana several times a year, go there sit to drink beer and watch all the freaks walking around. I have taken many o people visiting from the US business and tourists and they all love it. I have been enjoying that area and place for over 26+ years now. So, if you live in that vicinity or stay when you are on holiday coming here, then I suggest pick a nice quiet dull area to go to and stop picking on a sanctuary area.

Absolutely! Kow San Road has an identity all of its own. Like Bugi Street in Singapore, locals and tourists love the interaction and the chaos between vendors and customers. In Singapore the area died when they moved everything to Geylang, what do they hope to achieve in Kow San Road? It's easy enough to organise a clear path through mobile vendors!

[Humpy]

....well that should sort out the plastic bag problem in that area !!

[Mad mick]

1 hour ago, TPI said:

Absolutely! Kow San Road has an identity all of its own. Like Bugi Street in Singapore, locals and tourists love the interaction and the chaos between vendors and customers. In Singapore the area died when they moved everything to Geylang, what do they hope to achieve in Kow San Road? It's easy enough to organise a clear path through mobile vendors!

Absolutely should stay 100% agree clean it up rubbish health wise is fine ' but! this is thailand if " its not broken thai Janta will break it , like reinventing the wheel , Vendors have been around for centuries in asia etc, pushing them out creates unemployment.  crime goes up? They will cry where are all the tourist gone ? Vietnam 

[holy cow cm]

18 minutes ago, Mad mick said:

Absolutely should stay 100% agree clean it up rubbish health wise is fine ' but! this is thailand if " its not broken thai Janta will break it , like reinventing the wheel , Vendors have been around for centuries in asia etc, pushing them out creates unemployment.  crime goes up? They will cry where are all the tourist gone ? Vietnam 

Yes, but the problem is the Junta regime is also the old wealth and they don't care because they think they don't live in glass houses and can control any way the think fit. So when these lower level boot lickers get an idea, it is just that, boot licking in order to gain a pat on the head as anything they do does not effect them as they never visit these areas to see what they truly are made of. This new suggestion and directive came from the boot licker trying to up the ante for safety for tourists in the area they oversee, which is all coming from the cave incident and the Phuket tragedy. It is only one thing: Jump on the boot licking band wagon. 

[CLW]

Yes i think you are right,when they cleaned up the sidewalks around
Sukumvith the charme and romance went with it.
There should(could) be a balance to keep it attractive.

Balance is something that hardly exists when it comes to decisions in Thailand. There's unfortunately only all or nothing.

[timendres]

13 hours ago, fathersicksendmoney said:

Sure leave the vendors so the fire trucks can gently and delicately maneuver around them wasting precious time . These tinder box ramshackle backpackers can literally be a fireball within 15 mins.

I guess reading comprehension is still on your todo list.

 

13 hours ago, fathersicksendmoney said:

Thailand is changing , its a developing country so this clean up is completely normal however on TV any type of progress is so the elite can get richer or that every official is a total moron as if safety first is moronic but do nothing its then because the BIB want it the way for vendor  bag money ?

Again, it is not an either/or question. Khao San road is not 2 meters wide. I believe there is room for a compromise.

 

13 hours ago, fathersicksendmoney said:

The truth is expats came to Thailand for the relative lawlessness and want it to remain that way . But its changing and I hear Phenom Pen is still relatively police free and COMPLETELY lawless a few miles away from the tourist scene ..  but rest assured that train will be leaving the station soon so all aboard for the few years it has left toot toot?

It is not about "lawlessness", but more about extreme government overreach, which we are seeing in the USA. Progress in Thailand is wonderful, and one of the reasons why I prefer Bangkok to Phnom Penh. But crushing the character of Thailand, and it's people, in the name of progress is ignorant, and makes progress a moot point.

[NanLaew]

On 7/19/2018 at 10:03 AM, nausea said:

"When you clean up the city, you kill it,"  Bukowski. A sanitised Khao San? Won't that be attractive. If truth be told by day it's pretty boring, half its charm is the night-time chaos.

In the 1980's, Singapore punted all the Bugis Street Kai Tai's into touch, moved all the street food carts into Newton Circus before introducing pretty steep fee's for vehicles to enter the CBD and limited places for those seeking horizontal dance partners to the likes of 1 Claymore Drive (if you're white) and Geylang (if you're not white).

 

After all this, the Singapore tourist economy never really recovered...

[timendres]

13 hours ago, travelling wilbury said:

You have no idea why this country is so poor do you 

if everyone actually paid some income tax the government wouldnt be broke as it is  . the reason everyone wants to sell on the street is ...it is tax free cash and untraceable

I guess you actually believe that this government is efficient with the money it receives?

Why would anyone hand them more money, when BILLIONS are stolen from the programs meant to help the poor, billions more wasted on unnecessary military hardware, billions lost to graft, and god knows what else?

 

And I have never met anyone that believed taxing it's lower income citizens was the road to securing a nation's wealth.

[sanuk711]

3 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

Geylang (if you're not white).

Geylang if your not white..........I wish someone had told me earlier ..........?

.

Still Singapore has what Thailand doesn't......45 minutes in a boat to one of the biggest (and cheapest) island brothels in the world.

[Emster23]

21 hours ago, SupermarineS6B said:

Served me time around the Malaysia and Soi Sri Bamphen........ Them were the days......   Blue Fox ?       

Ah, the Blue Fox, remember it well... first trip I wondered if I could make it back to Malaysia Hotel without being propositioned. Somehow when I came back next year I must have had "the look" I'd been here before and wasn't such easy pickins.

[Benmart]

Unregulated businesses may add charm and character to some. Those same admirers of such free enterprise would certainly object should they be run over having to walk in the street, have hot oil splashed on them, get poked in the eye by a cart awning, or befall any number of mishaps from such charming street scenes.

[lamyai3]

On 7/19/2018 at 9:19 PM, timendres said:

Having been there a few times, I do not think it is an either/or question. I believe that you can leave the street vendors, organized in such a way that a fire engine or ambulance could navigate that street in an emergency situation. Which leads me to believe it is about more than just "safety issues". In my opinion, this example, lower sukhumvit, and many more examples, are simply the result of a government chock full of an@l retentive tards that have been unleashed and emboldened.

Yes, if you've ever seen how fast vendor carts are able to mobilise in the event of an emergency or VIP moving through, it'd be obvious this is total BS. Khaosan is for the most part pedestrianised, making it way easier than any street with regular traffic flow for emergency vehicle access, whether vendors are present or otherwise. 

Edited July 21, 2018 by lamyai3

[bristolgeoff]

khao san rd like many parts of bkk has the vendors everywhere.part of the tourist trail for some.if the st is cleared will the people who own bars  be happy as the backpacker may drink or stay elsewhere.i know it is crazy in khao san but that is part of its charm,during the day time it is nothing to see.nighttime is another thing

[thaibeachlovers]

On ‎7‎/‎19‎/‎2018 at 10:03 AM, nausea said:

"When you clean up the city, you kill it,"  Bukowski. A sanitised Khao San? Won't that be attractive. If truth be told by day it's pretty boring, half its charm is the night-time chaos.

They are going down the Singapore path, which is a mistake. Singapore sanitised everything to the point tourists stopped going, and they had to walk it back. A Thailand without sanuk will be hardly worth going to.

[thaibeachlovers]

21 hours ago, Benmart said:

Unregulated businesses may add charm and character to some. Those same admirers of such free enterprise would certainly object should they be run over having to walk in the street, have hot oil splashed on them, get poked in the eye by a cart awning, or befall any number of mishaps from such charming street scenes.

Those that object have the right to move on elsewhere. No one is forced to stay in any one place in LOS, or even to land here at all.

[Knocker33]

Bit like when they banned street food for a couple of days and realised they had dropped a bo##ock

[VBF]

2 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Those that object have the right to move on elsewhere. No one is forced to stay in any one place in LOS, or even to land here at all.

You beat me to it. Far too many people falling for the "Nanny State" BS, and forgetting that we (still) have a right, nay a duty, to think for ourselves and thus remain free to explore.

If you think it's dangerous, don't go, or if you do go somewhere new, look around for the dangers and act accordingly.

If you cannot be bothered to think - tough! 

[oz1gai]

It seems that Bangkok are to be changed into a cold sterile unwelcoming city.
The government are ripping the soul out of Thailand.
not even monkeys will want to live there.
No tourists will pay 10000 kms of flight to watch building they can se at home.
Spiritless concrete buildings - night ghosttowns - 
Thais are people with life and spirit   people working in soulless buildings dont know who work next door.

For me i guess Cambodia will be a better choice in future.

unless some throw out military.

[unblocktheplanet]

I grew up with the old, gritty Times Square. When it was Disneyfied, it lost all its charm. Maybe the generals would prefer those 35M tourists have no reason to stay in BKK.

[VBF]

9 hours ago, unblocktheplanet said:

I grew up with the old, gritty Times Square. When it was Disneyfied, it lost all its charm. Maybe the generals would prefer those 35M tourists have no reason to stay in BKK.

I get that! 

Similarly, I grew up with the old sleazy Soho in London - "massage" cards on doorways and in phone booths, women hanging on street corners, several clip joints  AND  quite a few good pubs, music clubs (including the word-famous Ronnie Scotts), cheap (by London standards) cafes and loads of CHARACTER!

 

The council cleaned it up and now it's just another sterile, boring, expensive bit of London.