"We are not coming back" : Tourists give the thumbs down to Khao San Road changes

[LazySlipper]

Comment obviously made by typical backpackers staying at one of the 100 bht a day dorm rooms.

[LazySlipper]

3 hours ago, lanista said:

I was in Laos for a few weeks and hardly saw a cop anywhere.

Try living in Laos where there are no supermarkets even after 15 years here in Thailand I can't find any decent markets in Vientiane. I prefer organized commodities to cheap street vendors any day of the week...Let Kao San become what it was meant to be... a street for the night life and not for the hawkers.

[cmsally]

1 minute ago, LazySlipper said:

Comment obviously made by typical backpackers staying at one of the 100 bht a day dorm rooms.

Thailand tourism was kicked off by the backpackers. Many places with not a posh hotel in sight and maybe not a paved road either. Backpackers were there way before the wheelie suitcase brigade!

Just because the expensive infrastructure has gone up, doesn't mean we need to be brainwashed into conforming to use it.

All this talk of eco-this and eco-that, whilst they pour huge amounts of concrete in the ground and expect the tourists to fawn over the new development.

[Chassa]

4 hours ago, lanista said:

Khaosan rd died 20 years ago. It used to be lined with 'hole in the wall' guest houses  for 80 baht/night and mountains of backpacks waiting to be loaded into buses  fanning out all over Asia and beyond.

Khaosan  was taken over by developers  in the early noughts  and is now just like any other street littered with vendors and Indian hustlers not to mention  kfc , mcdonalds and expensive hotels and western style beer bars. 

 

A townhouse on Khaosan sold for about 1 million baht back when i first arrived.  Price now?? 50 million maybe.

Very high rents and deposits.Trendy Thais went there for a while but unlikely nowdays.

Bangkok has totally westernized the tourist areas.

No longer Asia.

 

 

Same as walking Street, Pattaya, was great before it became 'Walking Street'. Guess that's progress.

[Chassa]

9 minutes ago, cmsally said:

Thailand tourism was kicked off by the backpackers. Many places with not a posh hotel in sight and maybe not a paved road either. Backpackers were there way before the wheelie suitcase brigade!

Just because the expensive infrastructure has gone up, doesn't mean we need to be brainwashed into conforming to use it.

All this talk of eco-this and eco-that, whilst they pour huge amounts of concrete in the ground and expect the tourists to fawn over the new development.

Totally agree, i loved Kata/Karon beach in the '80s now they're just concrete.

[ChangMaiSausage]

Never liked the place but it was a place that many did especially visitors because it was hectic.

 

Times are changing

[cms22]

They really do have absolutely no clue. 

[utalkin2me]

Good riddance. How do we know the Thais don't want exactly what it looks like is happening: an end to a backpacker's cheap hangout. 

[JMonroe]

Good. Don't come back. Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out. 

[webfact]

Deal Struck For Khaosan Vendors To Submit Alternate Rules

By Jintamas Saksornchai, Staff Reporter

 

Photo: Tjabeljan / Flickr

 

BANGKOK — Khaosan Road vendors will submit their own proposed regulations directly to the government next week after City Hall backed down on enforcing its own week-old rules.

 

A merchant representative said Tuesday she was satisfied with a compromise struck that would get them involved with setting the rules of the street after an impasse between the city and police saw the bustling tourist destination fall silent last week.

 

Full story: http://www.khaosodenglish.com/featured/2018/08/07/deal-struck-for-khaosan-vendors-to-submit-alternate-rules/

 

-- © Copyright Khaosod English 2018-08-07

[NoMeAmes]

6 hours ago, varun said:

Instead of decimating an iconic street with oodles of character,

why don't you get rid of the ebony / uzbekistan whores and nigerian pushers that congregate between Sukhumvit Soi 1- 5?

 

why only the foreign hookers? What about the local hookers? 

[Yeahbutwhytho]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

The stalls must not take up more than 1.5 metres of the street’s 3-metre-wide pavements, and restaurants and bars cannot place their tables and chairs on the pavements, Sakoltee stressed.

They have truly killed khaosan road, what idiots idea was this

[NCC1701A]

7 minutes ago, NoMeAmes said:

why only the foreign hookers? What about the local hookers? 

[Megasin1]

whether you like, or dislike backpackers once the word starts to travel amongst them it spreads quickly, crosses language barriers and the balls of tumble weed will be rolling down the Khao San Road, this is as inevitable as the sun rising and setting. The Thais must have known this would happen, so it was planned. The unfortunate thing about shopping roads anywhere in the world now, is that they are the same wherever you go and for the Thai authorities to prefer the standard corporate boutique designer shops as they are also doing in Walking Street is extremely short sighted to say the least. Whether or not Khao San Road was your cup of tea or not, it was a back-packers meeting place, as someone pointed out, before they shot off other places recommended by their fellow backpackers. They will quickly move their centre of operations, probably to Vietnam or Laos, Thailand as a hub for tourism is definitely dying and soon they will be erecting solar operated cardboard cut-outs of tourists so that the Chinese can photograph them before quickly getting back on their bus. So very short sighted and by the time they realise that once again they have screwed with their golden egg it will be too late. In a few years time they will rue the day they destroyed something that was unique (I never said good) because shops are dying everywhere as the world moves to on-line buying and shopping streets are becoming in-town desserts, only the uniquely different can survive. Well done the Thais once again for being unable to think of anything that is outside of the bullying box, like maybe stationing some fire hydrants along the street, or like in Hoi An close the street to traffic. Cars are the enemy in cities, not a few backpackers, they could easily close off the traffic and leave an emergency lane open they just didn't want to.

[Yeahbutwhytho]

19 minutes ago, RobertH said:

Good. Don't come back. Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out. 

What if your favorite sleazy go-go bars are next? What if your planned soi cowboy weekend gets cancelled ?

[NextStationBangkok]

Went there on Saturday to check the status. Only Farangs are sad, that sidewalk bars are closed, and street shops are not there any more. But now Kaosan is extended to every corner.

 

But lot of Thais especially youngsters happily sitting on the side walk and get beer from 7-11 and happily drinking.

 

Those capitalist owners who can bribe police can setup their tables on the street, where are small scale vendors are cleaned up.

[MaxYakov]

"Traders spoke of a once busy and eclectic road and a thriving trade being obliterated in the name of progress and order."

 

Errr... Shouldn't that be "peace and order"?  Peace and prosperity, what's that?

Edited August 7, 2018 by MaxYakov

[korkenzieher]

It's quite remarkable how often this happens - not just in Thailand, but around the world. Someone discovers something - a place, a scene, a lifestyle. Once eclectic, it becomes mainstream. Then officialdom moves in to sanitise it for 'their esteemed guests', completely oblivious to why it became a 'thing' in the first place. Then stare on confused as the crowd moves on to the next big thing, leaving little but dust and the disillusioned in their wake.

[CLW]

Now the street is filled with parked taxies and tuk tuks.
Ban all cars and tuk tuks and bring the stalls back the soi is dead now.

Exactly the same happened in my Soi. BMA put up some sign with a 2,000 Baht fine and cleared the not even existing sidewalk. Now there a tons of motorcycle parked there. I wonder what is the purpose of this actions?

[CGW]

5 hours ago, cmsally said:

Actually not really true, the Chinese love Chiang Mai weekend markets in the open air at weekends. They are so stuffed full of Chinese you can hardly walk.

It has long amused me to see mainland Chinese shopping for Chinese manufactured goods, then take them home again! Singapore Chinatown is a prime example, most of these goods are export only and they are unable to buy them at home I'm guessing!

[Easy Come Easy Go]

6 hours ago, lanista said:

Khaosan rd died 20 years ago. It used to be lined with 'hole in the wall' guest houses  for 80 baht/night and mountains of backpacks waiting to be loaded into buses  fanning out all over Asia and beyond.

Khaosan  was taken over by developers  in the early noughts  and is now just like any other street littered with vendors and Indian hustlers not to mention  kfc , mcdonalds and expensive hotels and western style beer bars. 

 

A townhouse on Khaosan sold for about 1 million baht back when i first arrived.  Price now?? 50 million maybe.

Very high rents and deposits.Trendy Thais went there for a while but unlikely nowdays.

Bangkok has totally westernized the tourist areas.

No longer Asia.

 

 

Times change. 
Be the tree that sways with the breeze, rather than the one that leans in against the wind 

[observer90210]

Let the tourists and expats boycott the place...let the money stop comming in...apparently they do not need foreigners to spend money,  so fine. Why make a fuss ? Spend it in another country in the region. I do not wish to go to a place that is blockaded with police or army and be considered as a suspect when I am just wanting to have a good time and spend my money.

Edited August 7, 2018 by observer90210

[phuketlive]

the country is changing, some people might not like it but the sidewalks are not for shops, little by little it will become a city like others

[JimHuaHin]

Ummm .....

 

Some of us older farangs who used to enjoy staying in Khao San Road in the 1970s and 1980s, and even the early 1990s, greatly dislike the current Khao San Road set up and have not ventured there for some time.

 

It is one big hole these days.

[watcharacters]

7 hours ago, Thian said:

Do you think it was good for the image of BKK and Thailand that the whole world knew that on kao sarn road you can buy fake id's, presscards, university degree's, and probably everything else fake...It was just open on the corner of the street for loads of years...

 

Didn't Thailand and the rest of the world survive in spite of it?

 

[Snow Leopard]

5 hours ago, Dick Crank said:

i dont think the chinese cared for it much, they like nice hotels better and seafood buffets, the clean streets make them feel safer and they stay in the hotel and spend more. tuk tuk and vendor income does not really matter.

 

but you learn well, and quickly, and you do it quite well...(cut to scene of head bobbing up and down)

When do the Chinese spend anything outside what is included in their package? 7/11 maybe? 

[CGW]

Money spent on the "street" stays on the "street" 

Money spent in stores and legitimate bars ends up in the pockets of the people who are enforcing this ban, be they government or private companies with vested interests.?

Some money may even end up in the tax mans pockets, where as you know for a fact hes making nothing at present ? 

[lkv]

19 minutes ago, observer90210 said:

I do not wish to go to a place that is blockaded with police or army and be considered as a suspect when I am just wanting to have a good time and spend my money.

Or involuntarily participate in Operation Outlaw Foreigner X.

Edited August 7, 2018 by lkv

[wvavin]

This clueless military government continues destroying the olden charm of Bangkok and killing the livelihood of the less fortunates along the streets.

[Lupatria]

7 hours ago, darksidedog said:

Further proof that stupid people always find a way to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. Tourists dont go there for a sanitised environment and clearly won't go at all if this idiocy continues.

Now a couple of morons, who probably used Khao San certificates to get their jobs, are scratching their head 'til it bleeds finding a way how to blame the foreigners for this mess. This may take a week or two before the big back paddling starts. I hear the banjo's already.