Are there any central areas on the East side where people congregate, or the concentration of businesses/other stuff increases?

 

I only have a bicycle and have not ventured too deep. But what I have seen, seems like dark side is a series of roads without specific commercial areas.

I lived on the Darkside for about 3-4 years in total. Nothing much in terms of a downtown. Siam Country Club Road, Soi Noen Plub Waan and Soi Khao Noi are major east-west roads with stupendous volumes of traffic and hundreds of shops. Maybe Lake Mapphrachan area could be considered an active district. Might visit the area on Khao Noi around the TOPs supermarket. Some bars and restaurants the kilometre before and after it. Nothing too exciting.

No centre. Just miles and miles and miles of the same shophouses, gold shops, bars, restaurants, markets, 7/11s, supermarkets, apartments, housing villages etc. etc.

Very dull.

Its mostly shophouses, villages and some schools.

Live here for a year now, not really a center but most bars are concentrated along a 1km road at Soi Khao Noi (part of Soi Khao Ta Lo I guess), I live in one of those villages an above poster mentioned, and they just opened a new bar exactly opposite of my village "Full Moon Bar 2", in this few hundred meter stretch there are about 6-8 bars and it won't get much busier than that.

 

About 500 meters further away we have Tops supermarket, they have an outdoor restaurant/bar and live music sporadically, and a small market, and some more bars. If there's a center that would be it I guess. The thing is, this outdoor restaurant with a stage for live music failed big time, I never see people sitting there and I'm a late grocery shopper, between 19:00-21:00 so at those times there should be people.

 

Only ladybars though, usually quiet, now a little bit busy because it's winter season, few more arrivals in the village, I think it's mostly foreigners that bought a house here and spend the winter here and hang out in the bar with some friends, most appear to already have a wife/girlfriend. In low-season it's a bit of a pathetic sight in those bars, older foreigners sitting there alone, just drinking to get away from the wife I guess ????

 

I just see Kaoboi summed it up well enough in his last sentence, from Tops both to the left and right a stretch of 1km of bars, more to the left then to the right when you're facing Tops.