This is an area with guest-houses and a favourite with backpackers looking for budget accommodation. The road is closed from Tanao road to Sam Sen Road to enable food stalls and sales booths to be set-up and culture show to be staged.
Banglampoo, also known by its main thorought fare Khaosan (rice, reddy for cooking) Road, is still lagging behind, with many foreigners and Thais slike regarding it merely as an "el cheapo hippie hangout".
Khaosarn Road will most likely never be known for any luxurious exuberance or visitors showing off
high fashion, but sure as high water, the prevailing casual, laid-back atmosphere with a
certain unmistakeble European touch must be counted as an attraction on its own merit.
What is more, the local actually enjoy mingling with these laid-back, relaxed foreigners,
who seem quite happy to laze away the day, sipping fruit juice or preservative-free
yogurt for hours and end. They also seem to have all day to bargain over a trinket, sit
still without complaining while they are getting their hair frizzed and decarated by a
street-side artiste, or wait patiently in the long cue at the moneychanger offering half a
baht better rates than the competition. Where else can you find easy-going people like
this? These sloppily-dressed, seemingly
unkempt foreigners are. Nevertheless quite well-heeled when it comes to ordering expensive
items like a Kashmir suit ot silk dress to wear at a party in Munchin, Birmingham or
Amsterdam, while many of them show an interest in the local scene, including the Thai
Language, food, customs or culture. A dead-give-away that this is a student-cum-young-traveller's place is the proliferation of internet-linked computers-not only in cybercafes, but virtually omnipresent. These is indeed barely a shop-front without a couple or more, while entire upstairs floors are chokers with computers, where for Bt2 per minute you can let your friends know what a great time is to be had in Khaosan, if only they too were here.
Some international buyers come to Khaosarn for its wholesale silver jewellery. Another indication that goods and their prices are attractive is that Bangkok residents will come shopping from far-away suburbs, while even Thai celebrities can be seen doing their shopping on Khaosarn, from time to time.
Indeed, most visitors to the Realm go out of their way to pay a visit to Khaosarn Road for its great atmosphere and inexpensive eateries. It's one of those places where it's very easy to make friends with fellow travellers and the locals, even if your knowledge of Thai is very little or nil. If you are prepared to slow down a bit and soak up the quasi-island atmosphere, many rewards can be had here, be it in the shops, on the crowded street or in the friendly pubs and cozy cafes.
Convent
Road
m the beginning of Soi Pitpat 2 to Soi Sala Daeng 2.
This is the place to experience contemporary concerts of Thai and international music,
both by amateur and professional bands. You may see musicians hats on the ground waiting
for kind folk to give up their loose change. There are also booths selling cheaply-priced
goods and many food stalls
Pak
Khlong Talat
