Chris Blunt wrote:
Tchiowa wrote:
Chris Blunt wrote:

Something I do like about Khao San Road is that its one of the few
places that have both ordinary Thais and foreigners mixing and
enjoying themselves.

You can't be serious, Chris.

I'm absolutely serious.

I hope you're not getting into the
backpacker "you have to live poor to see the *real* Thailand" mantra.

You mean you wish I had.

No, I mean exactly what I said. I hope you're not trying to say that.
It's a pathetic attitude and it's beneath most people.

I mix with and have a good time with ordinary Thai every day and never
get near Khao San Road. I mix with Thai in my apartment complex, at
work, in restaurants near my home, in my wife's village up north,
everywhere.

Of course you can do that. You can mix with Thai people in most places
all around Thailand.

Then why did you say that it is "one of the few places"? Now you're
saying "most places". I agree with that.

What I'm saying is that in Bangkok there is
generally a polarisation of entertainment venues. Foreigners tend to
go to certain places and Thai people go to others and there's not that
much mixing of the two groups. What I liked about some of the places
in Khao San Road was the "melting pot" atmosphere where everyone
enjoyed themselves together.

But the melting pot atmosphere is a very deliberate fraud. The only pot
involved is the pot that a huge percentage of the farang are smoking.

You don't have to hang out with unemployed drug addicts
travelling the world on their parents money in order to associate with
"real Thai".

The only Thai you'll see on Khao San Road are those who are "on the
game". Normal, average, ordinary Thai despise the place. The Thai that
go there know that a high percentage of the farang in Khao San Road are
drug or alcohol abusers and usually young, new to Thailand and
incredibly naive. Suckers waiting to be taken.

Total bull****, and what an insult to Thai people, the overwhelming
majority of whom are not "on the game". For example, just take a look
inside Susie Pub in Khao San Road on any Friday or Saturday evening
and see the dozens of quite ordinary Thai couples enjoying themselves
there.

And that is a total insult and a rather dishonest reply. I was very
clear that the normal, average, ordinary Thai weren't who I was talking
about. I was talking about the very tiny percentage of Thai who go near
Khao San Road. For you to say that that comment insults "Thai people,
the overwhelming majority of which are not 'on the game' implies that I
was saying that they were. And they're not and my statement was quite
clear.

I wonder what your motivation is for putting these people down. You
should be ashamed of yourself for making such derogatory statements
about perfectly respectable Thai people.

I wonder what your motivation is for deliberately twisting a statement
in order to support Khao San Road.

Let's be clear and "blunt", should we? Khao San Road is a haven for
backpackers travelling on the cheap and often (usually?) in pursuit of
illegal drugs, cheap booze, and trying to avoid Thai people and culture
as much as possible. It's a place where low-lifes hang out. It's a
place where those who want to take advantage of low-lifes hang out.
It's a place that most Thai avoid.

Now are the a few average, decent people who don't see what's happening
and hang out because they're drawn in by the "ambience"? I'm sure there
are. But it does no one any good to try to pretend that it is anything
other than what I described above.

There's a big billboard advertizing Khao San Road that's visible from
the highway on the way into town from the airport. The first time I saw
it I was with my Thai wife and she snickered and said "farang mao"
(drunk westerners). *THAT* is what the Thai people think of the place.
You can pretend all day it is otherwise, but it's not.