With Thailand set to open up on a larger scale soon, one of the places that hopes to see a resurgence is the world-famous Khao San Road. During the pre-COVID era, Khao San Road was the night-time gathering place for international tourists and for locals. As you walked down Khao San Road you’d hear music blare from both sides of the road, the steam from food stalls would crawl above the hostels, vendors would sing for you to buy their scorpions on a stick all as you walk shoulder to shoulder with fellow tourists hearing bits of conversations representing dozens of different languages.
The government made a push to clean up Khao San. Barriers were set up to open driving. More regulation for food vendors. Better roads so police on motorbikes can better navigate the flow of pedestrians. Cracking down on the mobile bars (managers would hire migrant workers to laying out folding tables and chairs so customers could enjoy grifting the music from the neighboring bars to either side, all while selling balloons full of nitrous oxide).
With no tourists, now they have more order then they ever bargained for. Souvenir shops, cheap hostels, and bars are almost all shuttered, and your conversations no longer get drowned out by loud music. Food stalls are sparse. The vendors are gone. An ambulance dispatch center was set up, so you can see emergency vehicles zoom by. If it wasn’t for that activity and that of a single Korean-inspired restaurant/bar, Khao San would feel like a haunted ghost town.
With the country reopening, this is likely to change as people return to congregate, dance, party, and meet new friends at Khao San. However, it is unclear whether they will be returning to the laid-back, cultured Khao San that was known before.