“What are you doing on Khaosan Road?” the taxi driver asked as I jumped into a taxi and hit the start button on the meter without asking for permission.
Like a priest asking for my confession, the taxi driver was looking into my soul to gauge my intentions for going to the street of fun and filth.
So what am I doing in Khaosan Road? Performing my civic duty of showing newcomers to Bangkok what to avoid. It’s a rite of passage for backpackers coming to Thailand to witness first-hand the ugliness of exploit tourism.
Khaosan is a cluster duck of everything that is worth seeing just to say you have been. Some may argue that an underground ping pong show should be the next stop. While l strongly disagree, I guess everyone is entitled to his or her own fetish.
What am I doing on Khaosan Road? The better question is what did you do on Khaosan Road.
Did you encounter any of the professional beggars that are dropped off and picked up on the streets every day, or get stopped and searched by phony thai police looking for a reason to shake you down for money ?