The Last Night, A tuk-tuk ride to Khao San Road

The final night for my parents in Thailand was spent how I normally spent my time in Bangkok, sipping on beers and enjoying some of the best people watching the world has to offer on Khao San Road. Having yet to ride in a tuk-tuk, we got ripped off negotiating a price there (is there any other way to take a tuk-tuk?) then flew up through China town to perhaps the most famous (that's a tough call with Siam Square and the notorious red light district of Pat Pong) street in Thailand.

If you know nothing of Khao San, it's the street where nearly all backpackers go. Of course, there's the faction of backpackers who adamently call themselves "travelers", above the "touristy" spots like Khao San. These people have a point. The road can be a rip off and a haven for the shadiest of shady, the dirtiest of dirty, the craziest of the crazy. But if that doesn't sound like good people watching, than I don't know what is. Those who believe themselves to be above Khao San Road are missing all the fun of watching the melting pot world travelers simmer and boil over on a street where literally anything can happen.

I remember, two years ago, the first time I ever stepped foot onto the road, walking right down the middle of the chaos was an old (we're talking 60's here) Thai woman, walking stark naked down the street. She wasn't casually strolling down the street but slowly taking steps forward with the glazed over look of someone high out of the gourd on drugs. The next night I saw the same woman, this time dressed in one of the common t-shirts sold at every stall in the Khao San market, walking along more alert. She spotted an older falang woman of the same age and attacked her. She went up and started yelling at the woman, not letting her by. She shoved the woman and, in what surprised me even more, the falang lady struck back. Soon the husband was breaking it up, pulling his wife's hair out of the Thai lady's hand and seperating the two. The police showed up and arrested the Thai woman and the falang lady walked away, shaking.

Sure, to some that might not sound like a good time, but to me, that's some great people watching. It's not a dangerous place but it is a place where strange things happen. Preachers stand and proclaim Jesus' love and the devil's sin in a fire and brimstone language I had trouble following, all the while people came up and taunted the guy nearly to tears. I suspect it only made his faith stronger. Anyways, if there was a place to sit and watch hippies, dreadlocks, dirty old men, slutty young girls, hip surfers, and anyone one else who for whatever reason decided one day to purchase a ticket to travel to Bangkok, this is it.