Khao San Road and Banglamphu: an area guide
Khao San Road is one short street in the Banglamphu district of the Old Town, and it has been the backpacker capital of Southeast Asia since the 1980s. It is loud, cheap and entirely itself: bars with buckets, hostels, tattoo parlours, pad thai carts, insect snacks for dares, and a crowd from everywhere. Banglamphu around it is older and quieter, with riverside streets, royal temples and some of the best cheap food in the city. The trick is to use the one and enjoy the other.
Khao San Road itself
The street runs about three hundred metres between Chakrabongse and Tanao roads. It has been tidied up over the years, with a wider pavement and tighter rules on stalls, but the formula is the same: music from every bar, street carts, massage chairs on the pavement, and people selling everything from fake IDs to fisherman's pants. It is at its most crowded from late evening. At Songkran in April, [Khao San Road](/?q=Khao San) is the city's biggest water fight, and during the rest of the year it is a reliable place to meet other travellers and drink cheaply.
Soi Rambuttri
One street north, Rambuttri curves around Wat Chana Songkhram and is the gentler version: open-air restaurants under trees, guesthouses with gardens, a few live music bars and massage shops. It is where most people end up eating. The temple in the middle, Wat Chana Songkhram, is an active monastery and a short cut between Khao San and Phra Athit.
Phra Athit Road and the river
[Phra Athit](/?q=Phra Athit) Road runs along the river on the western edge of Banglamphu and is the best street in the district. Old shophouses hold small bars with live music, cafes, galleries and long-running restaurants, and the crowd is Thai students and office workers as much as travellers. At the northern end, Santichaiprakan Park is a small riverside park around Phra Sumen Fort, one of the two surviving forts of the old city wall, with a promenade along the river and a view of the Rama VIII bridge. It is the obvious place for a sunset. Phra Athit pier is next to the park and the express boats stop here.
Temples and the old city
Wat Bowonniwet on Phra Sumen Road is a royal temple where several kings were ordained as monks, and it is quieter than anything near the palace. The Democracy Monument on Ratchadamnoen Avenue is a ten-minute walk, and the Golden Mount and the rest of the Old Town are a short walk beyond; see the Rattanakosin guide. The National Gallery on Chao Fa Road, in a former mint, has Thai modern art. Banglamphu market, in the streets east of Khao San, sells cheap clothes and school uniforms to locals.
Eating in Banglamphu
- Roti and mataba (stuffed pancakes) from the long-running shop on Phra Athit Road.
- The famous pad thai restaurant on Mahachai Road near the Golden Mount, with queues most evenings.
- Pad thai, fried rice and spring rolls from the carts on Khao San itself, cheap and fine.
- Boat noodles and khao gaeng in the lanes behind Banglamphu market.
- Riverside dinners at the restaurants on Phra Athit and in the small sois off it.
The street food neighbourhoods post has more on the Old Town circuit.
Getting there
Banglamphu has no BTS or MRT station. The closest, MRT Sam Yot on the Blue Line, is a twenty-minute walk through the Old Town. The river is the usual route: Phra Athit pier (N13) on the Chao Phraya Express Boat is five minutes from Khao San, and Phan Fa Lilat pier, the terminus of the Khlong Saen Saep canal boat, is a ten-minute walk and the cheapest link to Siam and Sukhumvit. Buses from Sanam Luang and Ratchadamnoen go everywhere. The boats post explains both lines. Taxis will come to Khao San but the streets around it are often closed to traffic in the evening; walk to Chakrabongse Road to hail one.