The wife and I had a little ride out on the bike tonight for some fresh air as it was cool and slightly breezy and we ended up downtown Bangkok and decided to pop to Khao San Road.
Khao San Road is probably the most famous tourist haunt in Bangkok, especially with the younger backpackers as its fun, friendly and cheap. In normal circumstances its bright, brash and loud and packed with people simply having fun. Tonight, it was a sad sight and true indication of the tragedy that has befallen the Thai tourist industry and the millions of working-class Thais who depend on it for their meagre, hard-earned livelihoods.
As a reminder to the government, they could have added "OPEN THE BORDERS!"
MacDonalds were closed. 7/11s were closed and just a few bars and restaurants and one massage shop remained optimistically open. There were no foreigners. The desperation in the touts voices as they tried to tempt us in for 2 for 1 beer and some laughing gas was palpable. An absolute shame.
Normally, it takes an hour to walk the 400metres from one end of the street to another. But now anymore. This was at 8 pm this evening.
Normally its like daylight with all the neon signs vying for your attention. Just one out four 7/11s was open and even Boots has temporarily closed.
On an ever so slightly brighter note for me, it was a good chance to see more of the street art that is everywhere in this area. Usually, this alleyway between Khao San and Rambuttri is packed and the traders are busy selling all manner of touristy stuff but tonight, there wasn't a 'No Money No Honey' T-shirt in sight. Hopefully, I will get back down here just to take some more photos of the street art.
For the first time ever, the wife wasn't in the right frame of mind for a massage, and we didn't stick around for a beer so I'm sorry to the few traders and bars that were trying to eke out a few sales but the sense of sadness and despondency was too overwhelming to be able to enjoy the evening.
Take a look at Pinmapple to see how it used to look...