Bangkok isn’t exactly a city that never sleeps – moreso it is sleepy during the sweltering heat of day, then stays up all night. While you can do a lot of tourist activities in the daytime (visit temples, ride riverboats, relax at coffeeshops) the real action happens at night.
One of the city’s most famous areas for backpackers and partying is Khaosan Road – located right in the heart of the Old Town near the Chao Phraya River:
Khaosan is actually more of an “area” with a few very busy roads surrounding each other. The area doesn’t open up until after sundown, doesn’t really start getting busy until 9-10 PM, and doesn’t stop until sunrise.
We were staying within easy walking distance in Bangkok, so visited twice. To illustrate the insanity, the below video took place at about 11PM on a Sunday night:
Watch till the end to hear Kaitlin participate.
As you can see – insanity. Bars blast music, so as you walk down the road you hear “transitions” from one song to the next. Street food and vendors selling clothes/souvenirs line the road. People on mopeds are coming down the street weaving through pedestrians as well. And it is an absolute blast.
Obviously the beers are flowing everywhere:
In addition to the party bar music, you can also find many places with a live band. We even stumbled into one playing songs exclusively in Chinese:
Street food is all over, and all delicious. There are also a ton of traditional restaurants on the street, but we’d highly recommend the street food – you can get anything from spring rolls to kebabs to scorpions!
As a final note – you can tell this is a party area by some of the bathrooms. By condition/state:
Funny art:
And hilarious, probably necessary signs:
If you ever visit Bangkok, we’d highly recommend adjusting your sleep schedule – sleep in very late, so you can stay out very very late to see the best the city has to offer!
