Talk:Bangkok/Khao San Road

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How long does it take to get to from the airport?

Maj: are you sure that you've got your Bangkok geography straight? I thought Banglamphu was pretty much coterminous with what most people call the Khao San Road district. Do we really need a Khao San and and Banglamphu page? If this is really just about the three-block road, does it really deserve to be its own article? -- (WT-en) Evan 09:36, 25 Nov 2003 (PST)

Well, technically Khao San Road is just three blocks of a street in a far corner of Baglamphu, but: 1)"Khoa San Road" is, conceptually, about 5 or 6 square blocks and much more than just a road 2)A very different destination than "Banglampu" (which includes Wat Pho, the Grand Palace, and a bunch of other sites).

If we want to fall back on our rule-of-thumbs for what is a destination, I'd argue that "staying/eatting/shopping in Banglampu" is very different that "staying eatting/shopping on KSR." I'm willing to make them one page, but everything is going to end up all binary like the Grand Canyon with exceptions in every section for KSR (ie "Banglampu is a quiet area, except KSR. There are very few western restaurants, except KSR. Banglampu is full of historic and cultural sites, except KSR" etc etc etc). It's kinda the difference between government districts and tourist districts... (WT-en) Majnoona

I'll defer to your better judgement and experience. I guess I just wanted to make sure that Banglamphu - (Khao San Road + Chana Songkhram) = something worth writing about. -- (WT-en) Evan 11:03, 25 Nov 2003 (PST)
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I am founder of www.khaosanroad.com - it's the leading website about the area. Every time I add a link someone takes it off. Why is this?

John@KSR

Hi John (btw I'm a big fan of your site!) Sorry about the confusion, if you take a look at Project:Goals and non-goals and Project:External links it may clear things up for you. Basically we don't link to 'non-primary' sources for a couple of reasons including the fact that we'd like these guides to be usable offline/on paper where "find out more at this site" type things don't help much. Hope this helps! (WT-en) Majnoona 08:15, 29 June 2006 (EDT)

OK - sounds fair enough... Totally wicked concept - good luck to you! John@KSR

Sight vs site

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A sight is something worth seeing (as in, sightseeing). A site is where something happened (or happens). Tourists are interested in sights; historians are interested in sites. (WT-en) Jpatokal 07:47, 10 September 2006 (EDT)

http://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Bangkok/Khao_San_Road - is this for infomation or advertising? There's a link to virtually every hotel webpage.

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I have checked the comments of the editor that it is not a primary link, but K.S. House is owned by Charlie Connection Travel & Tour - CCT & T Co., Ltd, which owns www.travelconnecxion.com and it owns K.S. House guest house.

K.S. House Website is part of the www.travelconnecxion.com

http://www.travelconnecxion.com/guesthouse/kshouse/

Can you please take a look at this.

Thank you, Igor

Thanks for the explanation, I presume someone just assumed it was a spam link. But next time, please plunge forward! (WT-en) Jpatokal 11:38, 8 October 2007 (EDT)

IATA accredited travel agents around KSR

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I have just added a waring about problems buying air tickets from non IATA travel agents in Thailand. Most of the small travel agencies buy air tickets from wholesalers and are not resposible for the ticket refunds when the wholesalers go bankrupt. Also they tend to sell tickets, collect money but isue tickets at a later day, using the customer's money to operate their businesses. This is dangerous for ticket buyers - travelers, because the fly by night tour desks tend to go out of business often. I recommend starting a IATA accredited travel agencies section. We can do only around KSR or even add Bangkok as a whole. But KSR would be better. There are maybe only 5 agencies that are IATA around KSR. This is really needs to be done, because in today's Internet age, one can set up a Website and look good even if they are a one man operation, in a hole in a wall. 210.147.149.9 05:03, 5 April 2008 (EDT)

"Hotels with internet access"

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What's the meaning of this phrase? Internet cafés exist every 50 meters around this district, so there is no point in saying that one of those are in the lobby. Wi-Fi is available in some lobbys and restaurants, but it seems to be difficult to get it in your room unless it's an expensive hotel. I asked around 20 places today without finding it anywhere with a room price tag below 650 baht. Some hints of cheap rooms with Wi-Fi would thus be appreciated by me. ^^^ You might want to try the hotel booking sites that have a search function for "internet" or "wifi." there are way too many hotels to list them here.

Sawasdee Hotels

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Now we have Sawasdee Bangkok Inn, Sawasdee Banglampu Inn, Sawasdee Khaosan Inn, Sawasdee Krungthep Inn and Sawasdee Smile Inn. Now I know these are separate branches, but come on. Can't we just get rid of them and keep one of them? This is a bit overkill I think. --(WT-en) globe-trotter 23:07, 15 January 2010 (EST)

  • <sleep name="Sawasdee Bangkok Inn" alt="" address="" directions="Located in the middle of Khao San Road" phone="" email="" fax="" url="http://www.sawasdeebangkokinn.com/" checkin="" checkout="" price="">This budget hotel give you a old Thai-Style hotel in quiet and friendly atmosphere. With private bathroom with hot water and a cable TV, accompanied with 24 hours security and room service.</sleep>
  • <sleep name="Sawasdee Banglampu Inn" alt="" address="" directions="" phone="" email="" fax="" url="http://www.hotelsawasdee.com/" checkin="" checkout="" price="">Modern Thai-Style hotel in quiet and friendly atmosphere. With private bathroom with hot water and a cable TV, accompanied with 24 hours security and room service.</sleep>
  • <sleep name="Sawasdee Khaosan Inn" alt="" address="Chakrapong Rd" directions="Next to Airport Bus Station" phone="" email="" fax="" url="http://www.sawasdeekhaosaninn.com" checkin="" checkout="" price="">Features private bathroom with hot water and a cable TV, accompanied with 24 hours security and room service.</sleep>
  • <sleep name="Sawasdee Krungthep Inn" alt="" address="Soi Rambutri" directions="" phone="" email="" fax="" url="http://www.sawasdeekrungthepinn.com/" checkin="" checkout="" price="520-1200 baht">Small & Cozy. Quiet, clean and good service.</sleep>

Bangkok/Khao San Road Star Discussion

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After the successful Yaowarat and Pahurat nomination, now another district of Old Bangkok: the popular backpacker hideout Khao San Road. Please leave your comments with possible improvements and additions! --(WT-en) globe-trotter 12:26, 4 January 2011 (EST)

Nice to see a nomination up again after a bit of a lull. I will try to work my way through and comment as I go along.
  1. The map. Is the whole map supposed to refer to the Khao San Road, or just the little inner box on the actual road. If the latter, I suggest adding a blowup of the inner map for clarity. The existing map remains of value as context, possibly with a different label.
  2. Buy/Books/Ton's booksellers: I wouldnt categorise English-language fiction as general knowledge
  3. Eat: leader paragraph: "Many nationalities of travelers attend the road, therefore many kinds of ethnic food can be found here." does not read well, and is slightly ambiguous.
  4. Eat: leader second paragraph: "Street carts on the road sell decent pad thai (fried noodles), quail eggs, roti (like a pancake), falafel, hummus, various bugs and some sell just cocktails. (various bugs?) • • • (WT-en) Peter (Southwood) Talk 02:36, 7 January 2011 (EST)
  5. There is no splurge section in Eat. I assume this is because there are no splurge eateries. Perhaps a word in the leader paragraph for that section to this effect would be appropriate?
  6. I have made a series of small edits for grammar, spelling etc, and have changed a bit of unconventional idiom. I will continue to do this as I get the time. Anything you dont like, change back or to something better. • • • (WT-en) Peter (Southwood) Talk 05:30, 7 January 2011 (EST)
  7. Bars and pubs: Tak Sura or Taksura? both are used.
  • Support Only the inner map is a little over packed with hints and should be enlarged (see Peter above). I only found one minor mistake (AM/PM). The Buy section is small but thats imho a welcome change to the overly filled other articles. The way from the boat to the KSR is not always easy to find for first time visitors. It took me some time to orientate on my first visit... (WT-en) jan 05:26, 7 January 2011 (EST)
Thanks for both of your comments! I'll reply on each of them:
  1. It is a bit unclear, but I am not sure how else to do it. The whole map refers to Khao San Road District, which includes Khao San Road and the area around it. The smaller inset is just a blown up version of just the road itself, because there are so many listings on just that road. Maybe I could try to include the inset onto the big map, but I wasn't sure if it would still fit.
  2. I have rephrased it, hope its better now.
  3. Also rephrased it, please check.
  4. Yes, bugs, as in insects are sold in carts along Khao San Road! You're right that it seems not entirely clear from the sentence how weird this actually is :P How could I better phrase it? It is already mentioned in the Eat section of the main Bangkok article, so i didn't want to duplicate it too much.
  5. You are absolutely right. I really tried my best to find one, but Mayompuri and Aquatini are the two most luxury restaurants of the district, and it would be totally off to call them "splurge".
  6. Thanks, I appreciate it!
  7. Fixed.
And to jan:
  1. Thanks for the AM/PM fix, of course it had to be 1AM!
  2. The Buy section is so short, as pretty much all you can list are book shops. Other fun things to buy, such as clothes and accessories, are at the markets on the street, which cannot easily be cut in listings. Other shops, including tailored clothes, silver/gem shops and even travel shops, are very bad buys and should not be recommended.
  3. The inner map is overpacked because those are just pointers to the enlarged map right under it. Will try to incorporate both into one image, or I'll think of something else in the following days.
Whew, I hope that cuts it for now :) --(WT-en) globe-trotter 13:21, 7 January 2011 (EST)

Hi Globetrotter:

  1. The maps look better already. How about either appending the expanded detail map to the bottom of the main map, or alternatively adding the relevant part of the legend to the separate detail map. In both cases the blue rectangle stays on the main map, and you take out all the crowded icons from the middle of the blue rectangle, and put on a label indicating that there is a detail map, like "See detail map". Main map should have title indicating it is the whole district, and detail map (surprise) gets title indicating it is a detail map.
  2. Much better.
  3. Also much better.
  4. OK, does not sound very appetising, but I admit to bias bordering on phobia on this count.
  5. OK
  6. You are welcome.
  7. Good.
I now incorporated the small map into the big map. It unfortunately obscures a little of the Samsen area, but I couldnt make it different. What do you think? --(WT-en) globe-trotter 08:17, 8 January 2011 (EST)
I changed the map to what I was suggesting, with the expanded inset at the bottom. It works OK for me, but feel free to revert or modify if you dont like it or can think of improvements. I also uploaded the modified svg. • • • (WT-en) Peter (Southwood) Talk 10:21, 8 January 2011 (EST)
Well thats what I tried to do, but as usual the new map does not appear in spite of assorted cache purges. It will probably eventually display, but you might have to click on whatever comes up to see the changes. I seem to get a random choice of two old versions when I look at the page. • • • (WT-en) Peter (Southwood) Talk 10:32, 8 January 2011 (EST)
Ah yes. This could work, but there is a Wikivoyage Press print version coming up and that one requires the map to have the dimensions of 1709×3008 pixels. --(WT-en) globe-trotter 11:18, 8 January 2011 (EST)
The new map is beautiful! Could you make one little aesthetic change though? The word "laundromat" from Wearever Landromat lines up perfectly with the round part of the R in Samsen Road, creating a little optical illusion that it says "Laundromato". If you moved one or the other label around a little, I'm sure we could eliminate that... (WT-en) Texugo 23:48, 8 January 2011 (EST)
Fixed :) --(WT-en) globe-trotter 06:29, 11 January 2011 (EST)
  • Support. Great article, well written, displaying a profound familiarity with the area, and there is very little to quibble about. But quibbles anyway:
    • It seems that it takes less time to take the A2 from the airport than to take a taxi on the tollways?
    • Are there hours for Phra Sumen Fort? --(WT-en) Peter Talk 13:34, 11 January 2011 (EST)
  1. It's hard to say, because the travel time can vary greatly between 40 minutes and 1,5 hours (or even longer in rush hour). It all depends on the amount of traffic jams. With the bus I usually make it in 45 minutes outside of rush hour. Taxi is also about 45 minutes without any traffic jam, so I'll match them.
  2. The fort can only be looked at, it's not allowed to enter the fort. Most see Phra Sumen Fort from Santichaiprakarn Park, which opens between 5AM-10PM daily, as stated. But I did not include those hours, because when the park closes, it can still be seen from Phra Athit Road (and is illuminated from there).
Thanks! --(WT-en) globe-trotter 02:06, 12 January 2011 (EST)

Post Script

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I edited the article before noticing that it had been voted a "Star." It's a good article, but I deleted two images I considered advertising images. I suppose it will now be explained to me how they are exceptions to the rule, but my impulse was that the hotel room was definitely advertising, the soup probably, and the photo of the bar (which I haven't deleted) arguably. The thing about the soup and the bar is that I can more easily buy an argument that they are inherent attractions than that a hotel is. But I really look forward to the clarification of why a hotel that's not in itself an attraction (like the Hotel de Frontenac in Quebec City) merits a photo. All the best,

(WT-en) Ikan Kekek 06:18, 7 April 2011 (EDT)

The hotel was added as Khao San Road is (or at least was) primarily an accommodation district, known all over the world for its dingy "backpacker dens" with unwashed beds and cockroaches still crawling under the bed ;-) I added the photo to give an idea of a decent room in KSR and to fill the void. KSR barely has any attractions, so there wouldn't be a lot to show otherwise. --(WT-en) globe-trotter 06:59, 7 April 2011 (EDT)
Just because the article is a star doesn't mean that it can't be edited and improved upon, and I support the changes you have made. The hotel picture could be re-inserted if we take off the hotel name (per Project:Accommodation listings) and instead caption it as a room typical of hotels recommended by our guide. I'm on the line about the bar photo but wouldn't mind it being replaced with something else. I wish I had a shot looking across several of the outdoor improvised sidewalk bars with the little folding tables and plastic stools. That would be more representative of what to expect than a picture of the outside of one of the very relatively few indoor clubs on the street. (WT-en) texugo 07:14, 7 April 2011 (EDT)
I'm not against the changes, I welcome them. I just explained the rationale for adding these pictures. I will try to find better ones. --(WT-en) globe-trotter 10:20, 7 April 2011 (EDT)
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