Books
Book Lover
One of the cleaner and more organised book stores in the area. They have a great selection of titles about the history of the countries in Southeast Asia. Of course they also have the usual stack of fiction titles, travel guides and maps. They also have dedicated language sections with books written in Dutch, French, German, Japanese, Swedish and some other languages. The staff are pleasant and more helpful than in other book stores. When you buy a book, they will mark it; at a later date, you can sell it back to them for half the price.
Shaman Books
Biggest bookstore of Khao San Road, very dusty and seems uncompelling, but has the largest collection of used books. It has the typical English language novels and classics, but also, as the name 'Shaman' may suggest, a selection of collection of religion, meditation and culture books. Some shelves have books in Dutch, German, Spanish and Scandinavian languages. A used copy of Homer's "The Odyssey" costs around 150-200 baht. The staff seems uninterested, but you can just browse yourself. They also opened a second branch in Susie Walking Street.
Bookazine
Another branch of the Bookazine chain, this one right on Khao San Road. Beside English-language books and travel guides, they have a fairly large stock of foreign newspapers and magazines. Also English-language newspapers about Thailand are for sale here. It is only a small shop, so you might finish browsing rather quickly.
Moonlight Book Shop
Not so much a book store, more like an alleyway with many used books for sale. It's a typical Khao San Road-store that sells easy to read fiction titles. All the usual hippie and backpacker favourites are available.
Rim Khob Fa Books
This is a big and upscale store that looks a lot more professional than the other book stores around Khao San Road. Most of its customers are Thai students who come for the large stock of English-language academic books on languages, arts and history. But they also have plenty of general interest books, such as travel guides and cultural books.
Ton's Bookseller
This small book store only has one lane of general knowledge books in English as the left corridor is filled with books in Thai. At least there is a good selection of books on politics and the Thai language, along with cultural, historical and religious books about Thailand and Southeast Asia. Also a small amount of fiction titles.
ATM's can be found all around, but all charge 150 baht to foreigners, except for Aeon. Their most convenient ATM's can be found at Tang Hua Seng Department Store which is on Chakrapong Road perpendicular road at the end of KSR.
Obviously the first place to go shopping is Khao San Road itself. Simple stores line up the street selling dresses, shirts, skirts, accessories, shoes, and bags, usually for a bargain. Many of these are in vintage style, as that's popular among the Khao San crowd. There are also the usual souvenir and handicrafts stores.MBK shopping center has become the new Khao San Road with the same knock off brands you find on Khao San Road but in the comfort of air conditioning. MBK can be reached by bus #15 or your friendly taxi driver and tuk-tuk.
Hill tribe women dressed in ethnic clothing walk up and down Khao San Road all day, usually with croaking sounds that come from their ornamental frogs. They approach tourists all day, trying to sell them stuff like accessories, hammocks and ethnic handicrafts. They are quite friendly, and back off with a clear "no", but once they know you're interested, many of these sellers congregate around you hoping to make some profit.
Always beware of getting ripped off. Never buy anything valuable in this area as there are many scams and tricks being played. Khao San Road is home to many wholesale silver jewellery stores, but don't even think about buying there. A common scam is to ask a lot more for a gem than its real value. Touts for suits approach all men walking along Khao San Road, but never go with them â getting tailored clothes in Khao San Road is a complete waste of money as quality is extremely poor. If you really want a suit, head to the city centre for better alternatives.
Other problematic products for sale include counterfeit clothes, pirated movies and even fake diplomas; the authorities here don't seem to care, but you probably will get in trouble once you arrive in your home country. The Banglamphu Market north of Khao San Road is a good place to pick up cheap Thai knock-offs of everything, from jeans to Italian sneakers, as well as a few posh Thai silk stores. Food stalls also abound in this area.