Khao San Road

 

There are plenty of places around Khao San that do your laundry. The general tariff is around 25-40 baht per kilo, and it's ready to be picked up the next day. Look around, as some laundromats even offer same-day pickup if you bring it in before 15:00. The Rambuttri Village Inn offers luggage storage for 20 baht per day.

If you don't stay at the road itself, a restroom can be hard to find. There is a reasonably clean one inside Buddy's Shopping Plaza — walk all the way in and take a right before entering Brick Bar. Price is 5 baht, but the queues can be long at popular evenings. Another public restroom can be found all the way inside Sunset Street, passing Starbucks on the left. Entry 5 baht. You can also try Burger King at the eastern end of the road.

WearEver Laundromat

An interesting place to do your laundry, as it is also a kind of bar, art gallery, movie theatre, and what have you not. Plenty of locals, expats and backpackers come here just to chill out. Free Wi-Fi for customers.

Khao San Road is the worst district in Bangkok when it comes to scams and annoyances.

Mobile Techno/Beer Scam: Clubs and discos close early, but until late, there are DJs playing cool trance from mobile booths on Khao San Road, with mobile drinks vendors attached to them, selling beer and other drinks from cart, displaying a clear price menu. I went to dance by myself, drank one beer for the advertised 100 baht. Danced more, then went to buy another beer. The girl handed me the beer, saying it is now 250 baht. I said no, that's not the price you show on the menu, and didn't buy it. I left a few minutes after that to return to my hotel only to be stopped by 3 somber-looking, muscled Thai guys who told me I had cheated on my beer. When I said, no you cheated me, one of them rammed his fist right into my face. I considered going to the police station almost in front of us, but then just let it be and went back with a headache.

They seem to working as a gang in a similar scheme to the one described for 2nd floor Thai night clubs, just that they lure the foreigners through cool techno, sell beers at inflated prices, and beat single travellers up if they refuse to pay.

Be highly skeptical of anyone telling you that your intended destination is currently closed. If someone offers you a free whole-day tuk-tuk ride, smile faintly and keep on walking. If you agree to this, you probably will get a free tuk-tuk ride all day, but the only thing you will see are dozens of shops where you get tricked into buying worthless gems, while the driver gets a commission. Never enter a tuk-tuk if someone else is trying to get you into one. A recent scam involves cheap transport offers to discos, massage parlours etc. late at night. The unwary who take up these offers will find themselves dropped off on a quiet street shortcut, where the Tuk-Tuk has accomplices waiting to assault and rob any gullible tourists. Better pull over a taxi yourself.

Beware of private bus companies around Khao San Road offering direct trips from Bangkok to other cities with "VIP buses". Some are reputable and will be able to provide you with a great deal, but many of them are shopfronts for scam artists and dodgy services. The so-called direct "VIP" trips may end up changing three or four uncomfortable minibuses to the destination, and the 10-11 hour trip may as well turn into 17-18 hours. Also, you are likely to be hit for extra charges for various dubious services along the way and many operators will intentionally slow down the journey so you arrive in the middle of the night and can be coaxed into choosing their guest house — invariably the crappiest place in town which just happens to pay the agency the highest commissions. Worst of all, since you have paid in advance, you have no recourse of any kind when this happens! Especially trips to Siem Reap in Cambodia are known for this. You can ask around Khao San Road, as a lot of people start and end their journeys there, and use an agent which another traveller has used without any hassles. But it is probably a better idea to do the trips independently using public BKS buses from the main bus terminals.

The police station, located at the Western end of Khao San Road, could be a valuable resource for travellers in trouble. However, extreme caution should be exercised when asking them for advice with regards to booking tickets — they will often arrange a tuk-tuk to an "approved agency" for you which seems great and normally a better deal than you would be able to arrange, but the prices offered by the agency they send you to may be 2-3 times the price you could get elsewhere. Often, the tuk-tuk driver, on seeing you come out of the first agency without having bought a ticket, will take you to a second agency "...for no extra..." only to have the same or similar price quoted.

Be sure to read the Stay safe section of the main Bangkok article for other scams you should look out for.

contact

Internet cafes are rivaled only by tuk-tuks for sheer ubiquity on Khao San Road. Almost any guest house has at least some form of internet available. Sawasdee Bangkok Inn สวัสดี บางกอก อินน์ has three computers set up that cost 10 baht for 15 minutes of surfing. It is a short walk through an alley in the middle of Khao San Road. The standard rate in the area is about 1 baht for 1 minute. Virtually all are set up for Skype and plain old international phone calls. Be aware that some cafes have applied limitations on their terminals, such as on printing documents and saving digital files — check whether this is the case before paying for it.

You can send and even receive mail at one of the area's two post offices. Ratchadamnoen Post Office is just a small walk through the alley behind Burger King. Banglamphubon Post Office is not far either, located in front of Wat Bowonniwet. From the eastern side of Khao San Road, just follow Tanao Road in northwards direction and take a right at the roundabout.