FLASHBACK "Khao San Road, Bangkok, Februray 2004"

Episode 1-A walk down Khao San

It's been a year since Khao San, yet the memories of this peculiar place are still vived in the mind.

It's February, it's humid, mild, warm. A nice change after spending the last three months in Wuxi China. I thought I would takea taxi from the Airport down to Khao San Road after being tipped off by a friend.

I got out of the taxi, straight in front of me lay a dirt road with people milling around everywhere, more taxi drivers, Tuk Tuk drivers, hippy's, travellers, wandering salesman, streetside stalls selling everything that a backpacker might need in Thailand from traditional thongs, trendy tee shirts, shoes, CD's, Ninja stars, Hand guns, knives of all sorts and of course, BEER!Wandering along this short strech, I could not happen but notice some of the street vendors were not Thai at all, in fact quite a few of them looked like European travellers who had gone localised Hippyish with Long Dreadlocks and nose rings. "Alternatives", my mother would say in a polite manner. Wow, I thought, this must be an interesting place for these people to stay here that long and live here becoming like weird locals.Further along this dirt road are laid back drinking establishments, Al-fresco drinking under the tropical trees. These establishments seem to be eternally packed out with English tourists wearing no tee shirts and thongs or if they were wearing a tee shirt, it would be a trendy one they bought for 200 Bahrt just around the corner yesterday saying "I love Osama" or something of similar political incorrectlyness...Walking into an internet cafe I sat down to check my email, for god knows what reasons I chose to do this but it seemed like a good idea at the time...maybee it was the external influences of all these English Backpackers around. Above my head was a lazy fan, slowly rotating through the tropical heat, mesmorising in its dance of futility as the heat and humidity rose up all around it and smothered it. The building was of traditional Thai wooden design, multiple floors with wide wooden stair cases as as I sat there checking my yahoo mail, I could not help but over hear a conversation takiking place right next to me....