I stayed on Khao San Road, the legendary backpacker market/hotel strip/hippie magnet in 2001 when I traveled to Japan and Thailand on vacation. At the time it was filled with dread locked Germans and Australians, hucksters and lowball guest houses. At any rate, in the last few years Khao San Road has gone upscale, with spas, decent hotels and even a Starbucks. Weird.
I found this story via the personal blog of the author, Newley Purnell. He's an American journalist living in Bangkok, and his blog is also some decent reading.
Note: Your browser must have Javascript enabled to submit comments.