Lonely Planet™ · Thorn Tree Forum · 2020

Bangkok kohsan street

Country forums / Thailand / Thailand

Hi Everyone

Im in thaïlande and im looking for à good suggestion of restaurant, club, or pubs to go to. Im travelling with m'y brother and were both looking for à good spot to party near kohsan area.

Try KhaoSan Road, it's loads more fun than kohsan street.

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You need to clarify what "party" entails- pouring buckets down till you vomit blood, or standing around with a G & T telling tall tales of all the places you've been to.
Different places for different styles.

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Just walk down the street and see what you like.

I personally like Gazebos just around the corner from Gullivers at the Police Station end. There is a less backpacker clientele and more locals. Gazebos features live bands with western songs on a rooftop bar. Later the Hip-Hop rooms opens.

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You cant go down KSR for 10ft without stumbling over another bar/ restaurant. Theres also streetside bars down Soi Rambuttri that only open at night.

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For someone who spends/ spent so long in the area, you really ought to learn how to spell "Khaosan Rd" correctly

5

Some of the best food to be found in Bangkok is at Krua Apsorn: http://goo.gl/maps/rKp9

Less than a kilometer from KSR: http://goo.gl/maps/5OGC

Order the crab with yellow curry, a vegetable and some rice. Great stuff!

Closed Sundays.

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For someone who spends/ spent so long in the area, you really ought to learn how to spell "Khaosan Rd" correctly

Considering it's karaoke English there's no 'correct' spelling for it. I spell it as it's pronounced. It's pronounced 'kowsan' by the locals not 'koh san'. It's not an island.

A lot of Thais spell it 'kowsan' or 'kowsarn'.

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But, although a typo, and transliterations can get crazy, you spelled it "Kownsan".

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A typo indeed. I spelt it as 'Kowsan' two more times in the same post so I think it was evident how I spell it.

9

Use ถนนข้าวสาร if we wish to be pedantic. This would be how Thais would spell it.

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^^ .........which properly makes it kow-sarn rather than kow-san 'if we wish to be pedantic'.

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Personally, I love "Thinglish". I think it's great that, in order to learn a second language, one needs to learn a third. "Thinglish" consists of such words as "Ratchawongse" and "Narithiwas". Tell a taxi that you want to go to "Central" and good luck! I think Brits had a hand the "official" transliterations ...

The point is that transliteration is often a bit hopeless. Because it is Thai, because there are so many different transliterations, whatever rings one's bell should suffice.

If you want a real chuckle, try using Google translations from Thai to English. I have laughed myself to tears at times!

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One of the things I like about Thailand is that there is NO "proper" spelling of Thai words when translated to English. You can write anything so long as it approximates the Thai pronunciation.

13

If we are getting anal about trying to spell how we pronounce it, it's surely Cowsan.

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Kowsan is pronounced the same as Cowsan by me.

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One way to spell it!

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^^

Well that's the notoriously poor transliteration system adopted by successive Thai governments that conspires to make it difficult for English speakers to get even close to pronouncing Thai, without even getting into the tones! For other ridiculous examples go look at the street signs for Surawong Road and Jarerngrung Road.

As the Thai is written and said, San is clearly Sarn with a long "A" not a short one. Pronounced as written underneath most people say San, which is a short vowel and isn't how a Thai speaker says it.

Say it how you like, the backies still manage to find the ghetto!

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My wife's pronunciation doesn't have a "long A" or any "R". I guess I'll have to set her straight.

It's probably due to the fact that she pronounces it based on that terrible chicken scratch Thais call their alphabet!

18

^^

My wife's pronunciation doesn't have a "long A"

It probably does, as short and long vowels are really important for comprehension, but you don't hear it as a long vowel since you're more used to drawled-out vowels in American English - I mean New Yorkers drink coooorrrrrrrrrrr- ffeeeeee and say that Thais pray to Boooooo-Daaaaaah.

As for the "R" well that's normal, isn't it! Only Middle Thais really pronounce Ror Reua and lots of others interchange R and L at will, but you're not a newbie, you know all this!

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Are we British?

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We? I'm not - can't speak for you. Your user name suggests you're American, but it's only half-right probably!

Why the question? You are surely not suggesting that one needs to be British to be interested in matters linguistic?

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