Budget Guesthouse

There is a hotel (one of many) on the Khao San road in Bangkok, called the Budget Guesthouse. Now, the Khao San road is a pretty horrible place, so I'd recommend not staying there anywhere. However, if you want to stay on the Khao San road, complete with all the the bars full of westerners, the usual backpacker stalls selling the usual stuff, and the complete lack of Thai culture, then I'd still recommend avoiding this place.

First things first: it's clean and tidy and we got a room for Bt350 a night (in 2006), which doesn't sound too bad. The bed was exceedingly hard, but it isn't the only place to suffer from that.

However, it is the only place we stayed during 12 months' travelling to suffer from an owner who gets really drunk, tries to throw you out at 11pm, and threatens you with physical violence. The guy's name was apparently Joker, which says it all. We were told that he'd recently chased someone else down the road with a knife.

There are loads of places to stay in and around the Khao San road, so why take the risk of staying in this place? Avoid it like the plague.