Khao San Road, Bangkok, Thailand

Do you remember that beach scene at first? Do you know where Richard is in a dirty room at a backpacker hostel in Bangkok?

It is a room in which many travelers are afraid to stay wet, dirty and somewhat claustrophobic because of their heat and poverty.

But there is also something toxic for the young adventurer, because it represents the promise of a new world, a place without borders where the lurid sees a gateway to unlimited corruption and uncontrollable disorders.

This is Khao San Road, home of hordes of backpackers from Southeast Asia. For years, it has been the base camp for travelers on expeditions to remote areas of Thailand or neighboring countries such as Laos or Cambodia.

But over the years, this has changed, just like me, and in my last stop, I barely recognized the place.

Do not get me wrong, the street still looks a lot like a superficial physical assessment.

Now, a McDonald's is available 24 hours a day, which is not appropriate, both because of its American style and its cleanliness. But otherwise, they are practically the same bars, restaurants and hotels as in the main street.

Street stalls always sell cheap noodles, cheap alcohol pails and cheap t-shirts designed to extend the wash day instead of taking a privileged place in a closet.

There are still travel agents (although I do not know how they survive in the world of the Internet) ...

There are still costume shops (although I do not know how they survive in a street where most tourists only need a lawsuit) ...

And there are always cheap Thai restaurants (although I do not know how the guests survive).

And, more importantly, many backpackers from around the world are mixing stories, telling stories about the adventures they have just returned to, or talking excitedly about the ones they started with. However, it is in these backpackers that I see the change. Or at least my perceptions have changed.

Once upon a time, I was one of those young explorers, drinking in the street and chatting happily with other travelers about the promise of discovery. Now I see nothing but drunk idiots who are more interested in the degradation of themselves and the culture around them.

In the conversations I've heard and watched, I feel the focus is on the holiday rather than the joy of living in a new country. In short, Khao San Road backpackers look young, unpleasant and ungrateful.

All night long as I try to sleep in my little apartment, I am awakened by the noise of street parties or people returning home in the corridors with loud voices filled with drunkenness and joy. During the day, I meet people who seem tired of the excesses of the previous night and have no plans, if not to recover and start all over again.

However, I must now stop halfway to ask if they are different from the thousands of people who preceded them, including myself.

We were all like this and I just judged through the lens of a bigger and more experienced traveler?

Have I not made deliberate trips to "festive places" around the world to let me go and get rid of stress bands that torment me?

In the end, it worries me not to think that the road has changed so much, but maybe if