Joe Cummings: Who is the man in front of the backpack? Over the last few months www.khaosanroad.com visitors sent us questions they wanted us to put to Joe. Some questions were pretty hard hitting, some downright rude - we put them to him nonetheless. The result was some pretty surprising answers and some pretty amazing reading.

Part two of the Joe Cummings interview:

Q: Khao San has obviously changed. Has the change been for the better?

Q: Which of the changes to Khao San do you think have been positive? Which changes do you think have been detrimental for the area?

Q: Do you agree that some people go to Khao San Road to take part in the `travel' experience rather than to travel? If that's the case, does this means Khao San has become a traveller's theme park?

A: I'm going to try and answer these three questions together with some general comments on KSR, OK? If you ask KSR residents whether the change has been for the better, I think most of them will respond that their standard of living has improved significantly since it became a budget traveller's hub, and that they feel fortunate to be living there. There's more money for books and school uniforms, even enough left in family budgets to send local children to college. Those residents that didn't like the development probably left the area over the last decade, and those were probably people who already had money and decided to cash out. I'm sure there is some nostalgia for the Banglamphu of days past, but I'd wager few people would trade it for their current standard of living.

KSR is Thailand, but it's an internationalised piece of Thailand. Among other things, it has become something of a window on the outside world for young Thais who can't afford a plane ticket to Kathmandu or Amsterdam or New York or London. Among the Bangkok public in general it has become a pretty hip place to hang out or at least talk about. KSR entered a new phase three or four years ago, making it now quite passé to put it down as not being Thailand, etc. Three of Bangkok's trendiest bars are found in the KSR area, two of them in alleys right off KSR and one about a block west, and the clientele at all three is about 85% Thai. Thais are charged a cover charge, but farangs get in free, a pleasant turnaround of the usual way of collecting admission fees!

By the way, the best KSR article I've so far read was one by Rolf Potts, who did something for his Salon.com column, Vagabonding. Potts really did his research, and comes up with interesting angles. You'll find it at http://www.salon.com/travel/diary/pott/1999/10/12/potts/index.html One of the worst Khao San Road articles I've read, at least in a major magazine, was the Susan Orleans piece in the New Yorker.

Q: Lonely Planet has obviously played a role in the Khao San boom - every other traveller on the street carries a Lonely Planet or a guide of some sort. How do you feel about this?

A: I feel good about any small role I may have had in providing new sources of income for local Thais. I don't mind that KSR has become something of a backpacker ghetto, because I know that most of the backpackers staying in the area are simply using KSR as a sort of decompression chamber between jaunts to more remote parts of Thailand and Southeast Asia. For those who spend most of their time in Thailand in KSR -- well, all I can say is you're missing the best parts. But I think that's not the norm.

Q: When a place is mentioned in a Lonely Planet guidebook it instantly becomes popular. As such, the place mentioned changes. Are you concerned about this?

A: Places don't always change just because I write about them. Any place that goes downhill because it becomes popular probably wasn't a very good spot to begin with. When that happens I get another shot at them in the next edition! Over the years I've found that places with good management and good intentions stay good -- sometimes they even get better.

Q: How often is Lonely Planet updated? Who does the updating and how do you go about it?

A: LP guides are updated every two to three years, although with Thailand we've kept to a fairly tight two-year schedule. I do the updating myself, but I get lots of input from readers, from the Internet, from Thai media and from friends who live in various parts of Thailand. For the upcoming 9th edition, Steven Martin updated approximately one third of the guide.

Q: Are there any other places that you have come across that are similar to Khao San? Where are they? How are they similar? How do they differ?

A: The Thamel neighbourhood in Kathmandu is similar. I'm sure there are other places in the world like it, but in Asia I'd say Thamel comes closest. Some people compare Khao San with Kuta Beach in Bali, but Kuta doesn't have the variety of people and businesses that Khao San and Thamel have, in my opinion.

Q: What do you think makes Khao San unique?

A: The Bangkok Thai's tolerance for lifestyle variation.

Q: In your opinion, what do you think are the local Thai's views about Khao San and the people who stay there?

A: It used to be that the term 'farang banglamphu' (Banglamphu foreigner) referred to any foreign traveller who wore ratty clothing and didn't bathe very frequently. That perspective is still around, but nowadays Khao San has much more of a trendy appeal for Thais. Khao San Road also has a reputation as a centre for drug dealing, at least in the Thai newspapers.