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 three of the Joe Cummings interview:

Q: What do you think the effect of the book The Beach (by Alex Garland) and the subsequent film on has had on Khao San Road?

A: It's hard to say. Certainly there are plenty of travellers coming to Thailand these days because they either read the novel or saw the film. It's also quite likely that a similar number have been deterred from coming to Thailand because the country and people are portrayed rather negatively in the novel/movie. My guess is that the The Beach has thus had a zero sum influence on the total numbers of visitors coming to Thailand, though some are arriving with a new set of expectations.

Q: How well do you think Khao San is represented in the "The Beach"?

A: I thought the film conveyed the scene much better than the novel did. Even the minor Thai characters in the movie had more of a voice, and seemed more human. I know it's fashionable to say the book was better than the movie, but I feel exactly the opposite!

Q: Would you have preferred if they hadn't shot the film?

A: No. For one thing it ended up calling attention to the overdevelopment and corruption in the Phi-Phi archipelago. Now all we need is a movie that focuses on the even greater threats to Thailand's environment, such as industrial pollution; overfishing; the over-use of pesticides and herbicides; the tragic loss of wetlands, mangroves and traditional rice fields via the expansion of shrimp farming; the damming of the nation's great rivers; the lack of emission controls for motor vehicles; deforestation caused by legal and illegal logging; and wildlife poaching. All of these phenomena, in my view, are causing greater harm to Thailand's environment than even the worst examples of hotel over-development in popular tourist areas. Likewise from a moral perspective, the continuing influx of sex traders and gangsters from China, Myanmar, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong are causing far more damage to the social fabric than tourism.

Q: What do you think of the events held at Khao San? (e.g. Songkran and Halloween.) Should there be more of such festivals/events on Khao San? Should there be more "Thai" elements at these events?

A: I say let the local residents decide these things. Khao San is the best place in Bangkok to celebrate Songkran -- in fact in most parts of the city it's hardly celebrated anymore.

Q: In the film "The Beach" one of the characters says "If I ever meet [Joe Cummings] I'm going to punch his lights out"? How did you feel about this name check? Do you think he would beat you in a fight?!!!

A: If you're talking about actor Leo DiCaprio, he's a lot younger than I am. Then again, I was trained to box in high school and know a few muay thai (Thai kickboxing moves). I think it would be close! Seriously, I think it's pretty hypocritical of the novel's beach clan to blame me or Lonely Planet for spoiling pristine beaches, when they themselves completely disregarded Ang Thong's national park status and built a commune, etc.

Q: In the beach the same character says that if he meets you he is going to ask you "What is so lonely about Khao San Road?" What's your answer to the question?

A: If I'd been able to walk onto the pages of the novel to answer the question, I'd have said the loneliness comes with the feeling that wherever one goes, one tends to feel alienated from fellow travellers. This is the novel's appeal, and this is why it's believable that a self-elected group might try to escape the perceived ugliness of backpacker scenes to establish a private beach reserve. Instead, of course, the characters ended up taking Khao San Road with them. Like the saying goes, "What a Spaniard takes to the Indies, he finds in the Indies."

Q: What's the best way to do Thailand on $10?

A: Travel by ordinary bus or 3rd class train, eat in markets and stay in guesthouses.

Q: Is there anything left for the traveller to find?

A: Only around 2% of visitors to Thailand make it to the northeast. In the south everyone's crowded along the beaches -- check out the interior of the peninsula. Central Thailand, outside Bangkok, is virtually untouched by tourism. In northern Thailand go to Tak, Phayao and Petchaboon. In Bangkok, cross over to Thonburi and have a look around. Thailand receives only 7 to 8 million visitors a year. San Francisco a fraction of the size of Thailand and with 1/60th the resident population - receives more than that in a single three-month summer season.

Q: What are your hopes for the future?

A: Here's one: I hope that tourism authorities don't try to turn Khao San Road into some kind of theme park (apparently they're discussing such plans now), with planned activities and so on, as I think it would lead to the immediate downfall of KSR as a cultural nexus.