Thailand forum

Well, obviously the islands not withstanding, it generally breaks down like this:

Bus is slow, but cheap. Can be hot and uncomfortable, depending on the type of bus. This is the most dangerous form of transportation.

Train is slower, and slightly more expensive, but more comfortable and safer.

Plane is fast, safe but the most expensive.

I don't know about boats. I don't like the beach and I don't go to Islands.

I mean they have a lot of accidents where people die.

In general traveling on Thailands roads isn't the safest way to get around...

awesome detail SBE. thanks!

i think the bus is reasonably (or at least relatively) safe during daylight travel, but become particularly dangerous on the long haul overnight trips. sometimes taking the bus is your only choice to get from point A to point B.

i tend to take buses for shorter, daylight trips. i take the train when i can (bangkok to kanchanaburi, for example), using the second-class (or first class even sometimes) sleeper trains for the longer overnight trips, like from bangkok to chiang mai or bangkok to southern thailand. flying can be good, and surprisingly cheap too, and can save you quite a bit of time.

given the places you've mentioned, i'd probably fly to krabi or somewhere nearby, take the bus across to samui, then work my way back up to BKK by train. hope that helps. cheers.

"that 3 hour journey in a saamlaw/tuk-tuk (or sawngtheaw) with a couple of others I met along the way was something that'll stay in my mind forever."

There is a lot of truth in this. When I was staying in Saimun, an Ampeur of Yasothon, my wife and I used to take the Sawng Theu to Yaso and back to shop or whatever. I remember one occassion in particular where we were in the back and it was packed - a bunch of old ladies heading to Kut Chum had filled the thing, and I was hanging off the back when a few more old ladies boarded and me and the other younger men had to climb to the roof. Because I was a "Falang" I was told I could stay below by one of the old ladies who said she would go to the roof. No way... I sat up there and enjoyed the view. I did get somewhat sunburned and if that thing had had an accident I was toast. But my wife was really happy as everyone waxed eloquent about what a nice falang husband she had. I reaped benefits from that for days and still look back fondly on the moment.

Another time I was taking the slow bus to china from Mukdahan to Saimun (after my first trip to Muk to check it out) and a HUGE man of obviously mixed racial origin got on board. The vehicle sank under his weight as he boarded. He must have been six foot eight or nine and weighed somewhere around 275. My wife started talking to him - his father had been French and his mother Laotian. He never knew his father and he had to flee Laos with his mother in 75 after the Pathet Lao took over. He was a poor guy with tattered clothes and he'd obviously had a tough life. It made me reflect on my son, who I also did not get to grow up with, but also made me glad I paid my child support and stayed involved in his life. It made me appreciate how close we are now.

Ahhh Bruce, you brought back some memories.

tezza, if you mean Transport Co, it still works in English (sort of) they've got rid of the English navigation, but it's not too difficult to figure out - even for non-Thai speakers.

For example:
{url=http://www.transport.co.th/999_timebuseast48.asp]Buses to east and some central destinations

I may go through and make an English version - will keep you posted.

Thank you all so much for your input~I'm sure it will help a great deal when I need to get from one place to the next....

Peace, Shaz

As SBE indicates there "are all sorts of buses in Thailand ranging from falling apart rattletraps to luxury express coaches".

At the same time, there are also color=purple]are all sorts of bus drivers... ranging from competant to outright dangerous.

I saw a YouTube vid of bus travel in Sumatra (here). I laughed as I watched as it also demonstrates bus travel in Vietnam, in the rural areas of China, and in some of the less travelled areas of Thailand. Cheerfully, you won't see the example in Malaysia, and traffic is generally too sparse to see in Laos.

Cheers

If someone's interested in going by train (yes, safe and expensive), don't forget this link:

http://www.railway.co.th/English/Time_HTML.asp

Default line is "NORTHERN LINE", so go where should check that. Price's also attached.

If anybody in charge of busses in Thailand ever reads this:
How about outlawing the practise of busses dumping people on the outskirts of cities? I don't know how many times this happened to me and fellow unfortunates last winter, let's see, Phetchburi, Auythaya, Krabi, and more too numerous to mention. A simple, fair rule would be if you catch the bus at a 'station', you're not allowed to be dumped off on a highway at edge of city. Fair?

Idream is correct. This is a communications problem. The solution to this problem is to get the bus that is going specifically to the place you want - then it will go to that cities bus station (and every provincial city has one). Since most tourists coming here can't speak Thai, and therefore can't communicate adequately, trying to get a bus that might be going sooner or is cheaper but actually doesn't have the city in question as the actual destination is asking to end up on the outskirts somewhere. You have to be specific that you want to go to the bus station of city "X".

Great thing about Thai busses, however, is they will drop you off enroute, not just at pre-arranged stops.