Travelling to and within Thailand

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Travelling to and within Thailand / Road Transportation

The Thai road network covers some 150,400km (94,000mi); 15,800km (9875mi) are national roads, 28,600km (17,875mi) provincial roads and 106,000km (66,250mi) rural roads. Traffic is on the left.

Thailand has an extremely well organized overland bus system. Each corner of the country can easily be reached from Bangkok, and there are direct connections even to small towns. Aircon as well as non-aircon buses connect Bangkok and all major provincial cities. Between smaller provincial cities, only non-aircon service is available.

Bus travel is exceptionally cheap in Thailand. On an aircon bus, the price per kilometer traveled is less than 50 satang.

By far the largest bus company in Thailand is the government owned Bo Ko So which specializes in long distance trips, especially those connecting with Bangkok. Connections between provincial towns are often on buses of private companies. Private companies also run luxury coaches between Bangkok and major provincial cities. Often, they provide so-called VIP service with full size buses equipped for less than 20 passengers. Rates on VIP buses are 20% to 50% higher. Private coach companies offer discounts of around 10% for round trip tickets

While government buses depart and arrive in Bangkok only at the large bus terminals, many private companies have their buses departing and arriving in front of their city offices. Nevertheless, they also pass by the bus terminals before leaving and after arriving in Bangkok.

Private bus companies also pick up passengers at selected hotels. This option should however only be taken by those who believe they cannot manage to reach the bus station or the office of a private company on their own. Often, passengers are picked up more than 2 hours, sometimes even 3 hours before the departure of the bus, and often one spends hours waiting at the office of the tour company.

To reach the bus terminals is much less difficult than most newcomers fear. For example, to get from the Sukhumvit area to the Northern Bus Terminal on Phahonyothin Road, one just hops on a No 13 aircon city bus. Every conductor understands "Northern Bus Terminal" and will tell the foreign visitor when to get off. From Sukhumvit Road to the Northern Bus Terminal it takes about 45min.

Several private bus companies serving northern and northeastern destinations have their offices around the Indra Hotel on Radjaprarop Road.

For aircon buses, Bo Ko So as well as private companies take reservations (which means: they sell advance tickets). While such advance bookings not only secure that one can actually travel on the date intended but also allows a choice of the best seats, experience has shown that in most cases one will usually still get a seat if one arrives about half an hour before departure. For most destinations, several buses leave within a few hours, and for destinations like Chiang Mai, it’s one every half hour in the late morning or in the early evening.

Many bus connections are overnight trips. The buses leave at an hour in Bangkok which usually works out to an arrival between 6:00 and 8:00. Therefore, buses to further destinations, such as Chiang Rai, have a tendency to depart earlier than others which only go about half or two third of the distance, as for example to Phitsanulok. For Chiang Mai there are either day trips, departing in Bangkok in the late morning, or night trips, departing in the evening. There are no noon or early afternoon trips to Chiang Mai, as an arrival after midnight but long before dawn wouldn’t make much sense. A similar logic applies to other destinations.

In aircon overnight buses, blankets are usually provided. Long distance buses normally have toilets; usually there is at least one stopover at a terminal with a restaurant. On practically all aircon buses (government and private) snacks and soft drinks are served free. Even Westerners usually have no problem sleeping on aircon buses as seats are usually similar to those on aircraft, allowing the passenger to recline. Air conditioning in overnight buses can be fairly strong and it is advisable to wear long pants and socks.

For information on connections, please see the chapter Travel to/from Bangkok and the entries under listed towns and cities.

Phahonyothin Road

Tel 271-0101 to 5, 279-4484 to 7

Pinklao-Nakhon Chaisi Road

Tel 434-5558

Sukhumvit Road (Ekamai)

Tel 391-2504, 392-2521

City buses are of importance mainly in Bangkok where they provide the most convenient low price transportation. City buses also operate in Chiang Mai but there, more people get around on passenger pickups.

Bangkok has an excellent public bus network with aircon and non-aircon buses. Fares are exceptionally low by Western standards - just 2 or 3 Baht on non-aircon buses and 5 to 15 Baht on aircon buses. Bus fares are among the lowest found in non-communist Asian countries. They are less than 10% of comparative fares in Hong Kong, less than 20% of what they are in Taipei or Singapore, and lower than in Kuala Lumpur, Manila and Seoul (source: Asiaweek, March 1, 1991).

Aside from the large buses of the central Bangkok bus company, small private Mercedes buses (always painted green) ply the same routes at the same charges. In this case, Mercedes does not mean comfortable transport. Western men will commonly find the ceilings too low.

These smaller buses are also noted for reckless driving which adds to the discomfort. And finally, the conductors of these buses are often unfriendly to Westerners, probably for rather materialistic reasons: Westerners take up double space and nevertheless just pay ordinary one person fares. Furthermore, foreigners object to being squeezed into the middle of the bus and prefer standing near the doors thus blocking the way of passengers boarding or getting off - a behavior that annoys conductors.

Bus maps for Bangkok are available at most hotels and practically all bookshops at 35 Baht. For more details on city buses in Bangkok, please refer to the transportation part of the Bangkok section.

Passenger Pickups

Passenger pickups, Songthaew in Thai and in some places, like Pattaya, referred to as mini-buses, basically are pickup trucks with the load areas equipped with two benches. Passenger pickups operate in various modes throughout the country. In Bangkok, mostly the suburban areas, they function much like short distance buses, plying fixed routes (in the Sukhumvit Road area for example on Soi 16). On pickups that just ply short fixed routes, the fare is 2 or 3 Baht.

In most provincial towns pickups crisscross without a fixed route. Passengers tell the driver their destination before boarding, and the driver says yes or no, depending on whether the destination lies on the approximate route he has decided on in his head or he has accepted from passengers already on board. Crisscrossing passenger pickups usually have standard rates for any destination within town, for example 5 Baht (as in Chiang Mai).

Where there are no ordinary taxis, in tourist places like Pattaya but also in ordinary provincial towns, passenger pickups double as taxis. Fares are then much higher.

Drivers of empty passenger pickups have the tendency to purposely misunderstand tourists who just want to board on a crisscross pickup and to interpret a trip as special trip to which much higher taxi fares apply. To avoid later disagreement on the fare, one may announce to the driver how much one is going to pay.

In Pattaya, where pickups commonly run on a circle route down Beach Road and up Pattaya 2 Road, drivers will interpret it as a request for a special trip if a destination is specified. Those who just want to go to a place along Beach Road or Pattaya 2 Road should just board without saying anything and when getting off just pay the usual 5 Baht.

No taxis in Thailand use meters. For ordinary taxis fares must be negotiated before the trip. Fares within Bangkok are 50 to 150 Baht. Taxi fares in Bangkok are considerably higher than in Manila or Kuala Lumpur.

However, while minimum charges are about the same as in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taipei, the distances covered by the minimum fare are much longer in Bangkok. Many destinations can be reached for the minimum fare of 50 Baht. Distances like from the Hua Lamphong Railway Station to the Sukhumvit Rd area cost around 80 Baht. Practically all taxis are aircon.

Hotel taxis have fixed tariffs, usually higher than those of regular taxis.

For travel by taxi (or Tuk-Tuk, see below) it is sometimes convenient for one to ask a Thai to write the name and address of one’s destination and place of return in Thai script. Most business establishments will already have cards with their address in both English and Thai.

Tuk-Tuks (also called samlor, meaning Three Wheels in English) are common in Bangkok and larger provincial towns where they operate much in the same manner as taxis. Fares are about one third cheaper than for taxis but Tuk-Tuks are open and leave the passenger exposed to the street pollution, especially annoying in Bangkok. Fares in Bangkok are 30 to 100 Baht. In some provincial towns, Tuk-Tuks operate in the same mode as passenger pickups.

The name denotes that this are four wheel vehicles. Most are Japanese mini-vans with a covered but not closed load area, equipped with benches. Fares are equal to those of samlors.

Motorcycle taxis are a unique Thai innovation and a direct product of the constant traffic jams of Bangkok. If one wants to take the risk of entrusting one’s life to a speeding Thai youngster, riding on the back of motorcycles is the one way to get around in Bangkok quickly. Fares are about one third of what an equal distance would cost on a taxi.

The drivers wait with their cycles at street corners. Usually, they can easily be recognized by their vests which most of the time show a large number.

Motorcycle taxis often are the only means of public transportation in side streets. Usually, there are standard fares for side street trips, mostly around 5 Baht.

To start with, cars are expensive in Thailand - in spite of the fact that the Thai government has considerably lowered import taxes for most categories of cars in mid-1991. Japanese models dominate the market.

Most cars (and motorcycles) available in Thailand are made in Thailand - or rather assembled, as most parts are still imported. Typically, the Thai assembled cars turn out to be more expensive than those made in the home countries of the mother companies of the Thai assembly firms. This didn’t (and to a certain extent still doesn’t) matter because of high protective import duties for ready assembled cars.

As labor is cheap in Thailand, those who can afford a car usually also have the money to employ a driver.

In Bangkok, cars are registered at the Police Registration Division, Phahonyothin Road (Tel 513-0051 to 5) Mon-Fri 8:00-16:30. The clerks there don’t speak English and the registration is quite some work. Car dealers usually offer registration as a service, for which most of the time a separate fee is charged. Registration costs depend on engine size.

Third party liability insurance is not obligatory in Thailand. Traffic laws are pretty much the same as in the West though damages awarded to injured parties are ridiculously low by Western standards. Escaping the scene of an accident is construed as admitting that one was at fault.

Gasoline prices are fairly low in Thailand, less than half a US Dollar per liter (around 2 US Dollars per gallon). According to Asiaweek of March 1, 1991, gasoline costs in Indonesia around half of what it costs in Thailand. The price is minimally lower in Malaysia but higher in all other neighboring countries - by around 50% in the Philippines and in Singapore, and by around 100% in Hong Kong, Korea and Japan.

Caltex, Esso and Shell have wide networks of gasoline stations covering the whole country. Gasoline stations along main roads in Bangkok as well as cross-country highways operate 24 hours a day. Day-time stations usually open very early (around 5:00) but do not stay open long in the evenings (until about 20:00). Gasoline stations only seldom have full repair shops but are equipped to vulcanize tyres or change oil. Most car assemblers also operate their own large servicing workshops.

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