All Choked Up (Transport in Bangkok)

Member Name: indiecater

Product:	Transport in Bangkok
Date:	29/10/01 (90 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, Never Boring, Lots Of Choices.

Disadvantages: Fumes, Chaos & Boredom.

Bangkok is a city that tends to have longer rush hours than others. On some days rush hour becomes rush afternoon and on occasions stretches into rush evening as well. With these chaotic forces conspiring against you none of the modes of transport available in Bangkok are likely to be a better choice so your decision is likely to be open to chaos. Here is a rundown of the choices available in no particular order.


Taxi

In the early nineties taxi-meters were introduced to try and prevent taxi men from fleecing unsuspecting farangs (us). This means that you can keep an eye on the mounting baht bill as you travel to your destination. Of course taxi meters don't stop the driver from taking the long way around. After a few dubious journeys that seemed to take circular paths we decided to start asking how much it would take to get to our destination before we sat in to the car. This way you get to bargain on the price and if you beat it down far enough you can be sure that he'll drive like he's possessed to get you there quick. Incidentally the driver normally leaves the meter off when you do this.

On the whole taxi-meters in Bangkok are much cheaper than at home. Most journeys within the city shouldn't cost much more than 3 or 4 euro, in saying that the traffic jams are likely to extract quite a bit of your mind. The taxi drivers themselves are quite a patient bunch. Their lack of English often means that conversations can range from the indecipherable to the non-existent. Sitting in bumper to bumper traffic for endless hours does not seem to bother them although you can hear an occasional tut tut (tut tut drivers?).

The majority of taxi-meters have air-con and have seat belts in the back if you're worried about the sometimes headless driving. They come in 2 colours, blue and red and yellow and green. Both seem to charge the same price and are plentiful throughout the
city. We never once saw an old style non-metered version but they are known to exist.


Tuk Tuk

Even if you never journey on a tuk tuk in Bangkok you'll likely be propositioned by them. Tuk tuk's are three wheeled bikes which have a back seat that can accommodate up to four people. They are noisy (in a clapped out small aeroplane type of way), splutter out pummels of fumes and on the whole are quite a dangerous way to travel.

If you take the risk you'll need to be willing to inhale the equivalent of a winters worth of chimney smoke. Tuk tuk's are great for weaving through the jams but because they are windowless the exhaust fumes from all the other traffic is waiting to discolour your lungs. Tuk tuk's are generally cheaper than taxi's and are worth taking if you are only going on a short hop.

Tuk tuk drivers are notoriously proud of their driving skills and love making those split second decisions to overtake the taxi-meter in front before the articulated truck coming in the opposite direction is within touching distance. Stories of tuk tuk's flipping over as they round a bend are plentiful so make sure you know the risks. We used them several times while in Bangkok and although we had to change our underwear after one boy racer's attempt at infamy the experience is one you'll saviour.


Train

A good alternative to taking the bus from Bangkok to the northern or southern provinces is the train. Most services offer 3 classes of comfort but the majority of tourists travel in second or first class.

We took the overnight train from Bangkok's Hualamphong station to Chaing Mai. We booked a second class ticket with an upper and lower berth for sleeping. We decided to go for fan instead of air-con carriages because of the latters rep
utation for being icily cold. We probably made the wrong choice because our carriage was a baking oven by midnight. The sheets on my bed were saturated by morning. This and the rattle from the train meant that sleep deprivation was inevitable.

In saying that the views as we raced to Chaing Mai were glorious. Luscious green belts, lazy paddy fields and densely forested peaks were all something to behold. The train stopped quite a lot, even though it was a rapid service. There are also express trains that are a little quicker due to less stops. Our fare was a little over 12 euro which compared favourably against an air fare that would have been about 10 times that.


Sky Train

Bangkok is slowly beginning to clean up its act. The new BTS system was introduced a few years ago. Basically it is a metro system that operates on rails that are several metres off the ground.While the sky train is certainly kinder to the environment its limited network means that its undoubted potential has not yet been fully realised. From what we've heard though both the stations and the sky train itself are uniformly clean, timely and ultra modern. Surely this is the way forward for a cleaner Bangkok.


Bus

We used the public bus system only twice in Bangkok. Once to get to us to Ko Samet and also from the airport to town. On both occasions we couldn't have been more satisfied with the experience. That's why I would recommend bus travel for getting in and out of Bangkok but not around the city itself.

There are a number of reasons for this. Firstly because Bangkok can be a confusing place at the best of times but when you have no control of where you are going it is a nightmare. Add to this the fact that buses in Bangkok are often seriously over crowded which just drums up opportunities for those light
fingered types.

There are plenty of good bus maps available and one of these would be the minimum required to tackle any bus journey. The quality of buses ranges from beat up bean cans with wheels to the more expensive air-con types. The main advantage of bus travel in Bangkok is the low costs involved.


Songthaew

These red coloured pick up trucks are found mostly in provincial cities like Chaing Mai. There is rugged bench like seating in the back for up to 12 people. Songthaew's are incredibly cheap and most journey's within the city are not likely to be steeper than 10 baht per person. They are not the most comfortable form of transportation and most songthaew drivers speak little English but as an economical way of getting from A to B they are hard to top.


The River Express

If you thought Tuk Tuk's were the only transport mode in Bangkok likely to give you a heart attack then you'd be almost right. The river express has several challenges however that have to be overcome before you can sit back (or more likely stand back) and enjoy the fabulous views. The first being the little jump you need to make from pier to boat. As the boat can be quite rocky this can be a little disconcerting at first especially when there is a large crowd behind you anxious to board.

The river express is a great, if a little confusing, way to see Bangkok. The confusion arises out of the fact that there are 2 competitors vying for your baht on the river. This would be fine and probably keeps prices low except for the fact that the routes each company takes are different. The main company called the Chao Phraya river express stops at every passenger pier, Laemthong express does not. This means that if you get the latter it is quite possible that you won't get off where you want. The ferries
are hard to distinguish (they are colour coded but this didn't bear any fruit with us) so the most useful way of getting the right one seems to be to get the one with the most tourists.

The contrasts on the river bank are alarming, tin roofed accommodation that would badly house cattle in Europe is home for big families while a couple of hundred metres away gleaming skyscrapers mark out where the wealthy go about their work. How the poorest must view the pale faced camera wielding tourists is beyond comprehension.

The Chao Phraya river runs from north to the south of the city which means that for 10 baht you can travel from Banglamphu to the Grand Palace or Chinatown. The fare is standard for all destinations so if you were to go from the first stop to the last you would get the cheapest tour of Bangkok available.


Getting around Bangkok is a genuine experience. The fumes from the different vehicles means that a large percentage of travellers ware face masks. Thousands of street police are known to have long term respiratory problems. With the number of new vehicles estimated at 1,000 a day, the chaos is likely to get worse. Sitting in traffic is a way of life (travel potties sell like hot cakes) and patience is an essential characteristic to avoiding dementia.

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