A friend of mine owns a houseboat in Lampang, Thailand, which was set for a trip on Monday September 30. With an open invitation to join on this journey, of course, I couldn’t say no. Accepting the invitation to board the houseboat, set the wheels in motion to explore the options to get to Lampang, which is about 75 kilos outside of Chiang Mai.
Transportation Options in Thailand
The original thought was to ride up with my buddy, whom owns the houseboat, but plans changed and he was no longer going to be able to make the trip. We also had to weigh the options of going straight to Lampang, or we could go to Chiang Mai first and leave from Chiang Mai with the rest of the houseboat crew via minibus to Lampang. In the end, it made the most sense to go to Chiang Mai first. This now left us with three options; plane, train, or bus. Obviously, the plane is the quickest and easiest option to get to Chiang Mai, but also the priciest. A flight from Khon Kaen to Chiang Mai, with the “September Special,” from Thai Airways was going to cost about $70 per person one-way. The next option was train, which is normally a comfortable, but very slow way to travel in Thailand. However, in the last year, trains have gained quite the negative press. This could likely be due to the 14 derailments this year alone. Not to mention, a majority of these derailments have taken place around Chiang Mai. Last but certainly not least, left the overnight bus option.
Bus travel in Thailand is hugely popular, but those who have lived here for any duration of time know the inherent dangers of the overnight buses. Many times the bus drivers are working multiple jobs, which requires them to take “uppers” to keep them awake during 12 hour bus ride. Sad, but very much a true story. Nonetheless, bus travel is the cheapest, most efficient way to travel assuming risking your life is acceptable. Being as frugal as I am, of course, this is an acceptable risk to take.
Decision was made. Bus it!
How to Get a Bus Ticket: Khon Kaen to Chiang Mai
Now the real fun begins. Getting a bus ticket in Thailand is extremely straightforward; assuming one thing, you speak or read Thai, neither of which I do. We headed off to the bus station on Friday afternoon with the intention of leaving that night. With the help of an extremely friendly NCA Bus Tour employee, we were able to semi-navigate the bus terminal. NCA, Nakhon Chai Air, is by far the best bus company in Thailand, but their scheduling and routing is extremely limited. Considering NCA did not go to Chiang Mai, I assumed all bets of getting help from the NCA personnel was off at that point. I would be wrong again. The NCA employee walked me over to a competing bus company, did his best translation, and 1,261 baht later, we had purchased tickets. This blew me away. I just had a competitor help out the competition by selling me a bus ticket, for nothing more than a gracious Thank You from me. This is Thailand…..
Tickets in hand, we rush back to the condo to pack for an undetermined amount of time in Chiang Mai. With zippers about to burst at the seams on our two bags, we made our way (over an hour and a half early, of course) to the bus terminal. Much to my surprise, the bus arrived to the station on time, and actually departed on time. Shocking!
The Bus Situation in Thailand
It was not ten minutes and one beer into the 12 hour trip that Brittany noticed a roach scurrying around inches from her leg. If you know anything about Brittany, she doesn’t do bugs. In addition to the roach situation, an hour into the trip we made a stop outside of Khon Kaen at another bus station to pick up additional passengers. Normally this would not be out of the ordinary had it not been for one small detail. As we made our approach into the bus terminal two Thais come flying out from the shadows of the street flailing their arms. They made their best attempt to alert our bus driver of the unconscious man laid out in the middle of the street. Luckily, our bus driver obliged, stopped, and two Thais did their best to lift/drag this limp, unconscious man to the side of the road. Was he drunk and passed-out, or dead, who knows??? Needless to say, this made for a very restless trip for Brittany. I was able to put down four Leo Beers and got a fair amount of rest. Yes, I brought four beers on the bus with me, perfectly acceptable in Thailand.
On the whole, and considering it cost us less than $50 USD to get from Khon Kaen to Chiang Mai, the trip was not bad. Having said that, we will be flying back to Khon Kaen….
Here is what the ticket purchasing situation looked like….
We are Brittany and Charlie - we traded the 9 to 5 and the so-called "American dream" to live our own dream and see the world. We sold all of our belongings and left the US in August 2013. For 5 years, we lived primarily in Thailand and built our online business and location independent lifestyle while we traveled to over 30 countries. We’ve had house sitting gigs on 3 different continents and we’ve even appeared on HGTV’s House Hunters International.
[…] trip out of it. We headed to the bus station and booked our tickets! Check out Charlie’s post here to read about our travel from Khon Kaen to Chiang […]
[…] out of it. We headed to the bus station and booked our tickets! Check out Charlie’s post here to read about our travel from Khon Kaen to Chiang […]
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