Hot take: I spent 4 hours trying to book a bus from Bangkok to Chiang Mai

I figured booking a bus online would be easy, but the cheap sites were all in Thai and the English ones added huge fees. I kept hitting dead ends with payment errors or seats that showed as free but weren't. I finally had to walk to the actual bus station, which took forever in the heat, and wait in a line to buy a ticket from the counter. The whole thing, from first search to holding the ticket, was a solid 4 hour project for what should have been a 10 minute job. It cost about $12, but the time lost was crazy. Has anyone else had a simple transport booking turn into a half-day mission in Southeast Asia? What's the real trick for this?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_jason22d ago

Honestly, the real trick is to just skip the bus. That route is famous for overnight trips that are way too cold and make a lot of stops. For a few bucks more, you can get a flight that takes an hour. I wasted a whole day on a bus once and felt terrible. Never again. Budget airlines like AirAsia or Nok Air are the move.

dylan4137d ago

The Chiang Mai to Bangkok bus actually has a cult following for the food stops. You get these amazing roadside pad thai places that never show up on flight itineraries. Sometimes the journey is about the snacks, not the speed.

marywood22d ago

Sometimes the bus ride is part of the adventure though. You see way more of the country from the ground.