Night Train to Krabi

Well, I'm back from vacation. I had an amazing time in Krabi- my first time down in Thailand's far south.

I'll write about Krabi later, but first I want to talk about getting there. There are basically four ways to get around Thailand: 

1) You can take a minivan from Victory monument, but those only go to places within a few hours of Bangkok. 

2) You can take a bus, but that's not very comfortable after a few hours. The 12+ hours to Krabi would have been miserable. 

3) You can fly. It's not too expensive and it/s quick.

4) Or, you can take a train, which, while slightly slower than the bus, is by far the most comfortable way to travel.

That's what I did, and I learned some lessons about traveling along the way too. I booked a second-class sleeper in advance from Hua Lampong Station. When the train departed from Bangkok at 7:30 pm, the seats were still up, but around 9:00, an attendant came by to change the seats into comfortable bunks. They were clean and comfortable, and I slept soundly. 

When I woke up the next morning, I could tell that we were far away from Bangkok. The scenery had changed drastically, giving way to dense jungle and mountains.

We arrived in Chumphon the next morning at 7:00. Unfortunately, there is no direct railroad to Krabi, which meant that we had to take a 4-hour bus transfer that was included in the ticket. The bus was pretty uncomfortable, and I was very happy to finally arrive in Ao Nang Krabi, a quiet little beach town on the Andaman Sea.

I've come up with some guidelines that I think will make travel more comfortable for me in the future.

If the trip will be longer than five hours in a bus, I will either take the train or fly. If there is a direct railroad, I'll probably take the train, especially if I can get a sleeper bunk. That's great, because I can save on a night at a hotel too. I really don't like taking a bus transfer. It's not comfortable, and after taking a long train trip, I'm just ready to be wherever I'm going. If the trip will have too many transfers, I'd just rather fly. Incidentally, I had booked an airline ticket for the one-hour flight back to Bangkok, and it only cost about $40 USD more than the combined train/bus ticket.