Suvarnabhumi To River Kwai, Kanchanaburi

[CaptainFantastic]

Hope someone can help.

I'm meeting a friend arriving from UK and we then plan to travel directly to the River Kwai.

Not interested in a taxi or minibus, we want to use public transport and film the trip.

Either the train or the bus will do (as we plan to repeat the trip - not immediately, I hasten to add - via whichever method we didn't use the first time - stupid farangs....huh?)

It's pretty easy to get to either the bus or the train station from Bangkok itself, but can anyone advise the best way to negotiate our way from the airport?

Many thanks.

[wpcoe]

If you don't mind a minibus/bus within the Bangkok area, there are Airport Express buses between Suvarnabhumi and Hualapong train station, from which you can take a train. This was the schedule posted in March 2010, so not sure if the times are current:

[AyG]

If you don't mind a minibus/bus within the Bangkok area, there are Airport Express buses between Suvarnabhumi and Hualapong train station, from which you can take a train. This was the schedule posted in March 2010, so not sure if the times are current:

I'm not an expert, but I thought the trains to Kanchanaburi left from the Thonburi side of the river - not from Hualapong.

[CaptainFantastic]

If you don't mind a minibus/bus within the Bangkok area, there are Airport Express buses between Suvarnabhumi and Hualapong train station, from which you can take a train. This was the schedule posted in March 2010, so not sure if the times are current:

I'm not an expert, but I thought the trains to Kanchanaburi left from the Thonburi side of the river - not from Hualapong.

Yes.

I could have probably phrased my question better as, having done some research, the bus leaves from the Southern Bus Terminal and the train from the Bangkok Noi (Thonburi) station.

So, really, what I'd like to know is the various logistics of connecting between the airport and the stations mentioned above.

Any help gratefully received.

Thanks.

[CaptainFantastic]

For anyone interested, I've done some further digging and apparently we can get a free shuttle bus from the airport to the airport "Transport Centre". From there, we can get a #556 bus to the Southern Bus Terminal at 35Bht. A bus to Kan will then cost circa 100Bt.

It would appear that it's not very practical to travel from the airport to Thonburi Train Station as we would have to travel by bus and then get a river boat (romantic but impractical - with luggage). Alternatively, a taxi would probably cost well over 500Bt.

So, unless someone can advise me otherwise, it looks like we will have to go by bus on this trip (from the airport) and take the train ride next time we're in Bangkok proper.

Hope that's useful to someone else.

[ricklev]

I'm not 100 percent sure, but I think that the 556 now only runs from Makahsan Airport Link Station to the Southern Bus Terminal. I don't think it goes all the way to the airport anymore. I could be wrong.

[wpcoe]

Oops. Didn't realize that Kanchanaburi trains left from the other side. Sorry!

[wpcoe]

Regarding the buses from Suvarnabhumi to the Southern Bus Station, this is from another forum section about 4.5 months ago:

You can take a shuttle bus from Suvarnabhumi airport to the Transport Centre near the airport. Take a bus from there to the Southern Bus Terminal and aircon and normal buses leave from there for Hua Hin regularly. Can't remember the fare but it's cheap to do. A taxi from the airport to SBT would be in the region of B600. The bus from the transport centre is only about B30 if I recall correctly...

Anybody know if this was the #556, or another bus, or most importantly if whatever it is, is still operating? (I'm interested because I may use this method to get from the airport to Hua Hin -- the original context of the quoted thread -- in the future.)

[whybother]

I'm not 100 percent sure, but I think that the 556 now only runs from Makahsan Airport Link Station to the Southern Bus Terminal. I don't think it goes all the way to the airport anymore. I could be wrong.

I've never seen a bus at Makkasan, and I doubt they would add a 30-45 baht train ride to a 35 baht bus trip.

According to http://www.bangkokairportonline.com/node/56, the "Bus Number 556 - Suvarnbhumi - Southern Bus Terminal (Expressway) ... connects Suvarnabhumi Airport to Southern Bus Terminal via Yommarat - Democracy Monument - Thammasat University - Pata Department Store - Southern Bus Terminal."

If it's now going by expressway from Democracy Monument to Makkasan, then it's going to have a very difficult time because it will need to do a couple of U-turns to do it.

[ricklev]

I'm not 100 percent sure, but I think that the 556 now only runs from Makahsan Airport Link Station to the Southern Bus Terminal. I don't think it goes all the way to the airport anymore. I could be wrong.

I've never seen a bus at Makkasan, and I doubt they would add a 30-45 baht train ride to a 35 baht bus trip.

According to http://www.bangkokairportonline.com/node/56, the "Bus Number 556 - Suvarnbhumi - Southern Bus Terminal (Expressway) ... connects Suvarnabhumi Airport to Southern Bus Terminal via Yommarat - Democracy Monument - Thammasat University - Pata Department Store - Southern Bus Terminal."

If it's now going by expressway from Democracy Monument to Makkasan, then it's going to have a very difficult time because it will need to do a couple of U-turns to do it.

Well, I took the 556 bus from Pinklao to Panthip a couple of weeks ago and the ticket seller told me that the 556 buses terminate at Makahasan and I later read a similar post on 2bangkok.com's forum. But who know's, the 556 is a fickle route that's always changing. Still I would put my money on it no longer running to the airport.

There was a notice at the airport that all Express bus routes have ended on June 1st. That's the 150 baht bus service.

Assuming the 556 no longer goes to the airport, there is likely a van going to Sai Tai Mai bus station or Pinklao anyway at the transportation center. Or maybe not!

[Razzler1973]

Is the 'transport centre' near the airport basically a bus station? I have had buses stop there on the way out of Bangkok proper to Trat for instance. If you can get a bus from there to Southern Bus Terminal then great. Otherwise just get an Airport Bus to somewhere closer to the city, cuts down on taxi fare and luggage is no problem, either Hualongpong and then cheaper cab to Southern Bus Station or even Khao San Road and bit over 100 bucks to Bus Station form there over the water.

Buses are like every 15 or 30 minutes, leaving all the time, they're decent, couple of hours. From where the bus stops I think it's about 20 baht into the main area near the river.

The Train Station is perhaps walking distance but bloody hell it takes forever! You can stop off on the Chao Praya express and it's a short(ish) walk to the train station (can't remember station, the one across from where Khao San is though) so if you can get to the river you can go up on the train and then come back on the bus or something