hello all, escaped the floods in BKK around condo-and am now for the time here in lovely ChMai. have been/visited here many years ago and slowly refinding some things. Stay in a quiet subsoi between Tapae and LoiKroh rds. Perhaps some of your friendly folks can give some info about getting around:

1. I know about the red seelors-but at 20B/ride thats quite expensive. Can you rely on them all 24 hrs?( in BKK it is often free or just 7 bt-also on red buses), plus you have to know where to go-and I do not know the city too well for that-yet.

2.I saw signs for some City-organised fixed routes-but seemingly only after schools-and @15 bt/hardly any saving.

3.Last time I remember there were fairly new citybuses-AC, starting from Arcade and doing some useful routes. Never saw any stopsign-have a map in touristthing with routes. They now seem to go to night safari (last time the big flowershow). is there any info on that?

4.and more curiosity: at Arcade bustation I saw that a brandew much bigger Arcade3) was across the road-is this set to replace the current cramped station? Any more info about that?

Feel a bit too old for a motosy and do not trust the traffic on a normal bike-yet. But hey-in town they even stop for the red fai for farang-thats a novelty for me! Does not happen in BKK or Pattaya.

You just tell the red taxi driver what your destination is and if in city area 20 baht a person per ride. If it is off of the beaten path he may want more, time to haggle.

Are you serious? 20 Baht is too expensive for a ride around town for you? I don't hear the Thais complaining. How much do you think it costs to fuel and maintain a songtaew? Those people that drive them are hardly getting rich. Come on... They usually stop around 21:30 but will be out later on holidays.

Forget about the A/C buses. They are too sporadic and unreliable. We researched the whole thing and planned on taking it one day and we waited for close to 90 minutes. Never came.

Are you serious? 20 Baht is too expensive for a ride around town for you? I don't hear the Thais complaining. How much do you think it costs to fuel and maintain a songtaew? Those people that drive them are hardly getting rich. Come on... They usually stop around 21:30 but will be out later on holidays.

Forget about the A/C buses. They are too sporadic and unreliable. We researched the whole thing and planned on taking it one day and we waited for close to 90 minutes. Never came.

I saw the buses around town, usually empty.

I could never figure out if they stopped anywhere or you just flagged them down.

Anyway, Songtheaws are great and most journey's end up being 20 Baht....a bargain.

I wonder if the OP remembers the 50 satang Bangkok buses?

Are you serious? 20 Baht is too expensive for a ride around town for you? I don't hear the Thais complaining. How much do you think it costs to fuel and maintain a songtaew? Those people that drive them are hardly getting rich. Come on... They usually stop around 21:30 but will be out later on holidays.

Forget about the A/C buses. They are too sporadic and unreliable. We researched the whole thing and planned on taking it one day and we waited for close to 90 minutes. Never came.

I saw the buses around town, usually empty.

I could never figure out if they stopped anywhere or you just flagged them down.

Anyway, Songtheaws are great and most journey's end up being 20 Baht....a bargain.

I wonder if the OP remembers the 50 satang Bangkok buses?

Go easy on the poor guy. He properbly lost all he owned in the BBK floods....

Are you serious? 20 Baht is too expensive for a ride around town for you? I don't hear the Thais complaining. How much do you think it costs to fuel and maintain a songtaew? Those people that drive them are hardly getting rich. Come on... They usually stop around 21:30 but will be out later on holidays.

Forget about the A/C buses. They are too sporadic and unreliable. We researched the whole thing and planned on taking it one day and we waited for close to 90 minutes. Never came.

I saw the buses around town, usually empty.

I could never figure out if they stopped anywhere or you just flagged them down.

Anyway, Songtheaws are great and most journey's end up being 20 Baht....a bargain.

I wonder if the OP remembers the 50 satang Bangkok buses?

Go easy on the poor guy. He properbly lost all he owned in the BBK floods....

More likely he owns the building his condo is in

It is true that bus fares in Bangkok are cheaper than Chiang Mai songthaew fares. In Bangkok it is 7 or 8 THB flat fare for non-air-conditioned bus. In an air-conditioned bus it can range from 12 to 18 THB depending on distance. 18 THB gets you quite far across the city.

I almost always walk anyway in Chiang Mai, even to/from the Arcade bus station. It's good exercise!

Edited November 9, 201114 yr by hyperdimension

Hypertension...euh..dimension... Buses in BKK are indeed cheaper than songtheaws. From Central Plaza to roughly Mahidol road (Airport Plaza) or to Ping river (Warorot) and everything in between is roughly 20 baht.

From Central Plaza to Arcade bus station 30-40 baht.

If you only want a short ride (e.g. til the end of the street you can pay 10-15 baht)

Public transport in BKK is one of the things I love about BKK, it's comfortable, you're traveling like locals and it's very economical.