Train To Nong Khai - Is Rail Line Open?

[farangnahrak]

I'm looking at the online rail booking site:

http://www.thairailticket.com/esrt/Default.aspx

but I do not see Nong Khai on the list . . . is the train to Nong Khai currently not available?

[lopburi3]

Did you change to Northeastern?

[farangnahrak]

thanks, missed that little detail . . .

[mijan24]

thanks, missed that little detail . . .

As you have now worked out there is a train to Nong Khai a couple of things worth considering:

Cost

Travel Time

Food & Beverage

Edited January 2, 2012 by mijan24

[Sateev]

thanks, missed that little detail . . .

As you have now worked out there is a train to Nong Khai a couple of things worth considering:

Cost

Travel Time

Food & Beverage

Agree.

The service has deteriorated to pathetic, dirty (filthy) cars with cockroaches in the berths, barely edible food. Upper berth (never again) bright florescent light in your eyes all night; lower berth okay, but more cockroaches because it's relatively dark. Overnight, lots of stops/sidings, rough track. Not much less expensive than SuperSaver airfares to Udon/mini-bus to Nong Khai.

All-in-all, a backpacker experience, if that's still your cup of tea.

[farangnahrak]

hmmmm the attraction of the trains to me was the ability to lay down, sleep, walk around, etc. Others didn't describe it as you did, but that sounds pretty horrible.

I almost bought the ticket, but it was inconvenient to do it in person. The online ticket site is NOT secure, everything (at least on the first page) is transmitted in plain non-encrypted text. So I refuse to buy online.

I ended up buying a VIP bus ticket instead at Morchit. They told me they got wifi, TV's for every seat with 50 movies, video games, gps, electric message thingies in the seats, etc.

600 baht, 9 hour trip. I'll soon find out if it's as good as they claim.

Edited January 2, 2012 by farangnahrak

[mijan24]

hmmmm the attraction of the trains to me was the ability to lay down, sleep, walk around, etc. Others didn't describe it as you did, but that sounds pretty horrible.

I almost bought the ticket, but it was inconvenient to do it in person. The online ticket site is NOT secure, everything (at least on the first page) is transmitted in plain non-encrypted text. So I refuse to buy online.

I ended up buying a VIP bus ticket instead at Morchit. They told me they got wifi, TV's for every seat with 50 movies, video games, gps, electric message thingies in the seats, etc.

600 baht, 9 hour trip. I'll soon find out if it's as good as they claim.

If you booked with nakonchai air then you have a good trip in front of you if you went khan tours ok anyone else don;t know.

Edited January 4, 2012 by mijan24

[SunDaRi]

I enjoy traveling by Trains but I do agree that Nakhon Chai Air is very good.

I am planning to travel next week but I find this on the website Seat61: "IMPORTANT: From 9 January 2012 for several months, probably until May, SRT will be rebuilding the tracks for 52 km between Udon Thani and Nong Khai. Buses may replace trains for this section." Does anyone know if the route is affected, I am asking because it doesn't say on the internet booking site.

Edited January 8, 2012 by SunDaRi

[mijan24]

Sorry can't help with the Udon Thani Nong Khai aspect of the journey.

Sister in Law a very hardy type by anyones standard had to travel from Bangkokj to Khon Kaen just this week departing Bkk 6.30pm arriving Khon Kaen 3.45am - toilets "filthy", fans not working, fellow travellers (Thai) pissed and smelt of it, noisy etc etc Never Again her words not mine.

I find her opinion of the train travel interesting as I said a "hardy" type normally lives in Ranong + Koh Payarm & Koh Chang (excuse spelling) they have fishing boats and spends three days out at sea keeping the catch fressh in ice eskys so she is not used to the easy life.Have never heard her complain about her life but quite adamant "Train" never again says it all for me

[lovelaos]

I used to enjoy travelling this route by train but it started getting bad a few years ago. It's beyond me why people don't fly, except if you are looking for the 'experience' of backpacking.

[farangnahrak]

Here is my report on the bus . . .

There was no wifi - they lied. There were video game controllers on the seats, but the video games didn't work. All the movies were either Thai or dubbed in Thai - nothing was in English (not even subtitles). I speak Thai so I watched/enjoyed several Thai movies, but I hate Thai dubbing. The left speaker in my seat was broken, but I brought my own headphones so no problem. The bus was very nice, with extremely large clean comfortable seats. But if the seat in front of me reclined too much my legs would get a bit cramped. The seats reclined to be almost horizontal! Still, best seats I've ever had for Thailand. The bathroom is your typical dirty Thai bus type, but I'm a guy so I don't have to touch anything. There was an electric massager in the back rest which felt *really* good, but it auto-turned off every 3 minutes which got annoying after awhile. It also didn't massage the legs where I really needed it the most. The bus had about 10,000 mosquitoes in it, with half surviving the entire trip (not an exaggeration).

The trip took less than 8 hours, but sometimes I felt the driver was faster than the other buses we passed by.

As for the trip back to Bangkok, I had a choice between waiting 3 hours for a VIP bus or just taking a mid-quality air-con back, so I opted for the latter. It was only a semi-pleasant experience, taking 12 hours because of all the stops and breaks the driver took. It arrived in BKK about the same time the VIP bus would have, but cost me only 350 baht. I would have taken a bus to Udonthani to get a VIP bus, but they lied to me that there wasn't any going there for 3 more hours. I only found out after I paid and got on the bus that they lied - I saw the Udonthani bus leaving at the same time. Blah, welcome to Thailand lol.

In summary, I will definitely do the VIP bus option again. But probably a different bus company.