It's my first trip to Isaan and I'm disappointed with the transport links. The flight service looks poor as does the train service, which then leaves us stuck on overly long bus journeys. I've got no real complaint about the VIP buses though, I reckon the Green Bus service I use in CM area is better but on the whole they're getting pass marks.

I don't understand why there's not better air links, it's a six hour run from Udon to Ubon and that's a fair distance. I was sitting today in Ubon looking at the options and it was not good enough for an area with several substantive urban settlements.

Maybe I missed it, but who is actually flying into Roi-et? Or KK? The other day there I was staring wistfully at the rail track in Nong Khai and wondering why there wasn't a decent rail service as the land in Isaan ( as far as I can see ) would be easy to dual track.

Transport choice seems strangely lacking here.

ps. I enquired about getting a bus back to CM from Ubon as all the flights were sold out to DM. I was staggered to learn it was an 18 hour bus journey. I could fly back to Scotland faster, quite unbelievable.

Personally, I think the links are sufficient. Are you a person that comes from a big city?

Basically in Thailand, if you want to fly from city to city, you will need to connect through Bangkok. Chiang Mai has a few options as well as Phuket, but generally, all flights are routed through Bangkok. Once you understand that, it makes domestic flying much more easier.

As for the other transport options....there's just not enough demand to offer more options. Why should they build a passenger train route from Chiang Mai to Khon Kaen? Who is going to use that? Or I should say, how can they fill a train every day of the week to make the investment worthwhile?

welcome to Isaan

Where you went wrong is looking for flights to DM - plenty of seats on the Ubon to BKK flights (then easy BKK to CNX)

Like somebody already posted here. When it comes to have an investment worth while, and at least some profit on it, is it still the falangs that gone make these airplane-choices worth while for the investors, I think not... It will be based on a population that by history are the porest in the whole nation, a population that always has been used to use the busses, and always been used to pay let say BKK-Chaiyaphum 320 kilometers some 214 baht single trip.......

They just cant afford to fill up these desired airplanes...... But I am hoping like you, that it will come to it that there will be airfields, airoplanes and a lot of wealthy people here in Isaan, so we can skip these long and boaring bustrips.....

Glegolo

Your missing it blether! Become a monk and you can have your own private jet! 55555

Setting aside the air travel ( I did consider flying Ubon to DM then back to Udon, but I wanted to see the countryside ), this transport issue becomes self defeating economically. It's normal for governments to subsidize transport infrastructure and population mobility adds to economic growth.

To me the train line is the answer, a two hour bus ride form NK to Ubon is a joke, it would be 30 minutes max on a train. If you build it, the people will come.

Simply hire a car and travel and stop at your own free leisure or better still a decent motorbike.

Problem solved.

My experience of travelling all over thailand is that the train is much slower than the buses.

Buy a car if you want to do complex tours. Why do you think every thai man and his dog has a new pickup ?