Have you ever caught a bus out of Pat's around the New years period. I'm trying to decide what to do over new years and have 2 options.

1. Bus to Issan to see friends. I could not get a ticket with the preferred NCA bus but another less desirable company. Is there going to be 3 hours added onto a typical journey to Issan with all the traffic on the roads? What about the danger factor? Will the increase in traffic make this a dangerous option to be on a bus for 12 hours? (knowing how bad the average thai driver is!)

2. Bus to Bangkok on new years eve from the main bus station. Is there going to be huge demand on the 31st. Presumably if I got to the bus station earlier rather than later this journey would be better. Or should I go on the 30th dec?

thanks for your opinion on either option if you travelled either of these routes last year over the New years period.

I travelled from Pattaya to Chayaphum last December 27th to spend the NY period with GF's family. To be fair, she did book with Nakonchai Air and we had choice of seats. Left at about 6AM and it was all very smooth.I think we arrived within about 30 minutes of our ETA so not at all bad.

I suspect that had we left any later in the month and / or not pre-booked or gone with another company it might have been a different story. Coming back to Patts (via Loei) in the second week in Jan was worse - the traffic and weather were such that we were 3 hours late!

Good Luck and Happy New Year