Getting Around In Bangkok
If you come to visit Bangkok for the first time, one of the first things you will notice is the busy streets and the traffic. The city is very different from other cities in Europe. Don’t get your holiday ruined by hours of waiting in traffic! Reading this article will take approximately 5 minutes, and those five minutes can save you endless hours of waiting.
The busiest part of Bangkok is right in the middle. Around the edges of the city, the streets are a bit more calm. When travelling anywhere around Bangkok, you should always use as much public transport as possible. Trains are better than taxis because they don’t get stuck in traffic.
The best method of getting from A to B is by using the BTS Skytrain. As the name suggests, it’s higher up than the roads. The Skytrain is connected to most of the shopping centers, so it’s a perfect choice of transport for a shopping tour. Once you get there, you will have to buy a ticket; there are one way tickets available and also a day ticket, which you can use as much as you want in a day.
Another option is to get a ‘Smartpass’; this is a credit-card sized plastic card which you refill with money and then just swipe it on a sensor at the entrance gate. This is the best option if you decide to stay for quite a while. Another form of transport in the MRT, which is a subway line. This also connects to popular places like shopping malls.
The BTS station connects with the MRT at three different stations, so it is easy to just jump out of the BTS and head a few floors down, to the subway. The ticket system in the MRT is very similar to the one in the Skytrain. There are also tickets available which work for both the subway and the raised train. To get to places which are not connected to either of the train systems, you will need to take road transport.
Taxi is a good choice, but can be slow because of traffic. An alternative would be a motorbike taxi as they can squeeze through traffic easily. The downside of the motorbike taxi is that it can be quite dangerous on the busy roads of Bangkok, Thailand. And if the trip is not too short, walking is also an alternative. Have a safe trip and a great holiday!!