Getting around · 03 of 8
Public transport
In Bangkok the train beats the taxi at almost every hour of the day.
Information changes. Times, prices and ways of doing things are a guide only.
BTS Skytrain and MRT metro cover most of what visitors need — 17–62 THB a ride, or a Rabbit card for the BTS. They are air-conditioned, they are never in traffic, and they stop around midnight.
Airport Rail Link (ARL) runs from Suvarnabhumi to Phaya Thai in about 26 minutes for 45 THB. In rush hour it will beat a taxi by half an hour and cost a tenth as much.
Chao Phraya express boats (16–30 THB) are the fastest way along the river and the best sightseeing per baht in the city. The orange flag is the workhorse; the blue tourist boat costs several times more for the same water.
Buses are cheap and genuinely hard to use without Thai. Outside Bangkok, the songthaew — a pickup with two benches — is the local bus: flag it down, ring the bell to stop, pay on the way out.