The missus is travelling from Loei to Hua Hin today and everything is booked solid. First she got up early (in Chiang Khan) and drove all the way to Udon Thani to fly to Swampy. They have 8 or 10 flights a day on various airlines but they were all booked solid. So she asked about driving back to Loei to get a flight to Don Muang... "Sorry, all booked" so she had to get a ride to Khorat just to get one of the last seats on a flight from there to Bangkok!
Once finally in Bangkok she had to wait about 5 hours for the next available seat on the silver bus to Hua Hin. She started travel before 6 a.m. and is now still on the bus to Hua Hin 16 hours later!
What's going on? I would expect this at Songkran but there are no holidays currently that I can find. We used to do this all the time with no advance reservations and there were always plenty of seats available.
My brain is like an Internet browser; 12 tabs are open and 5 of them are not responding, there's a GIF playing in an endless loop,... and where is that annoying music coming from?
I assume you meant she got last seats on a bus from Korat to Bkk, rather than flight, as there aren't any flight's from Korat to anywhere at the moment.
caller wrote:I assume you meant she got last seats on a bus from Korat to Bkk, rather than flight, as there aren't any flight's from Korat to anywhere at the moment.
Sorry, I looked back at her message. It was "Khon Kaen", not Korat.
My brain is like an Internet browser; 12 tabs are open and 5 of them are not responding, there's a GIF playing in an endless loop,... and where is that annoying music coming from?
Years ago one could do just about anything on the spur of the moment and all was well but today many more people are travelling AND booking online and to do anything else is folly. The wife STILL being on the road after some 16 hours when a simple online booking would have saved all of that pretty much proves it.
I'm also of the opinion that, at least in terms of Thailand, many people are choosing the "safer" means of travelling as opposed to the mini vans and such and are flocking to them in even greater numbers.
hhfarang wrote:Once finally in Bangkok she had to wait about 5 hours for the next available seat on the silver bus to Hua Hin. She started travel before 6 a.m. and is now still on the bus to Hua Hin 16 hours later!
I posted a couple of days ago that the wait at Suvarnhabumi was 5 hours for anybody just turning up without a booking, so not really a surprise.
What's happened? Maybe people are becoming more aware of the dangers of the 'not so safe' methods, and are choosing their transport more wisely. I would guess your wife could still have picked up a mini-bus from Victory Monument with minimal waiting time.
I don't think the Chinese can be blamed for the Suvarnabhumi bus delays - i and many other Farangs use the service to get to and from Bangkok.
Maybe somebody should realise the opportunity, and start up a quality VIP service direct to and from central Bangkok. That would release seats on the airport bus for airport passengers.
After spending one day in Hua Hin she says there are "many more" people than when we left 15 months ago. I guess that at least explains the Hua Hin airport buses being booked.
I'm still mystified that Udon Thani to Bangkok was fully booked with 23 flights a day (just googled it) between 4 different airlines.
My brain is like an Internet browser; 12 tabs are open and 5 of them are not responding, there's a GIF playing in an endless loop,... and where is that annoying music coming from?
