Bangkok buses guide
Find a bus line in Bangkok
Bangkok bus network
Bangkok bus system is dense. Public buses are the cheapest transportation in Bangkok but also the most complicated to take for a foreigner. For two main reasons, the lack of a network map at the stations and even on the official website of the Bangkok bus company and the fact that drivers and attendants rarely speak English. There is another complication. Stops don't necessarily indicate all lines stopping at them and we can get crazy looking for a stop before realizing that the first one you were from the beginning was the good one but the line number you want is simply not indicated (we have experienced it several times). Having said that, for some destinations, the bus is the only alternative to taxis and it's fun to take the bus in Bangkok when you have the time and courage to face these small problems. Moreover, it is possible to buy a bus network map in bookstores or Bangkok newspaper shops (the most famous one is the Bangkok Bus Guide Map by Thinknet editions). And if the bus attendant doesn't speak English, passengers will do their best to help and inform you but try to always have a visual support of where you want to go (photos, name written in Thai, most guides, Lonely Planet for instance and also our website indicate thai name...) to show. That will make things much easier.
Bangkok buses are very heterogeneous. The colors, patterns, levels of modernity and comfort varie a lot from one line to another. Tickets can be purchased once on board to the attendant. The price depends on the distance that is why you need to make him or her understand where you intend to go.
The bus network consists in 108 lines and is impossible to summarize in a single map. So I created a small bus search engine to help you find the bus lines that serve the major Bangkok places and add the skytrain and subway map just in case. Note that there also are the BRT Buses in Bangkok.
Practical information
Bangkok buses run from 5 am à 11 pmBangkok bus hotline: 1348
Website: www.bmta.co.th
Other public transport in Bangkok
Bangkok skytain
The Bangkok Skytrain is called BTS. The trains have air condition and let you go over the heavy road traffic in the capital but you can not go everywhere even if connected to the Chao Phraya Express baots, it can let you go to major temples in Bangkok.
Chao Phraya Express
The Chao Phraya Express boats run regularly on the river running through Bangkok. They go to all monuments and interesting places on the river shores including Wat Phra Kaew, Wat Pho and Wat Arun, the three must see temples in Bangkok. Fare is cheap.
Bangkok bus lines
Taking the bus to get around is clearly not the easiest mean of transportation to use for a foreign tourist in Bangkok neither the fastest one but it's the cheapest one. Bangkok bus network is wide and you can go almost anywhere but just need to be patient.
Transports Bangkok
Only Thai city for the moment to have a metro (there is metro project in Phuket), Bangkok is the city in Thailand that offers more choices of public or individual transport (metro, bus, boats, tuktuks...). No, there are not just tuk-tuks and pink taxis to get around Bangkok !
