Bangkok to Surat Thani: On the train again

Monday January 1, 2018

We booked our tickets via BaoLau, after a poor experience with 12goAsia (who told us the tickets weren't available, kept sending different options with no input from us, kept getting my name wrong...trivial but didn't instill confidence!). I was initially put off by seat61.com, as it said BaoLau don't have access to many tickets....but fortunately they still had the ones we wanted. The BaoLau process was very smooth - you need to print the ticket out.

Note: you need a train with a cargo truck for an easy bike-transportation experience. Check out this page for a list of trains with cargo trucks: https://www.riderchris.com/info/transporting-motorcycle-thailand-train/. *note in theory, you can not take bikes on the line to Aranyaprathet, BUT it is actually possible to squash them on. We didn't try it, but two sets of friends have managed successfully.

Bike transportation has to be organised on the day of travel. We were at the station a couple of hours before our train departed, but this was definitely overkill! Our train (#171) has two cargo trucks so presumably there was plenty of space. We paid 180 baht for both bikes. Once you've paid and have the necessary paperwork, you can take your bike to the cargo truck and load it on.

I had wondered if booking aircon berths was a bit excessive, given that we were due to arrive at half past midnight and would then check into a hotel. Actually, this made the whole experience very comfortable and relaxing! We ate in the restaurant car which was fun - limited menu and simple food, but good to eat a meal. Staff also walked up and down the train with food from the restaurant - and there were the usual vendors on board at various points too.

We arrived just over 30mins late which didn't seem too bad. We'd booked into Nadpob Mansion, which gets extremely mixed reviews so I was a little apprehensive.....however, it's absolutely fine - pretty good, in fact! Big, clean room with aircon and hot shower. The decor is a bit dated and there are a few cobwebs, but it's still better than most places we stayed at in Laos!

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Message on Forum "Regional: Asia": "Re: Taking a bike on trains in Thailand" posted by Katy Campbell on Sat 19 Jan 2019 14:42 (US/Pacific)