Monday, April 21, 2008

Getting in & out of Bangkok

As a visitor, it took me awhile to gain enough confidence driving in and out of Bangkok without a guide or road map. Having achieved that, the reward is freedom of traveling around in Thailand on wheels at your own pace and time.

Bangkok streets are notorious for its traffic jams at peak hours (after 4pm), made worse during rainy periods. Its tollways provides the best means of getting in & out of Bangkok nevertheless. With space constraints, road planners have a formidable task weaving it to the main city roads. The resulting network is fairly complex and intimidating to visitors driving around for the first time, especially when unfamiliar with names of various regions around Bangkok.

Couple of months ago Google Earth has street map of Bangkok in native Thai. But recently it has added road names in English and this is most helpful to visiting drivers planning their routes around... you get amazing street level details with Google Map and Google Earth!

















Where ever you are in Bangkok, once you figured out the best route and time to get onto the tollways, driving in and out of Bangkok to the provinces can be fairly straight forward.

Basically one just need to know the 5 main directions in and out of Bangkok to:

1) Northern provinces - Hwy 1 (Uttraphimuk Tollway) in the direction of Don Muang Airport, then follow Hwy 32 in direction of Ayutthaya.
2) North East provinces - Hwy 2, continues from Hwy 1 towards Sari Buri.
3) Western provinces - Hwy 338 after crossing Chao Phraya river. Access not via the toll road network. I normally follow Rama IX all the way pass Victory Monument and straight on towards direction of Nakhon Pathom.
4) Southern provinces - Rama II Road Hwy 35. My toll way sign posts are towards Dao Khanong. After crossing Rama 8 bridge look out for split towards Samut Sakhon that leads to Rama II Road.
5) East and South Eastern provinces - Hwy 3 (Sukhumvit Road) & Hwy 7 (Bangkok-Chon Buri Motorway) in direction to the new Suvarnabhumi International airport

If your are on the eastern suburbs, then Hwy 9 is the Outer Ring Road connects to Hwy 3, Hwy 7 and Hwy 2. The Outer Ring Road also connects to the south to Rama II across the Chao Phraya to Thonburi side via Kanchanaphisek Bridge continues on to serves the western suburbs.

The best traveling map I find so far is:
Pocket Motoring Atlas of Thailand

Don't rely on it for roads inside Bangkok (Google Map is much better!) though it provide useful maps to provincial cities. It does provides some pointers to places of interest in the provinces.

Unfortunately you don't find in many bookstores. I checked out 5 in Siam Paragon/Sukhumvit area and none carries it at the time! A Thai friend bought it at an exhibition. Finally we manage to get copies direct from the publisher at (an area near to Don Muang Airport):

Road Association of Thailand
216/10-11, Songkhla 2 Building
Mueang Thong Thani
Bond Street Road
Bang Pood, Pak Kret
Nonthaburi 11120
Tel: 02 984 0836

I will add further details incrementally here in due course to serve as a guide for those who like to self drive around in Thailand.

Appreciate comments and feedback if the above info can be refined and improved.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

In the Land of Smiles

The idea of writing my travel journal has been floating for a while. Just didn't get down to it... well, I finally did!

This blog centers around Bangkok and some useful information about Thailand. The others are organized under sub-headings by regions:

1) South of Bangkok & beyond
2) West of Bangkok & beyond
3) East of Bangkok & beyond
4) North-east of Bangkok (Isaan provinces)
5) North of Bangkok

Popular destinations are so well covered and is not my primary focus here. There are plentiful information around; so I tend not to repeat them. I'll provide a glimpse from my perspective only.

And what better occasion to kick it off in Thailand during the Songkhran festival! Although I'd been to Thailand countless trips over the years.. this is the first time I am here during this festival. Perhaps the best time to see the country and its people full of fun and smiles!

A moment to remember as these boys splashed water on us.. what a display of lovely smiles!
















Moments earlier, they stood in the middle of the road to stop us.. with water bucket and hose ready! How can you not stop to share a few moments of fun with them?
















In the provinces, revelers would stopped you in the middle of the road and danced before watering you down!
































Thais are really fun loving people! If you have not been here during Songkhran... it is a good idea to come someday. Drive out to a provincial town and spent a day.. you won't regret it.