Beating the Traffic Jams in Bangkok

For those of us who have been to Bangkok before, getting around by taxi or tut tut is pretty convenient. But then you’d also have to make do with Bangkok’s famous traffic jams and air pollution. As the impact of over tourism starts getting felt and sustainable travel becomes increasingly popular, here is a great way to travel around Bangkok without worrying about the traffic jams while reducing your carbon footprint at the same time.

Of cause I’m referring to the metro system that serves Bangkok. The metro network has expanded over the years and makes travelling around the city much more convenient now, although it still has some quirks which travelers have to get used to.

I’ll start off from Sumvarnabhumi Airport since this is the main international airport that the majority of visitors will fly to when they visit Bangkok. From the airport there is an Airport Link train that brings you to downtown Bangkok in 30 minutes.

The Airport Link line connects to the 2 main metro lines directly making it convenient to transfer between lines. The first connection is to the MRT (Blue line) at Makkasan City Interchange Station (MRT Petchaburi Station), and the final stop at Phayathai Station which connects to the BTS Skytrain (Green Line).

For ourselves, we decided to choose a hotel that is near one of the metro stations. In Bangkok there a ton of hotels to choose from, ranging from hostels to luxury hotels, so finding a hotel near a metro station isn’t that difficult.

So here I get to one of the major quirks and it’s also a major gripe with me about the metro system in Bangkok. There isn’t a universal transport card for all the train lines like what you have in Singapore and Hong Kong which have their Easylink and Octopus Card respectively. The BTS Skytrain has it’s own card called the Rabbit Card. The MRT has their own card, and the Airport Link has it’s own. So deciding where you stay and planning your journey will determine whether you should buy a transport card. Otherwise, it’s also ok to buy tokens for each trip at the station. It’s just that it saves time using the transport card, instead of queuing up to buy tokens at the station.

One of the other quirks about the Bangkok metro is that the interchange stations are not connected directly. The BTS Skytrain stations are all above ground, while the MRT is mostly underground. This means exiting 1 station and climbing up or down to enter another station, and then having to buy tokens again at the new station. So having a universal transport card would definitely ease over such inconveniences.

While taking taxis and tut tuts does have it’s convenience of bringing you to the doorstep of your destination, I’ve had a couple of bad experiences with dishonest drivers who were out to scam me. So taking the train does relieve me of having to haggle on prices (although taxis have to run on meters, some drivers try to make a fast buck with tourists by refusing to use the meter), or tut tut drivers who bring you to some shop so that they can earn a commission from bringing tourists there.