Bus stations
Bangkok sends its provinces off from three terminals: Mo Chit for the north, Ekkamai for the east coast, Sai Tai Mai for the beach south. Pick the wrong one and you lose half a day.
Mo Chit 2 (Chatuchak, near BTS Mo Chit/MRT Kamphaeng Phet) is the biggest: air-conditioned halls, food courts, ticket floors split by region — Chiang Mai in 9–12 hours, Chiang Rai in 11–12, Sukhothai hourly in 7–8, plus the Isaan northeast. Ekkamai, right at the BTS station of the same name, is the east-coast terminal: Pattaya every 30 minutes, Trat for the Koh Chang ferry, Ban Phe for Koh Samet.
Sai Tai Mai (Southern Bus Terminal, Taling Chan) owns the long beach runs: Phuket and Krabi in 12–13 hours overnight, Surat Thani for the Samui and Phangan ferries, Hua Hin in three hours, Kanchanaburi every 20 minutes at ฿110. A fourth, unofficial layer — the Mochit New Van Terminal and minivan ranks — covers the fast 2–3-hour hops to Ayutthaya, Lopburi and the floating markets.
Tickets come three ways: the government 999/Transport Company counters, private VIP operators (Sombat Tour, Nakhonchai Air) with wider seats and upstairs lounges, and online aggregators like 12Go that show a subset in English. The overnight VIP24 buses to the south are the classic backpacker move — a reclining seat, a blanket, and you wake up at the ferry pier. Arrive an hour early; the good seats sell first.
THE TIO READ
Our Bangkok default: train for Chiang Mai, bus for everything else. Ekkamai is the friendliest terminal — BTS at the door, Pattaya before lunch. For the south, book a VIP24 night run on 12Go rather than queuing at Sai Tai Mai, and for day trips skip the big terminals entirely: minivans beat buses to Ayutthaya and the floating markets every time.
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