i'm a daily bus rider and i know how to get around to wherever i need to go by public transportation. i personally don't enjoy riding taxis every time i need to go somewhere because it's not practical and i've just had too many issues with cabs here---i don't want that to become a part of my daily norm. i grew up walking and riding the bus, trains, and subways anyway and actually prefer public transportation if i'm traveling alone. relying on bangkok's public transportation system is fun and i don't mind it because i usually don't want to deal with people. i just want to stare out a window instead.
riding the bus in bangkok is especially interesting because there are such a variety of different buses and the vehicles that comprise them. there's the pretty nice city bus that is the cleanest and has tv's inside, or the ฿6.5 one that is super old and has to have all the windows drawn up because there's no air conditioning. some of these really old-seeming buses are huge as well, so it's sometimes nice to ride one when it's empty on a cool night. i was on one the other evening and sitting in a single seater positioned next to the right side of the bus. this was near the door, and when i saw a grandpa get on, i offered him my seat. i was quite sweaty at that moment because it was humid and rainy in addition to the fact that the bus had no damn a.c. and couldn't roll its windows up because of the rain. when he sat down, the grandpa started talking to me in thai and i wanted to tell him i couldn't speak thai, but he kept going on and i wasn't able to find the right moment to interrupt him. instead, i just smiled, laughed and nodded my head along with him. and at one point the woman sitting in the seat in front turned around to look at the old man and smile at him. i sure wish i knew what the hell he was saying. i finally told him i wasn't able to understand him and then the grandpa smiled and said "thank you" while pointing to his seat.
the buses in bangkok also have this thing where even though the route-number might be the same, that doesn't mean the buses will go in the exact same way. there's four different versions of bus #11 that i've been on, and while the majority of their routes go along the same path, they all have different end-points. another factor that differentiates these buses is that even though they share the same bus-number, some of the buses might be the ฿6.5 bus or the nicer one with the tv's for ฿20. that's how i learned that the bus fare doesn't really depend on the distance you're going, but rather what type of bus you're on. i'm sort of proud to say that i learned all this through the old-fashioned way of trial-and-error. whenever i asked anyone i know about how to ride the buses in bangkok, they never know since none of my friends ever take the bus.
sometimes when i'm on the bus though, people will look at me with a "HUH?" look because i'm a foreigner and not many ride the buses. and it's especially annoying at times because i'll be standing at the bus stop waiting, and taxi after taxi will pull up to me thinking that i'm in need of one. i understand that they're just doing their job, but it's like dude, come on---i'm standing at a bus stop! if i needed a taxi i'd get one and not just stand there like an idiot.
the last thing i want to note is that 95% of the time, the buses don't come to a complete stop when you're boarding or getting off, so be ready to hop on or jump off as it's moving.
here are some random bus-related photos i took while in bangkok before my camera got stolen.
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