Bangkok to Koh Phangan Travel Prices May 2013

I recently made the trip from Bangkok to Koh Phangan. I stayed one night in Bangkok and then took the Air Asia flight from Don Muang Airport to Suratthani Airport.

The biggest city in the south of Thailand is Suratthani. It is a travel hub. It has an airport, a train station and a port. However, none of these travel options are close to the city part of Suratthani. This means you always have to factor in the time and money needed to get between the city, the port, the bus station, the train station and the airport.

Suratthani is on the main north-south train line. The station is actually in the nearby town of Punpin. It is about an hour away by minibus.

Songserm has a pier in Suratthani; however, the other ferry companies use piers in the Donsak region that is about an hour away by minibus.

All of this means that the Bangkok Airways flight between Suvarnabhumi and Koh Samui remains an attractive, if more expensive, option. It also involves less moving from one form of transport to another.

I took the Air Asia flight to Suratthani and then the Raja Car Ferry from Donsak to Thongsala in Koh Phangan. It takes a few hours more but it saves nearly 2,000 Thai Baht, and makes the journey possible in a day rather than the over-night options of train and boat or bus and boat.

At the airport

I arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport on Saturday 27th April.2013 at 7.30 pm. I had to wait 1 hour in an immigration queue. Most obvious were large groups of Chinese people on tours. None of them were filling the arrival/departure cards in correctly and this slowed the process down even though 95% of the police immigration desks were open. Queues reached down the ramp into the main concourse. In fairness to the airport staff they set up a snaking queue system that made the process slightly less chaotic.

Prices

Surat Thani Airport to Koh Phangan by bus/raja ferry = 445 THB per person

Suvarnabhumi airport to Central Bangkok by taxi from Kiosk: 400 THB fare, 50 THB service charge, 70 THB toll (total cost 520 THB).

Suvarnabhumi airport to Central Bangkok by meter taxi: Approximately 220 THB fare, 50 THB service charge, 70 toll THB (total cost 340THB). I got the taxi at the kiosk but the guy decided to do it by the meter anyway.

Hualamphong Dining

The video says it all really. It's not a bad restaurant if you have time to kill before getting on your train down to Suratthani. The food was rice and chicken or pork. It cost about 40 Thai Baht a plate. The beers were reasonably priced, too. Next door is a handy convenience store to stock up on snacks, cigarettes etc. for the journey.

Remember that the train doesn't actually go to Suratthani. It goes to Punpin Station that is about an hour from a ferry port to take you to Koh Phangan. When you get off the train you get rushed by steerers trying to sell you tickets for the Seatran. This is one of the irritating things about traveling in Thailand: they tend to try and herd you around.

There is a man outside the row of cafes who sells tickets for all the transport companies. I prefer waiting at Punpin for an hour or so and getting a bus/boat ticket for the Raja Car ferry that leaves from Donsak. This is the biggest boat and rocks around the least when the sea is rough.

The worst boat to take when the sea is rough is the Lomprayah. It's a high speed catamaran and bounces over the waves. Last time I took it was January 9th 2012, just after the Full Moon Party. I have never seen so many people sick. I was heaving too. Those who had spent all the previous night drinking buckets must have rued their decision to take the Lomprayah the next morning.

The good thing about the train from Hualamphong to Punpin is that you get a better night's sleep than the bus. Also the prices go up less often than for the bus/boat deals. 

There is a dining carriage on the train where you can get food and beer. You can also smoke there. The beer and food is expensive, though. There are also vendors (legal and illegal) that sell meals that go up and down the carriages.

For a description of the First Class Air-Con Carriage and the journey between Hualamphong, Bangkok to Suratthani click on the link.