:: The One with Bangkok Part I ::
FInally I get to write up on this long awaited post on Bangkok.
The moment I set foot in Bangkok, the sheer size and straightness of their expressways and roads caught me by surprise. Roads here comes ranging from 3 to 5 laned on each side. Road conditions were smoother back here though.
Traffic is, well, on par or worse than KL city. Traffic dispersion was very good if you take into consideration that Bangkok is home to roughly 10 million heads compared to the 2 million in KL.
Taxis were multi-coloured; blue, yellow, green, pink, base-line Altis, turbo-ed Lancers……
I was pretty amazed that their LRT was dual tier with a shaded walkway just beneath them linking the major shopping malls together. My only complaint was that the rails were awfully close to structures.
This is the amount of vehicles at their LRT station.
Interestingly enough, their LRT is called BTS Skyline and they charge according to Zones and not to individual stations. Ticketing system is fully automated and only the change counter is manned.
The carriage is if not mistaken, rather identical with our Putra line. Passengers are also more sensible.
Took a ride on it around Bangkok and came across their version of the Tugu Negara.
Update later!
August 4th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
There’s a red line on the MRT map…is that like crossing the equator or something? Hmm.. does the Equator cross Bangkok?
What is the significance of the victory monument? Who did they beat in a war?
Traffic looks ok….pretty orderly.
Any pics of lovely Thai gals?
August 4th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
boone : greens were for the LRT line, red and blue were for MRT (underground).
on Victory Monument ; the monument was erected in June 1941 to commemorate the Thai victory in the brief war with the French colonial authorities in Indo-China, which resulted in Thailand annexing some territories in western Cambodia and northern and southern Laos. These were among the territories which the Kingdom of Siam had been forced to cede to France in 1893 and 1904, and patriotic Thais considered them rightfully to belong to Thailand.
traffic flow is heavy but orderly i guess. there is no divider and i guess traffic flow can be adjusted according to jam.
thai chicks may not be real chicks. lol.
August 4th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Hmm… the MRT in Bangkok is kinda like the Aussie syster, where you pay per zone and u can travel as much as u want in that zone. But depends also on the ticket, if its an hourly ticket or a day ticket.
August 4th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
I love the colorful taxis…makes the road not so dull!! Right?
August 4th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
hot pinkkies colour Rocksss!!!!
miss Bangkok so much..
August 4th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
sha : here we didnt get to try if its an hourly ticket. we wanted to take the lrt from one end to the other but somehow we didnt.
grace : ummm, a bit too colourful lo. reminds me of patpong area colours.
lizz : the pink taxis are gay.
August 5th, 2008 at 8:05 am
Sha: Similar to London…zones basis..:)
Colourful taxis??ERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR….i find them weird though..hehe
August 5th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
gerald : i just didnt like it that there was a change counter that doesnt sell tickets.
the colourful taxis was something different and it really did add colour to the streets. the majority of cars here are of toyota models that come in only silver and black colours.
although when more than 70% of the road are taxis…..its a different story.
August 6th, 2008 at 8:59 am
Kev: Yea, having a machine dispensing tickets is kinda annoying. Esp. when the machine breaks down and everyone rushes to that 1 manned counter.
But I like the zone system. More flexible
August 6th, 2008 at 9:35 am
Zone charge is pretty expansive unless u get like a travel pass or a card system where u reload the credit and such. Here in Newcastle we have 3 zones prices varying from £1.30 to £2.80, if you go to London there are 9 zones all in all. Good luck on paying for a train ride.
August 7th, 2008 at 8:28 am
Jon: But if u work in London or u earn pounds…honestly..that price..is pretty reasonable..and affordable i’d say…compared to us here…we pay way more for a crappy / nonsense public transport system……like over there..I seriously don’t mind taking public transports………haha..just a thought..:)
August 7th, 2008 at 8:41 am
sha : zoned system is rahter interesting but i doubt it can be implemented here. ppl will grumble for that extra cost.
jon n gerald : come on, its hard to compare relatively in terms of pricing. public transport here is reasonable too in terms of dollar to dollar.
the prob with the transportation in msia is the ppl using them, not so much of the mode of transport itself.
why are busses late? the driver satu, the amount of traffic dua.
why is ktm horrible? ktm is broke, no funding and they travel LONG distance.
August 7th, 2008 at 9:49 am
Jonazan: Not really, I find the whole zone system good in the sense that when you pay for the ticket, you get good transportation. True, the fact that you are paying full price for travel within a zone, when you are only travelling to a place 1 stop away is kind of a waste, but if you look at the Aussie system, the there is quite a distance between 2 stops. not sure bout UK tho.
If the distance between 2 stops in a zone is small tho, like in Malaysia (relatively speaking), I think that zone system is gonna be too expensive.