# 24 By Air, Bus, or Motorcycle

If its by plane, bus, motorcycle, or cart, Thailand has a pretty good line of transportation set up, thats cheap too! One surprisingly cheap way is by air with the wonderful AirAsia! They do flights all over Asia with prices as low as $20 to fly to vietnam. I recently booked all my flights to Malaysia and Indonesia for my month of traveling before coming to the states and I'm happy I'll be able to come back home with a little money still left in my account. Thank you Airasia!

For my two months of traveling for summer break the most common way of travel was bus. Some of the schedules might be a little iffy but for the most part the bus system was an extremely easy and cheap way of travel. For my 11 hour bus ride to Bangkok we take the VIP bus (pictured above) which is equipped with big reclinable chairs, a bus stewerdess who serves you a dinner and breakfast, face wipes when you wake up in the morning, and an overall comfy ride, for about $20. Of course not all buses are as pimped out at the VIP and make numerous stops to let people on and off which makes a 3 hour ride turn into a 6 hour one. I was impressed by them though and immediately as I passed over the border into Lao the quality went down drastically. The buses allowed me a nice scenic view of the country as I toured almost all regions in thailand.

In the villages and cities the most common way of travel is motorcycle. I have never seen so many people fit on one motorcycle before usually with a baby in arm. It makes US safety laws look ridiculous over the exact way a baby needs to be strapped into a car seat and such. In Thailand 2-3 year olds cling on to whatever they can and babies clutch in an arm as they swerve through traffic. With that said, There is a high toll of deaths due to motorcycle accidents. During my months of from teaching one of my favorite activities was renting a motorcycle and riding around for the day. One of my favorite memories in Thailand was the day Pi Yok taught Amanda and I how to ride her motorcycle. Ending with one of us almost going straight into a ditch and have to have the motorcycle lifted off.

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***Photos taken from Peter Pfister

Here are some pictures taken of unique transportation in NKP. The one in the middle, of the rice farmer, is the most common that you'll hear rumbling out to the fields in the early morning and returning in the evening. The first is a cart full of Thai brooms which I love! They sweep amazingly well and I want to get one back to the states somehow.

The sleeper train to Chaing Mai from Bangkok is another great way to travel in thailand!