VIP bus to Korat

[Cowtown Comedy]

Can someone comment about the new VIP bus to Korat? What is the price, and where is the depot in Koret? Is this depot in Korat close to the main govt bus station? How many hours to korat?...any info would be helpful.

thanks

[kaokalok]

HI CC,
I took this bus earlier this year,
very clean new busses , a lot of space between the seats(massage seats).
It took me 7 hours from Khorat to Hua Hin ( 30 minutes stop included )
The bus leaves from the main station in Khorat,so will stop there by return.
The fare was about 400 Baht ( no guarantee for this price as i'm not sure,too long ago).
Certainly more interesting than to change in BKK.

[STEVE G]

My partner has used it a couple of times and said it was good, but the only problem is there are only a couple of departures a day starting at around 10-00, which is OK if you are only going to Khorat but a bit late if you have to travel on further into Issan.

[caller]

We used this to travel from Korat to Hua Hin in April. The whole fleet of buses is new and to start with it was full. People sat on red plastic seats in the aisle, but the further south we went, the emptier it go until we neared Hua Hin,

There is a website, but not surprisingly, it's in Thai! If I was doing the odd journey, I would use it, if regular, I'd probably drive.

But it was fine, apart from this little incident after the lunch stop (included in the price). Basically someone drove into the side of the bus, as you do. There only accident, we were told and it was hardly the drivers fault:

[Guess]

I have to sympathize with the driver of the car. Those 70 seater buses are very difficult to see sometimes

[caller]

Tell me about it! I watched him slowly, ever so slowly move away from the pumps and the coach was, as you can see, just preparing to join the main route, so it too was going slow. I thought, hmm, this is interesting, I'm sure he'll just touch the breaks, he must do, surely, WTF!!! Bump! He was actually driving into the body of the coach - his offside was damaged -and hit it just about level/slightly behind the driver, a bit surprised he didn't warn the car driver?

We were stuck for an hour and 15 minutes waiting for the accident inspection guy (yellow shirt) to turn up. When in Hua Hin, I was introduced to another forum member who I recognised as being on the same coach.

Here's a photo of the coach at Korat bus station - it must have been hard to miss?

[ste860]

the price is 380 baht or near enough ,it does take for ever but its a good service

[richard]

Where does it go further into Isaan?

[johnnyk]

Tell me about it! I watched him slowly, ever so slowly move away from the pumps and the coach was, as you can see, just preparing to join the main route, so it too was going slow. I thought, hmm, this is interesting, I'm sure he'll just touch the breaks, he must do, surely, WTF!!! Bump! He was actually driving into the body of the coach - his offside was damaged -and hit it just about level/slightly behind the driver, a bit surprised he didn't warn the car driver?

We were stuck for an hour and 15 minutes waiting for the accident inspection guy (yellow shirt) to turn up. When in Hua Hin, I was introduced to another forum member who I recognised as being on the same coach.

Here's a photo of the coach at Korat bus station - it must have been hard to miss?

what coach?

[Cowtown Comedy]

is the VIP terminal in Korat the same terminal to board a bus to further into issan?

[Guess]

...........Here's a photo of the coach at Korat bus station - it must have been hard to miss?

Maybe he was doing something much more important like checking make up and making a phone call.

..........................
The bus leaves from the main station in Khorat,so will stop there by return.

is the VIP terminal in Korat the same terminal to board a bus to further into issan?

I think that's the answer. I heard recently that the service was started to bridge the only gap in the Korat schedule.

You can go anywhere in Thailand, all cities NW, all cities North, all cities SW and the rest id Isaan from Korat. You can go anywhere in South Thailand from Hua Hin.

In other words you can now go from anywhere to anywhere in Thailand without going via Bangkok. The extra change easily outweighs the time saved by missing Bangkok's traffic and the horrendous N/NE Mo Chit Bus terminal.

[Norseman]

Hua Hin - Korat use the no. 2 terminal in Korat.
Some buses use this terminal to other destinations in Korat, but you also have a no. 1 terminal so it all depends on where in Issan you want to go.
Think you have to ask the bus company for further information.
(Buses from Bangkok use both terminals).

[STEVE G]

Where does it go further into Isaan?

This bus just goes to Khorat, I was perhaps a bit misleading in my earlier post, what I meant was if you are making a connection further into Issan. My partner tried it a couple of times but she didn't like the fact that she had to get a tuk-tuk to the village in the dark which apparently is not all that safe.

[Norseman]

You are quite right Steve G.
A better way, and much faster, is to take one of the ordinary blue/white buses to the Moshit bus station (four times pr day) then enter the Bangkok-Korat bus.
The problem with the HH-Korat bus is that the first bus in the morning leave HH 10.00 and arrives in Korat too late in the afternoon to get any other bus to your final destination.

(Don't know if you understand my rather clumsy explanation).

[STEVE G]

Understand you perfectly Norseman, as you know she is going to Nong Ki and I think at some times of the day you can bypass Khorat altogether and get a bus from Bangkok to Ubon or Sisaket that goes through there.