I am interested in going to Sangkhla Buri in Kanchanaburi ...
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... after I return from Chiang Mai but looking at the map, I see it's very remote. As I have only three days before I fly back home, I won't have time to stop in Kanchanaburi itself. What's the best way of getting there? Arlene
Sangkhla Buri is 360 kilometres west of Bangkok and it takes five to six hours to get there, as the bus has to negotiate a very winding road for the last 74 kilometres of highway between Thong Pha Phum and Sangkhla Buri districts.
The best way to get there is to take a Transport Company's bus from the Northern Bus Terminal (Morchit). The Bangkok-Three Pagodas bus has the number 9918, and it stops in Sangkhla Buri town on the way to the Three Pagodas. The first bus leaves at 5am. This is the most comfortable with 40 seats, and costs Bt293 one way. There are also 46-seat buses leaving at 6am, 9.30am and 12.30pm. Tickets costs Bt228.
If you don’t feel like travelling to the bus terminal, you can take a van from the Victory Monument to Kanchanaburi town, and then connect to Sangkhla Buri by another van.
If you prefer to take more time and travel by train, you can. Once you arrive in Kanchanaburi town, you can connect to Sangklaburi district by either local bus or van.
The scenery is gorgeous at the end of the rainy season, and the weather is cool in Sangkhla Buri.
My friend and I have three weeks vacation coming up in February. We’d like to visit Vang Vieng in Laos and Chiang Mai and Mae Hong Son in Thailand. We’d also like to see a few more places. Any recommendations? Belinda.
Tubing in Vang Vieng has long been popular with foreign tourists but the authorities are now enforcing controls on this activity and a lot of the bars along the river bank are being closed down. Unfortunately, the wild party scene has dominated the tubing and there have been a number of deaths along the river over the past few years. The Lao authorities are wisely trying to separate drinking from tubing for tourist’s safety.
For your three weeks in Thailand and Laos, I would suggest you fly to Bangkok, travel up to Chiang Mai, and take a slow trip around Chiang Mai and Mae Hong Son provinces. You can easily spend the first half of your trip here, before travelling to Chiang Rai and crossing the Mekong River to Bo Kaew district in Laos, then heading to Luang Prabang. A detour to Luang Namtha is recommended so you can enjoy an off-the-beaten-track destination in northern Laos before heading to Luang Prabang – a Unesco’s World Heritage site and former capital of Laos.
From Luang Prabang, you might stop over in Vang Vieng. The place is an eco-friendly destination with more to offer than a party scene. From Vang Vieng, you can go to Vientiane, and cross the Mekong river back to Thailand. You can either fly back to Bangkok from Vientiane or Udon Thani on the Thai side. If you feel like exploring a Thai island, you can go to Koh Samet, the nearest island to Bangkok, with lovely beaches on the Gulf of Thailand for a few days before ending your holiday in Bangkok.
If you want to include everywhere I mentioned here, you may have to spend only a week in Chiang Mai and Mae Hong Son, 10 days in northern Laos and three days in Koh Samet.
I hope this helps.
