Your Travel Guide to Thailand
All information & tips to prepare your trip in Thailand
MRT is one of the metro operators in Bangkok. Open in 2016, the MRT Purple Line was the 2nd MRT line, it came to complete the Blue Line to whic it was connected in 2019 while the Yellow Line opened in June 2023 (others ,ew lines will follow). The MRT Purple connects the Khlong Bang Phai district, in the west of the Bangkok, to Tao Poon station, located in the northwest of Bangkok. The MRT Purple Line covers about 23 kilometers and counts 16 stations that do not serve any major tourist site in Bangkok.
For simple jouney, users buy black tokens from automatic distributors who accept coins and tickets. The desks are more information counters but can also sell tokens. The price depends on the length of the journey. On the vending machines, the touch screens display a plan of the network on which you choose the color of the line and select your destination station on the map. The price will then be determined according to your route. Do not forget to change the language to English with the button at the top of the screen! Once your trip is over, the exit gantry will swallow your token before opening. So don't lose it!
The MRT Purple Line is connected to MRT Blue Line at Tao Poon station and to MRT Pink Line at nonthaburi Civi Center station.
The Bangkok Skytrain is called BTS. The trains have air condition and let you go over the heavy road traffic in the capital but you can not go everywhere even if connected to the Chao Phraya Express boats, it can let you go to major temples in Bangkok.
The Chao Phraya Express boats run regularly on the river running through Bangkok. They go to all monuments and interesting places on the river shores including Wat Phra Kaew, Wat Pho and Wat Arun, the three must see temples in Bangkok. Fare is cheap.
Taking the bus to get around is clearly not the easiest mean of transportation to use for a foreign tourist in Bangkok neither the fastest one but it's the cheapest one. Bangkok bus network is wide and you can go almost anywhere but just need to be patient.
Bangkok is the city in Thailand that offers more choices of public or individual transport (metro, bus, boats, tuktuks...). Because, no, there are not just tuk-tuks and pink taxis to get around Bangkok !