Part 3 To Phuket by Bus

12 Mar 2012 – Thai Local Bus from Hat Yai to Phuket (7-8 hours)

From Hat Yai Bus Terminal, we took the 11.45am local air-conditioned bus to Phuket. It was a 7 1/2-hour journey.

Bus counter

The bus was supposed to make 4 stops – Pattalung, Trang, Krabi and Phuket city. But only one stop was made where passengers actually got down which was Trang. The Pattalung and Krabi stops were short, just to pick up new passengers and drop off some.

The buses leave every hour

Trang was our toilet and lunch stop, we reached Trang after a 3-hour journey. We decided to get down at Talang city, which is before Phuket city as it’s the nearest stop to our hotel. We reached Talang at 7.30pm.

Bus ticket (in Thai)

Well, reaching any place at night leaves you vulnerable to taxi operators who will try to cash in on your late arrival. After bargaining, a 10min drive to our hotel costs us Bt400 (RM40).

Road sign highlighting Phuket

Back to the bus journey, as a whole, the Thai roads were good and being a Malaysian I couldn’t help but notice immediately the absence of toll booths. But having said that, the price of petrol is higher in Thai than in Malaysia, RM3.90 per litre! Sort of explains the high cost of travelling in Thailand.

The bus conductor's son was to quick to find friends

Thailand is the land of rubber trees. We saw an unending stretch of rubber trees all along the route.

When we reached Phang Nga, we noticed endless limestone hills and caves - a whole series of them.

I noticed many women motorcyclists too. They don’t necessarily wear helmets.


The food stop at Trang was clean. N had rice while the kids and I had fruits and noodles. The noodles was actually tom-yam flavoured Maggie in cup, and it was so hot and spicy….yummy. Even their Maggie noodle tastes so good.

Overall, would I do bus travel again? The answer is no. Main reason is time. Although we weren't rushed for time, a whole day was spent on the journey, which I wouldn't want to repeat.


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That night we checked into our hotel late. The hotel provides shuttle service to the road that leads to the shops and restaurants.

so pretty..

The hotel lobby

The shuttle

We shuttled till the main gate and took a long walk for dinner. We didn't mind the walk as it was cooling and clean. 

The boys during dinner that night

There were many restaurants with first class service. We found one that suited our budget and once again were very happy with our meal – both in taste and price - which came to about RM36 for 4 pax.


Some tips on bus travel :-

1. Don't do the bus unless you can spare the time. On the plus side, we got to see the countryside and many other things which we would have missed such as the limestone hills of Phang Nga, Krabi town, locals getting on with their daily lives and the Sarasin bridge that connects Thai mainland to Phuket.

2. Buses leave for Phuket every hour - so don't worry about booking in advance.

3. There are also other options such as the VIP buses and mini-vans. The difference being the cost, lesser stops and reach about an hour earlier. The departure time is also different, it's not hourly.

4. The bus was clean and spacious. There were empty seats so our kids jumped seats to get the window seat each.

5. The bus ticket comes with a voucher that you can exchange for fruits or drinks at the food stop.

6. You can inform the driver beforehand if you want to get down at non-designated stops as long as its along the route.

All pictures are copyrighted. I can be reached at sivakay2009@gmail.com.