Busing

Bangkok buses are ubiquitous: red ones (called som, meaning orange in Thai), yellow ones (actually orange), blue ones, pink ones, green ones and actually yellow yellow ones.

The most important distinction among the chromatic variety is that between air-con and non. Air-con buses are orange, yellow or blue; non-air buses are red, pink or blue-and-white. Where there are other colours, and there are, air-con buses have no open windows and non-air buses have many.

The next most important difference among the buses is ticket price. Non-air buses go for either 8 or 10 baht, roughly $.25, whereas air can cost you as much as 32 baht, roughly $1.

In spite of the fact that there are more than 10 million cars and motorcycles and pick-up trucks on the roads in the GBMA and more than 200 kilometers of light rail track under operation, buses remain an indispensable feature of the working lives of millions of Bangkokians.