Taking a Bus from Nakhon Ratchasima to Udon Thani

Nakhon Ratchasima (also known as Korat) is Thailand's third largest city, and Udon Thani (often known simply as Udon) is its sixth. Together they comprise two of the 'big four of Isaan', and yet foreign tourism in both cities is scant. This means finding reliable information about them, including how to travel between them, is almost impossible online and you just have to arrive and figure it out for yourself.

I recently travelled from Nakhon Ratchasima to Udon by bus, so to save you the trouble of figuring it our for yourself, here's everything I learned.

Where to catch a bus to Udon Thani in Nakhon Ratchasima

There are two bus terminals in Nakhon Ratchasima.

Bus Terminal 1 is close to the centre of town, and is the smaller of the two terminals. It has buses to Bangkok and a few other destinations, but it does not have any buses to Udon Thani.

Bus Terminal 2 is a little further out of town, past Terminal 21. It is much bigger and has buses to many more destinations, including Bangkok and Udon Thani.

Bus Terminal 2

The layout of Bus Terminal 2 is that it has two long, thin terminals. Passengers wait within these open terminals, while buses pull-up to the 'gates' that go around them. There is no central ticketing area. Instead you buy your tickets at the counters in front of the gate where your bus departs from.

A lot more buses leave from the westerly terminal (furthest from the main road), including buses to Udon Thani, which depart from gate 4.

(One other company does offer a bus to Udon, but it's only one per day, at 1:30pm if my Thai doesn't betray me.)

This is easier to explain with a picture. This satellite view from Google Maps shows Bus Terminal 2. The red arrow (I added that so don't look for it) points to gate 4, where you buy tickets and catch buses to Udon Thani.

What time do buses leave for Udon Thani?

From gate 4, there are twelve buses to Udon Thani each day. The first leaves at 6am, the second at 7:20am. Then from 8:30am to 1:30pm, they leave every hour on the half hour. The last four buses depart at 2:40pm, 4pm, 5:30pm and 7:30pm.

You do not need to buy tickets in advance. Perhaps with the exception of holidays, showing up a few minutes before the bus leaves is sufficient. I arrived at 8am to catch the 8:30am bus. It was already sat there with passengers on board, so I bought a ticket on got on right away.

A ticket from Nakhon Ratchasima to Udon costs 270 baht.

The Nakhon Ratchasima to Udon Thani bus timetable at gate 4. The left column with my finger underneath it is the departure times from Nakhon Ratchasima. The right column with my finger underneath it is the departure times from Kumphawapi, a district just outside Udon Thani (the timetable doesn't include the arrival times in Udon).

Taking the bus from Nakhon Ratchasima to Udon Thani

At bus terminal 2

If you arrive early for your bus and need to use the bathroom, there is a 5 baht charge for the toilets within Bus Terminal 2.

I found that there's a small shopping parade nearby (look for the 7-11). This includes some free toilets for if you don't have any change for the toilets in the terminal, or if you're just cheap like me.

Free toilets next to Bus Terminal 2.

On board

There is no reserved seating, you just pick a seat. And while the seats are perfectly comfortable, be aware that there are no charging ports, so make sure your devices are all charged before your leave.

The leg-room is not equal for all seats, and what I found is that the seating on the left (when facing the front of the bus) after the toilet has more leg-room than any other seats on the bus.

While there is a toilet on board, before we departed Korat the staff placed a large plastic box belonging to one of the passengers in front of the toilet door so it was entirely inaccessible. I'm uncertain whether this is always done, or it was just for this journey as there was nowhere else to keep this box, but it essentially meant there was no toilet, so don't drink an excess of water before departing.

Not all leg-room is created equally. There was noticeably more leg-room for the seats on the left of the bus, after the toilet

Travelling to Udon Thani

The bus left at 8:30am on the dot, so it's not a trip to turn-up late to. There were plenty of empty seats when we left, but these filled-up as we went. I was able to maintain my double-seat for the entire journey by presumably being repulsive, but most people had to share by the end.

I was the only foreigner on board, and the driver didn't speak any English, so be ready with your best Thai if you want to understand what's going on at stops.

We made initial stops at Phon bus terminal at 10:25am and Ban Phai bus terminal at 10:58am to pick-up passengers, but at both of these stops we were stationary for less than a minute so there was no time to get off to relieve yourself or to get food.

The first stop of note was at Khon Kaen bus terminal 3, of which we arrived at 11:38am, three hours and eight minutes after we left Nakhon Ratchasima. It was not intended to be a rest-stop, but I asked the driver (in Thai) if I had a couple of minutes to get off and use the toilet. He agreed, but stressed the two minutes. A small number of other passengers also alighted here to use the toilet/buy snacks.

I got back on board again as quickly as possible. The bus departed at 11:45am, so it was a seven minute stop, but there was no head-count or other check that everyone was on board, so make sure you're back. If you're not, they'll be leaving without you.

The first and only actual rest-stop where passengers were invited to get off the bus, came at a petrol station a little outside Khon Kaen at 12:33pm. Here there were toilets, a small shop to buy snacks, and even a couple of restaurants, although it would have been a rush to get food at a restaurant.

We departed again at 12:56pm, so it was a twenty-three minute break.

The next and final stop was at Kumphawapi at 1:45pm. We were here for five minutes, departing again at 1:50pm, so you probably could have made an emegency run to the toilet if you were desperate, but no one did.

The bus filled-up as we went.

Arriving in Udon Thani

We finally pulled-into Udon Thani bus terminal 1 at 2:30pm on the dot, meaning the journey took six hours to-the-minute. Arriving at bus terminal 1 was a pleasant surprise, because bus terminal 1 is the quieter terminal conveniently located in the centre of Udon Thani (bus terminal 2, by contrast, is on the outskirts of the western edge of town).

Getting-off the bus was an influx of people asking if I was going to Nong Khai, but in declining they left me alone. The local tuk-tuk drivers were very respectful and just sat near their tuk-tuks not bothering anyone, which I appreciate. Getting hassled by tuk-tuk/taxi drivers is one of my pet-peeves.

The first tuk-tuk driver I spoke to quoted me 80 baht to my room, which I probably could have negotiated down, but it seemed a fair enough price I couldn't be bothered.

And with that, I was at my room in Udon having woken-up that morning in Nakhon Ratchasima. It was a pretty painless journey. Having an accessible on board toilet and charging ports by the seats would have been nice, but you can't complain for 270 baht.