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Travelling as a family of four, aiming to get from Khao Sok National Park to a hotel near Bang Saphan on Jan 22 2017. Have tried several options but none brings me there. Have tried to reach the hotel over the booking page and per email for help, got no response for a week.

Almost all the bus operator pages as well as the national railways page are virtually unusable for me as they don't offer a working English version. You can switch the language to English but the travel data is still in Thai.

Tried the usable pages:
https://12go.asia
http://www.busonlineticket.co.th/
http://www.greenbusthailand.com/
https://www.rome2rio.com

The most successful dead end I have reached so far is to find a green bus connection from Phuket to Chiang Mai / Chiang Rai. However both are overnight buses with no stop in Bang Saphan and it is entirely unclear whether I could join in Ban Ta Khun and exit in Bang Saphan and whether/how much the partial ride would be cheaper than the whole thing:

http://www.greenbusthailand.com/website/en/services/bus/time-table#c18

The dreaded fallback option would be a minibus/taxi combo for approx 10,000 Baht.

Is there a way to make this journey by bus/es and/or train/s?

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The are several daily buses, as well as mini-vans, that go past Khao Sok NP (main area) to Surat Thani. Your guest house in Khao Sok can tell you the current schedule, when you get there. They are not really reserve-able in advance, but getting onboard is not usually a problem.

From Surat Thani you can then pick up the train or regional buses to Bang Saphan. You can find the train schedules at the SRT (State Railroad of Thailand) website: http://www.railway.co.th/checktime/checktime.asp?lenguage=Eng

Buses will be more catch as catch can when you get to Surat Thani.

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  • Thank you Tom, found two trains over Surat Thani stopping in Bang Saphan. What I have not found is a way to preorder the tickets on the SRT site. Have I simply missed it or are purchases counter-only? Is it possible to purchase the tickets at any train station or do we have to go to Surat Thani first? – kostja Jan 17 '17 at 23:09
  • SRT tried offering online sales, but shut it down quite a few years ago. You can buy tickets at any train station, so if you are in Bangkok, Chiang Mai before going to Khao Sok, you can get them there. Travel agents can arrange train tickets as well, but you have to watch for bus / train packages from dodgy groups, check on Thorn Tree or Trip Advisor forums for agent suggestions. – user13044 Jan 18 '17 at 1:29
  • Ah, I see, thank you Tom. We are in Khao Sok right now, so I will try a local travel agent. – kostja Jan 18 '17 at 11:30

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