Cheap, but such a painful experience.
If you have the money, I would highly recommend take something else such as night buses or planes.
-The train is really really noisy
-It’s getting pretty cold as all the windows and doors are open during the night
-Uncomfortable
-Quite impossible to sleep
-Vendors coming every 5 minutes
-Stop to every train station
The #85 overnight train from BKK to Surat Thani was overall a solid experience. Ticketing, arrival and boarding were smooth. The process for changing seats to beds was efficient. The seats/beds were comfortable and the A/C was welcomed.
The only issues we faced were that we arrived over an hour late (which isn't uncommon for railways in Thailand) and there were vendors that would get on the train to sell food coming up and down the aisles which in general we didn't mind but they had some come by as late as 11pm when we were trying to sleep.
Overall, we would do it again.
Sehr, sehr angenehm im Zug zu reisen. Beim Einsteigen war die AC sehr sehr kalt eingestellt - beim Schlafen hinter den Vorhängen merkte man aber kaum was davon. Der Zug fährt sehr ruhig, man merkt kaum, dass man fährt. Essen und Trinken kann rund um die Uhr im Zug gekauft werden. Man wird am Morgen persönlich informiert, wann man aussteigen muss. Es gibt kein WLAN, aber Strom. Und man bekommt weiße, frische Bettwäsche.....
It was great booking with 12go. The train from Bangkok to night train to Surat Thani was quite comfortable. But it gets quite cold at night with the AC. We had about 2 hours delay to Surat Thani. I was told that it was normal. I would highly recommend both 12go and the sleeper night train.
Great support from the 12go staff, they helped me book what I need. informed me accordingly with any changes and replied swiftly. Ive been using their service for many years and I'm still happy with them.
It's really nice to just relax and sleep while traveling. They could be better about notifying passengers when they've arrived at a stop. Overall for the price, a great way to go long distance.