Pattaya To Mukdahan

[dsfbrit]

Hi there,

 

I have to travel up to Mukdahan on Saturday or Sunday (15th or 16th) of this month.

 

I was wondering if someone could advise me of the best route. When I say 'best' I just want a quick route that is easy. I am not bothered about sight-seeing or anything like that.

 

I don't have GPS, but I may buy one if the trip is difficult.

 

Thanks very much for your help

[malt25]

Google maps on your phone is all you need for the GPS. I find the Google travel advice is usually accurate.  https://www.google.com/search?q=drive+pattaya+to+mukdahan&oq=drive+pattaya+to+mukdahan&aqs=chrome..69i57j33.20703j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 

[dsfbrit]

Thanks for the reply Malt25.

 

I was coming to that conclusion slowly myself after looking at various alternatives.

 

My mobile phone is quite old and a small screen. I don't use it much, so I would need to buy a new phone. No big deal.

 

I will try for a couple of days more though to do it 'manually'.

 

The link you sent to me has this route, what do you think? Other routes go via Bangkok.

 

Take Route 7, Route 331, Route 359, Route 3395 ... and Route 212 to your destination

 

I have read that some routes have problems with the local (farming?) traffic making the journey very slow in parts.

 

Thanks again for the advice

[james.d]

On 6/5/2019 at 7:04 AM, dsfbrit said:

My mobile phone is quite old and a small screen. I don't use it much, so I would need to buy a new phone. No big deal.

I use google maps also but prefer to listen to directions via bluetooth rather than taking my eyes off the road to look at a phone screen.

That's through my car radio but probably works on a motorcycle via bluetooth ear set.

[KhunBENQ]

On 6/5/2019 at 7:04 AM, dsfbrit said:

Take Route 7, Route 331, Route 359, Route 3395 ... and Route 212 to your destination

331 always good for heavy traffic, trucks and stuff. But hard to avoid.

 

359 looks like it is four lane divided now. Should be OK.

 

3395, a four digit rural road, 2 lane. Only a local could tell how traffic is there.

Quite a risk to be stuck in long columns behind some slow vehicle.

----------------

As 304 over Khao Yai towards Nakhon Ratchasima has been improved much, I would prefer this. Then up north on 2 and via Kalasin.

(the first suggestion of Google)

 

Most of the route is four lanes and THAT is the most important factor.

Two lane undivided can be absolutely nerve wracking and dangerous.

 

https://goo.gl/maps/dyKa8BMj7voGJmz48

[youreavinalaff]

4 hours ago, KhunBENQ said:

331 always good for heavy traffic, trucks and stuff. But hard to avoid.

 

359 looks like it is four lane divided now. Should be OK.

 

3395, a four digit rural road, 2 lane. Only a local could tell how traffic is there.

Quite a risk to be stuck in long columns behind some slow vehicle.

----------------

As 304 over Khao Yai towards Nakhon Ratchasima has been improved much, I would prefer this. Then up north on 2 and via Kalasin.

(the first suggestion of Google)

 

Most of the route is four lanes and THAT is the most important factor.

Two lane undivided can be absolutely nerve wracking and dangerous.

 

https://goo.gl/maps/dyKa8BMj7voGJmz48

I would be inclined to take the 24 to Buriram and then 218,288,219,215 to Yasothon and then 2169, 212 to Mukdahan. By taking the 2 via Kalasin you are travelling a little too far north.

[KhunBENQ]

10 minutes ago, youreavinalaff said:

I would be inclined to take the 24 to Buriram and then 218,288,219,215 to Yasothon and then 2169, 212 to Mukdahan. By taking the 2 via Kalasin you are travelling a little too far north.

If any route is shorter it's no more than 20 km difference.

Would not be my decision point.

[puchooay]

31 minutes ago, KhunBENQ said:

If any route is shorter it's no more than 20 km difference.

Would not be my decision point.

The Buriram, Yasothon route is about 40kms shorter on the map I'm looking at. Mostly 4 lanes too.

[puchooay]

4 hours ago, KhunBENQ said:

As 304 over Khao Yai towards Nakhon Ratchasima has been improved much, I would prefer this. Then up north on 2 and via Kalasin.

(the first suggestion of Google)

When I look at Google maps, the first suggestion is this:

 

27 minutes ago, youreavinalaff said:

I would be inclined to take the 24 to Buriram and then 218,288,219,215 to Yasothon and then 2169, 212 to Mukdahan. 

 

[lord john]

Hi there
You don't need to buy a GPS as you have Google maps and a APP called WAZE which will give you a choice of routes and are both free of charge.

Hi there,
 
I have to travel up to Mukdahan on Saturday or Sunday (15th or 16th) of this month.
 
I was wondering if someone could advise me of the best route. When I say 'best' I just want a quick route that is easy. I am not bothered about sight-seeing or anything like that.
 
I don't have GPS, but I may buy one if the trip is difficult.
 
Thanks very much for your help

Sent from my JKM-LX2 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[dsfbrit]

James.D

 

Thanks for the reply. I am thinking of just using a print out of the Google Map directions. Not very sexy, but I have been told various signals as I head towards Issan may be not so good and I will lose connection at times.

 

Looking at the map printout, it seems fairly easy to read.

[dsfbrit]

KhunBenQ, thanks for the information. I am going to compare this with the Google map directions print out and change it if need be.

 

Thanks again

[dsfbrit]

Lord John, thanks for replay and the information. My phone is old and rubbish. I dont use it much for anything. I was planning to just print out google maps directions and get my wife to read them off.

[dsfbrit]

Puchooay, hi there.

 

Thank for the reply. I am discussing the Mukdahan Land Office subject with you on the other thread as well.

 

So double thanks

 

I am going to spend some time and compare Google Maps with the good suggestions I have received here and change the directions as need be. I have 4 days until I drive up there, so plenty of time to pick the best route.

[dsfbrit]

youreavinalaff, thanks for the reply.

 

I am going to take your helpful suggestions and merge them with the other suggestions and change the Google directions as need be.

 

Thanks again much appreciated.

[dsfbrit]

I did the trip to Mukdahan. The advice here was a great help. For those people who don't have a GPS system or just prefer to use a map here is some feedback that I hope will be helpful if you find this thread.

 

I left Pattaya at 5am Saturday. I took the route from Pattaya to Buriram 36/331/304/359/3395/3486/348/24/218.

 

Then Buriram to Mukdahan  218/219/2081/215/202/292/2169/2047/212/12

 

I think you can see that this involves quite a lot of checking of the map for all the road changes. Although, the major towns have a lot of road signs telling you the way to go, so it is no big hassle.

 

There are quite a few single lane roads with slow local traffic. As it was a Saturday, there were not many trucks and even the other traffic seemed quite light.

 

However, overtaking on these roads is no fun at all!!!

 

We arrived in Mukdahan at 3pm - so that is exactly 10 hours for the trip. It was 705 Km.

 

We stopped twice at petrol service stations for about 15 minutes each time, just to stretch our legs and for a snack.

 

I have never driven for longer than 4 hours on any trip so was very surprised to arrive in Mukdahan wide-awake. I think it was from the sheer terror of staring at trucks and cars coming in the opposite direction on those single lane highways when I was overtaking:)

 

We left Mukdahan at 10am on Monday. To make the journey simpler and use more dual carriageway roads I took the 212/202/2/304/331/36.

 

This was busier than the route I took to Mukdahan, as this was Monday afternoon as opposed to Saturday morning travelling.

 

This route was much easier to drive, lots of dual carriageway, even though the 202 had many more single lane roads than I thought I saw on the map.

 

It did involve some driving through hilly areas. Very pretty I am sure, but I was just trying to get from A to B quickly so it was wasted on me and quite difficult to drive with slow moving trucks sometimes in the way trying to get up steep hills. There were quite a lot of places to pass though.

 

We stopped twice, same as on the way to Mukdahan.

 

We arrived back in Pattaya at about 9pm. The distance was about 710 KM. I am not certain as it was dark and I forgot to look until the next day after we had been to the shops.

 

So the trip back took 11 hours, but that was due mainly to the last 2 hours being in the dark and it was raining as well.

 

If I made the trip again, I would leave at 5am both going and returning and take the route I took on the way back from Mukdahan.

 

I would also avoid the 331 just after the 36 as there are major roadworks there for the next 6+ months. Better to use the 7 and join the 331 from there - signposted Laem Chabaeng on the way back to Pattaya.

 

Hope this helps anyone taking this drive.