Cowboy Caleb the liberal arts, grown-up stuff & random mischief

Suvarnabhumi Airport

Churning The Milk Ocean

I have now officially flew in and out of the new Suvarnabhumi Airport in Thailand twice now. I fly in at night and usually out fly out in the early morning. So I guess that qualifies me to give it a review.

This new airport was a pet project belonging to the ousted ex-prime minister, Thaksin. And I guess it reflects how misaligned Thaksin was from the Thai people. The entire airport is one modern ugly piece of steel. There is nothing in it that reflects anything remotely related to the proud Thai Kingdom. Oh, they added a few Thai sculptures here and there… like “The Churning Of The Milk Ocean” pictured above… but these are few and far between. And whenever they can be found, they look oddly out of place in this cold fortress of steel.

Flying in at night, one cannot help but notice large bodies of water around the landing strip. After disembarking, there’s this mad rush to pickup luggage from this huge metal conveyer belt that feeds suitcases to waiting passengers like hamsters feeding from a pallet dispenser.

It’s quite clear that the airport wasn’t quite ready to start operations. The walls are unpainted bare concrete. The ceiling is uncovered, exposing naked pipes and cables. Glass panels that are supposed to be tinted, are not and reveal guards and staff socializing in their rooms.

The entire airport seems to be monopolized by some retailer called “King Power (The King Of Dutyfree)”. Almost every single shop seems to belong to them. And all the shops sell the same cosmetics and liquor. There is nary a decent bookshop in the entire airport.

The first morning I tried to fly out of Suvarnabhumi was a disaster. The queues were insane. And the airport staff werent quite sure what to do.

If you’re hungry, you’re out of luck. The only food to be found are located at the extreme ends of the airport. King Power seems to have gotten all the retail space in the middle.

I think the things that irked me the most were the revolving doors to the carpark. They are a tragedy waiting to happen. One day, some little girl will get caught and injured in those damned revolving doors.

This airport needs a lot of work.

link to my flickr photo set of the airport

i liked the old airport, had character. cant replace 70’s charm and cracmed runways….

Hmm, you sound bitter!

Having flown throughout Europe’s airport scene in the last few years, plus more than a couple North American ones, I gotta say I really like Suvarnabhumi. The steel and glass (yes, and concrete) reflect the blue lighting going on everywhere in a cool futuristic way. Yeah, it’s kinda cold, but I don’t know an airport that doesn’t give me a cold feeling except for maybe Barcelona’s and Calgary’s. All airports these days are glass and concrete with faux chrome touches everywhere, it drives me nuts. At least Suvarnabhumi has that neat blue lighting… perhaps I’m a sucker for blue lighting?

I also did a brief review of it Suvarnabhumi when I first arrived in Bangkok.

I didn’t have a chance to check out the food situation, but I thought the customs and passport lines were rather manageable.

super