It was an extremely disorienting moment. Fearless leader and I had disembarked a plane after a 10 hour journey from Amsterdam to Bangkok, into an Airport we did not recognize. We had both come through Bangkok several times, me as recently as last August. But the airport we emerged into looked nothing like the Bangkok airport we knew and loved. Bangkok airport is a chaos of shops, stalls, restaurants and bright neon that tells you immediately that you are in Southeast Asia, but the Airport we were emerging into was a cold soul-less space made of concrete and glass that could have been anywhere. Where the hell were we?
Our flight was scheduled to stop at Taipei as well as Bangkok, so our first thought was that this must be Taipei and we had gotten off the plane at the wrong point. However, Fearless Leader approached the information counter to inquire about where we were and heard the unmistable "Sawadee Khap" as she approached the desk. We were definately in Thailand. We followed the signs to immigration, now convinced that we were in a new terminal or something. We had a really long lay-over and we'd both planned out restaurants and shops we wanted to hit before we caught our connecting flight to Phnom Penh. As we progressed through the terminal we looked outside to see if we could spot the structure that housed the old terminal, but it was nowhere in sight.
As it slowly dawned that this new vast sterile structure we were in had completely replaced the old crazy airport, we were crushed. So we spent the day exploring the new airport.
In Phnom Penh, one of the participants at the meeting we were at explained what had happened. A brand new airport was completed in September of 2006 and had opened up, it completely took the place of the old Bangkok airport, which had become overcrowded and could no longer manage the amount of flights coming in and out of Bangkok. However the construction of the new Airport had been mired with classic Thai corruption. It had been built upon a swamp and because of construction cut-backs was already sinking and cracks were appearig in the glass cieling. It wouldn't be long before they would have to return to the old structure.
Fearless leader and I returned to the Bangkok airport once more on our way home. We had a twelve hour lay-over and we needed to get some work done, so that was fine. However, after work was finished we decided we wanted a decent thai meal and perhaps find some nice Thai nick-nacks to send home. We walked the long cold corridors of the new airport in search of both. But it was full of the standard Duty free shops and designer stores you would see anywhere. The restaurants were upscale sushi and anti-pasto bars. We could have been anywhere. We finally found some decent thai food down by the entrance to gate F - but a decent thai souvenir shop was nowhere to be found.
I'm said to say, Bangkok airport has now been added to the growing list of "airports that blow". Hopefully if they are forced to return to the old structure they will stay there.
technorati tags:Bangkok, Airport, AirportsThatBlow, TravelBlogged with Flock