bkkandrew

Now, with an report such as this one, will those that slated posters as anti-thai and doom merchants please recant?

It seems that all is not well and moving was somewhat premature. Not passing judgement myself, as I have not used the new airport yet. That "delight" awaits me next weekend...

He has some issues to deal with, but I would also say that it seems to be a dysfunctional family.

Did he say where he met his wife ?

Yes - over the internet, dating website.

Could hardly watch, just like watching a car crash - all goes in slow motion with you shouting NO!!!

He ought to have some R&R in Soi Cowboy to get over it...

Right so obviously your girlfriend didn't give her permission, there is only one thing to do.

You have to go round to the house together with your girlfriend and sit down and talk to the owners of the house next door. You have to tell them that you caught her in your bedroom, she lied and said she was allowed to be there, and say you want to know what she was doing there. You also have to tell them about the missing money and say it looks very much like it wasn't the first time.

Tell them you expect the money to be returned and tell them they are very lucky you didn't go to the police. Tell them the only reason you didn't go to the police was because you like them and wouldn't want to see them get in trouble. Tell them you won't tell anyone and it'll be kept quiet.

Tell them they are forgiven but you expect the stolen money to be returned.

If they get angry or have any reaction other than to accept your proposal you should just leave them for a few days to calm down, after that go back and see them and ask if they have had a chance to talk to the girl.

You musn't let them get away with this, you cannot walk into peoples houses.

An official family sitdown is required to solve this, you have to go over there and tell them you need to talk to them about something very important, say you want to sit down inside and tell them something serious.

With them sitting down and in a more formal setting you have more chance of getting a sensible reaction, and less chance of a jerk and them running off or trying to get away. Sitting down they have to deal with the subject, get them into a proper discussion and you have much more chance of sorting this out.

So just go on over there, kock on the door and say you want to come and chat to them about something quite important.

Let us know how you get on.

Very good advice. Had a similar family sitdown over some damage and an injury about six months ago. All worke out well, money paid, no onghoing ill feeling. Face saved on all sides.

For those not stuck on the Sukhumvit Road, great Thai Restruant, open until sunrise every day! On Rama 9, Soi Long Poon. Owned by a friend of mine, Tom. It is called Ton Thong. 10 mis taxi from Sukhumvit soi Asoke.

Sorry - effort...

Arriving on TG 657 from ICN, minutes before touchdown a video is shown detailing the layout of Suvarnabhumi, and showing how to go through immigration, how to transfer to another international flight, how to transfer to a domestic flight, etc. A nice touch which was absent on flights into Don Muang. Also, a leaflet is passed out to all passengers showing a map of Suvarnabhumi and some information. It's the same leaflet which I downloaded a few days ago from THAI's website, but will certainly be useful for many passenger who never looked at the website before travel.

On touchdown at Suvarnabhumi at about 00:50 (about 20 minutes late due to late takeoff), I'm immediately impressed. It's dark, so there's a lot I can't see, but the blue lighting of the modern terminal building immediately catches my eye. The vast expanse of the airport, with plenty of space for runways, taxiways, etc. are in sharp contrast to the cramped spaces on Don Muang's tarmac. It certainly looks and feels just like you'd expect from any world-class modern airport opening in the 21st century. The plane quickly finds it way to the gate within only minutes - much quicker than I ever experienced at Don Muang. At the gates, I immediately notice the lack of HSBC advertising all over the place as is common on airports around Thailand and SEA. (I never could figure out why HSBC spends so much for advertising when they only have one single branch in all of Thailand, and none in many cities where they advertise at.) In place of the usual HSBC ads are signs that say "Long Live The King."

As I step out of the plane, and into the walkway towards the terminal, again lack of the usual HSBC advertsing. Then comes the steel-plate floor in a small area as you enter the terminal. I immediately get a somewhat cold feeling from the steel floor (this same steel floor is present in a couple other places in the airport.) But as soon as I begin to wonder why the choice of steel floors, it is replaced with tile and a much warmer feeling. Traversing through a series of moving walkways, all of which are working, I notice everywhere a lack of advertising, and bare concrete pillars which I assume will later be paneled or otherwise decorated. There are several places along the walkways with paintings/murals/or whatevers to liven up the place. The structure looks impressive, with the walkways being bi-level. I'm assuming the lower level is for arriving passenger and the upper level is for departing, but not really sure. I pop into a restroom to check the water supply which I heard reportedly wasn't working a couple days ago. No problems. At one point, there is a sign directing TG passengers to Chiang Rai, Phuket, etc. to go through a checkpoint (those airports can handle international passengers, so there's no need to go through immigration at BKK). But the checkpoint is closed, and the guard cannot speak much English but merely directs the passengers towards the regular immigration. The time of day could explain it being closed, but from appearances it looks like the checkpoint is still not finished. So much for the nice video explaining how to transfer.

I arrive at Thai Immigration 9 minutes after the doors of the plane were opened. I'm flying on business class on TG, so there is supposed to be a dedicated fast-track immigration lane that I can use, but I don't even bother to look for it as it's not needed - there are about a dozen empty lanes without anyone waiting. This is the first I've ever seen such a lack of immigration queues in BKK. I select one of the available immigration booths, and takes all of about 30 seconds to stamp me and send me on my way. I recall hearing it reported that it will take on average 20 seconds per passenger to process them through immigration, and they're pretty close already to that target if everyone can be processed as fast as I was. There are no cameras here like at Don Muang. Also she asks for my boarding pass - a first. I suppose they are now checking passengers against the plane's passenger manifest to speed up processing. There is no flipping through my passport, which has dozens and dozens of Thai entrance/exit stamps, and is almost completely full, including the extension. She just finds an empty page, stamps it, and I'm on my way.

Into the baggage claim area, I take a quick look around. There's lots and lots of people, which is unusual for this time of night. Though all arriving passengers are now dircted to one area rather than two separate terminals like at Don Muang, still I think this is not normal. I'm guessing that several flights were delayed, and/or luggage is being delayed arriving. I have no checked luggage, so I take a few minutes and try to locate the TG Royal Orchid Arrival Lounge as identified on the leaflet I was given during my flight. I'm unsuccessful, and locate some TG staff and ask them. The guy doesn't know, but is very friendly and goes out of his way to find someone who claims they do know. I am told to exit through customs and go to my right.

I select a "nothing to declare" exit, and go right through. Time from opening of the doors of the plane to exiting customs is now 14 minutes. I'm greeted by the ever smiling and bubbly Mrs. Soju, who is so very proud of what the Thai people have accomplished in building this modern world-class airport. A quck check outside for the TG Arrival Lounge, and it seems it does not exist. But on closer inspection of the leaflet and realizing that to the right (on your right side if you're exiting) of International Arrivals is Domestic Arrivals. I come to the conclusion that it is a domestic arrival lounge, not an international arrival lounge, so I will look for it next week when I arrive on a domestic flight.

I tell Mrs. Soju that I want to look around a bit before heading off to the city. There are lots of temporary (paper) signs guiding you to taxis, which are on the first floor. There were quite a few passengers arriving, but there is no queue to speak of for taxis. There are more taxis queued than there are passengers at this point in time. An also not so unusual case at Don Muang at this time of night. Mrs. Soju, myself, together with her sister and sister's boyfriend take his car into the city.

Having slept well on the plane, I'm not very tired and can't sleep. It's only 03:30, and our domestic flight isn't until 08:25, but I tell Mrs. Soju that I'm anxious to have a better look at the airport, which she doesn't quite understand why, but accepts and it's back to the airport we go.

I'm really surprised at the number of passengers here at the airport at 04:30. Many more than I've ever seen at Don Muang. Lots and lots of sleeping passengers as well as a good number of airport workers, wherever they can find a spot. On the public seating, in the waiting lounge, customer service lounge, coffee shops, etc. I'm guessing that if there were some significant flight delays or luggage delays that maybe a lot of passenger missed their flights/connections and had to spend the night. Or maybe they just wanted to stay at the airport and look around - I'm not sure. I suspect that a lot of workers spent the night or several nights there at the airport in trying to get it open in time and were taking a well-deserved nap before starting another day of work.

A list of impressions and details of the airport, based on last night and this morning are as follows:

Public seating is in the form of five chairs per unit, some of which are connected together to form seats of 10 or 15 per unit. So it's easy to count seats by counting the number of these 5-seat units.

Level 4 (Departure Hall) has 108x5 = 540 seats

Level 2 (Arrival) has 69x5 = 345 seats

Level 3 has 49x5 = 245 seats

Level 1 has 55x5 = 275 seats, plus plenty more outside the terminal

Total indoor public seating landside: 1405 seats

It was reported earlier that there are only 100 seats in the arrival hall, which was obviously a completely false report, or else the seating was updated since then, or installation of it wasn't yet completed when that report was made. More likely, though, I suppose, is that they counted units, not seats, thus they weren’t far off if they counted 100 and the actual number was 108, but mis-reported it as actual seats rather than seating units.

The number of toilets in the departure hall (I only checked the men's restrooms) does seem to be inadequate, but even with a good number of people there were no problems yet that I saw. With the airport running at full capacity, I don't know if there will be a problem or not. Certainly there are more toilets on the other levels, so if there was a line in one, you could always go to another level. But you might have to walk quite a distance to do so.

There are thousands and thousands of shiny new luggage carts. I've never seen so many luggage carts in my life. I don't foresee any shortage of these in the near future.

I noticed a foot massage and spa place on level 3, for those of you who have some time to kill and want a massage. It wasn't open early in the morning, but looked like it was ready.

There are plenty of Family Marts and Boots scattered around the airport. The prices seem to be the standard prices as can be found throughout Bangkok. This is good news, as at Don Muang the 7-11 or other convenience stores were not very convenient to access. There's also a Starbucks and a Black Canyon (it's a different name, but says it's run by Black Canyon). There are no Burger Kings or KFCs, at least not landside, which is a big change from Don Muang. There is a food place combined with the Black Canyon, and a few other food places on Level 3. On Level 5, there is a restaurant, but it was only serving drinks, no food as of today. On Level 1 there is a food court, serving standard Thai food. There were no farangs in here, only what looked like airport workers. But I will give it a try sometime when I'm back in the future.

The Post Office looks ready to go, but was closed early in the morning when I saw it. At Don Muang, the post office is open 24 hours, so I'm not sure if they just aren't quite ready yet to open, or if they close overnight.

There is an internet cafe which is open in the arrival hall. An earlier report said they would charge 500 Baht per hour. But I inquired about the rate and they said 100 Baht per 20 minutes. There were 14 terminals, but only one customer and three staff to man the cafe. There were phones there also, I presume for making international phone calls.

Throughout the airport I saw probably a half-dozen cherry pickers (is that what they're called? The machines to lift a person high up to be able to access things high up above the floor). Also a number of workers trying to finish up work that should have already been done but wasn't. It wasn't very obstructive, but was noticeable. Again, this was at night, so I don't know if they will still be there during the day. Early reports about the tiles mentioned that in many places there was a lack of grouting. But now it seems that all the grouting is complete, though in several places it looks like a very rushed and sloppy job was done. Lot's of retail and offices have not yet opened. Many of them look to be well along, but some are still only empty shells. For the most part, the actual airport facilities seem to be almost all completed and functioning. The overall state of completion is much higher than what I was expecting.

Signage is a problem. There's a lot that I could say about this, but don't really have time now to just say that it really seems to me to be inadequate. One interesting thing is that there are signs all over directing you to arrivals, departures, buses, etc, and included in those signs is the rail link which isn't yet finished. So all the directions to the rail link have been taped over.

The employees at the airport were all very friendly. And no touts (knock on wood). I was approached several times by employees asking if they could help me. I guess looking around at everything made them think I was lost.

Lots and lots of people taking pictures, wanting to record a moment in history - the opening of the new airport.

The arrival area (after you exit customs) is too narrow and very crowded. It is plenty wide, but needs to be much deeper. There isn't enough space for all the people waiting for arriving passengers to greet them and it makes it difficult for arriving passenger to navigate the sea of people. This is a common problem at airports around the world, but I think they need to figure out something to improve on the situation here. It's too late now to redesign it and make the area deeper, but maybe they can rope off areas to allow arriving passengers clear passage.

There are moving walkways to take you from one level to the next. This is a big improvement over having to use elevators if you have a cart full of luggage as the elevators often are full and it can take a long time to wait for one just to go up or down a level. As with all moving walkways, they are not very speedy, so if you don't have a cart with you, the escalators will be faster.

Something that could be of significant importance to a lot of people, but that I've yet to see anyone mention - Only TMB and SCB have exchange booths and ATMs at the new airport. If you need to use a Bangkok Bank, or any other bank's ATM, you cannot do it at the airport. I think this is a mistake, but probably they paid some fee to be able to get exclusive access at the airport.

The air conditioning is certainly adequate. The temperature on level 4 (departures) is the coolest, but all levels are certainly as good or better than Don Muang. This was at night, when the outside temperature was a bit cooler, so I don't know if the same will be true on hot days. Inside a few of the shops, the temperature was a bit on the warm side.

There are plenty of booths for you to pay the departure tax for international flights, but no machines as of yet. I suppose it's not a priority to get those machines transferred from Don Muang. Almost all the booths were manned, even at 04:30 without hardly any departing passengers. I heard reported earlier that they were not collecting the departure tax, but it appears that they are as of today.

It was reported that THAI will stop their complementary limousine service because they are not allowed access to the curbside anymore. I asked the counter girl at domestic check-in about this, and she said they still had the service, and you could go to the Thai Limousine counter on level 1 to enquire more. I didn't have time, but I will check more on this next time I'm through the airport.

I asked at customer service about Star Alliance Gold members using either the Royal Silk Lounges or the Royal Orchid Lounges and she said we could use either. From the THAI leaflet, it wasn't clear if those members might be excluded from the Royal Silk Lounges.

Ok, back to my trip report. I arrive at domestic check-in at a little after 05:00, because I want to get to the lounge to write this trip report and post it. But I'm surprised to see long lines at all the check-in counters, and on top of it all 15 or so of them say "economy". I'm flying business class, so I'm a bit upset that I paid good money, just to be lumped together with economy-class passengers. I mention this to one of the TG staff, and a minute later two of the lanes are changed from "Economy" to "Royal Silk", but already the damage is done as there are probably 20 people in those lines, most of whom are economy passengers and nobody asks them to move to another line. Oh well, mai pen rai, I expected problems on opening day and can't complain too much. The check-in is very slow. It seems to be computerized, but I'm guessing the staff isn't up to speed yet on how to use it, or the system is overloaded, or something is holding up the process. I ask about the Thai business class lounge for domestic passengers, but I'm directed by the check-in girl to the "Royal Silk Waiting Lounge" just opposite of the Row A check-in. It is full of all sorts of people just sleeping, and no checks are being made to verify that only Royal Silk passengers are allowed in. A bit of a disappointment, so I check next door at Customer Service, and they inform me that business class passengers are free to use the Royal Silk Lounge near the departure gates.

So I go to the Royal Silk Lounge and find a nicely decorated room. They have just basic snacks and beverage, and the seats are not nearly as comfortable as many other lounges I've been in, but overall it's ok for a domestic lounge. There are four computers, one of which I'm using to type this report. But unfortunately the internet isn't working yet. The girl said maybe by tomorrow. So I'll have to post this report a bit later after I arrive at my final destination. She told me that the lounge is available to all Royal Silk passengers plus all Star Alliance Gold Card members traveling in economy.

Ok, I’ve now arrived at my destination. Just to add, for any of you traveling with Bangkok Airways, they have a new domestic lounge just beyond THAI’s. I didn’t go inside, but could see through the glass and I prefer the decoration in the THAI lounge.

Pushback from the gate was delayed 20 minutes due to it taking excessive time to load the baggage (likely there was some delays in getting the baggage to the plane). After pushback, the plane just goes forward a bit and you’re right there on the runway ready for takeoff. Total time from disconnecting the tow to being in the air was maybe 3 minutes. Nice! Very nice indeed!

There are lots of empty gates at Suvarnabhumi. There should be no more need for remote parking and using the buses, unless the LCCs don’t want to pay for direct gate access. Even Nok Air had a bird at the gate. A first that I’ve seen.

Overall, I'm very impressed with Suvarnabhumi. Of course there are some problems as everyone expected there would be. But I've seen nothing to suggest massive problems on the scale that some naysayers were predicting. Someone I overheard at check-in was saying that 24 hours ago the place was much busier than today. I certainly wouldn't be surprised if there still aren't major problems that crop up. Lots of staff still don't know a lot about the new airport and everyone should allow plenty of extra time during the next few weeks. But to all the people who went into making Suvarnabhumi happen, I say "good job! I’m impressed”.

*Opening Day meaning 24 hour period from official opening, not calendar day

Great report. Thank you so much for your time and effore!

I am not talking about adding thousands of seats in the departure hall.

If you are sending your 16 year daughter on her first trip going alone I am sure that you want to go to the airport together with her to see that she arrives at the right terminal, that she come to the right checkincounter etc etc. And you have to be there 2 hours before flight time, maybe you add 30 min for eventual trafficjams etc so you are there in good time.

After checkin maybe you want to have chat with her, still 2.5 hours before the flight so why rush.

In your world you are not allowed to follow her to the airport, you send her by taxi, with a driver that does not talk english, that might drop her at wrong terminal etc. etc.

Still I like airports that are designed for their customers. Not to make records to be the biggest, the highest, with most corruption etc etc etc.

If they design to cut the walking distance from the plane to immigration, to bagage and from there to taxi/airportbus (without loading your luggage in and out of the local airportbus).

If they design so it is easy to find your way to the right departureterminal, the right checkin, easy to find a restroom, easy to find your gate without too much walking.

And maybe with a variety of dutyfree shops that have prices that are lower than outside the airport.

I don't think that will be a more expensive design and they does not need to rise their fees.

What do you think?

In your original post, you quoted an article that said this

Now on to question 2: On that very same fourth floor, the only departure hall, how many seats are there for the public to rest their weary bones?

A couple of thousand would seem reasonable, you'd think.

That is where I came up with the "thousands of seats" from. I thought the author of that article was absolutely looney to suggest that thousands of seats in the departure halls of airports should be a standard feature. If you say you think there should be 500 rather than the existing 100, I wouldn't argue the point. I see 100 as being adequate being I'll likely never use the seats, but I can see some people using them and 500 wouldn't be so excessive as to cause major conjestion problems.

With regard to wanting to bring your daughter to the airport and spend some time on her first trip, certainly as we already discussed, you can go have a seat in one of the coffee shops or restaurants and enjoy eating/drinking something while spending your time with her. And certainly wouldn't that be more enjoyable as opposed to just sitting in a departure hall? For me, I don't see the big deal. If there's empty seats in the departure hall and you want to sit, then sit. If there aren't any, then go to a restaurant and buy something and sit there. Whether they put 100 seats in or 500 seats, or even 1000 seats, undoubtedly there will be certain times when all the seats are occupied and you'd still be forced to find alternate seating or do without. There is no solution to this problem without creating a new and bigger problem.

Your other comments seem to me to be valid. Certainly designing an airport with the customer in mind would be great. It would have been great if this new airport could have been built without any corruption, which will only be paid for by us passengers. It would be great if they would have allowed real competition at the shops, resulting in fairer prices. But this is Thailand and we all know that corruption exists here as it does in many other countries. We can dream of a perfect airport, but I don't think it's really reasonable to expect one. Even without the corruption, the airport, just like any other business, has to balance the customer's wishes against the economics. You could build the world's greatest airport that had everything any passenger would want, but if the construction and maintenance costs were too much so that the passengers and airlines couldn't afford to pay the fees, then it would do nobody any good.

Anyways, based on initial reports, I certainly don't think the new airport is the best that it could be. I think many people's complaints are valid, at least to some extent. But I also am very thankful for the new airport as I'm sure it will be a vast improvement over Don Muang, certainly after the initial kinks are worked out.

You know, I really like Don Muang. It is one of the easiest airports to go through anywhere in the world. I fly well over 100 sectors a year, and hit plenty of airports and Don Muang is fine by me.

From my Hotel to DM, checkin and through immigration is rarely ever more than 30 minutes (OK, my flights are almost always between 23:00 and 01:00, but still ...). Coming in is always brisk with a minimum of fuss, kerbside cabs 10 metres from the door - ok, I have waited 5 minutes in the queue on rare occasions. If you want to talk about airport disaster zones, DM is not on my list.

I will miss DM.

I will in and out of TNA next week and 3-4 times more before year end, so I will have some first hand experience soon

You know - I agree. DM was great. I fly about as much as you and not many airports are as user friendly as DM. Christ try DBX - supposedly state of the art - always a nightmare. Business class lounge a zoo...

Thailand the land of smiles is know more it is the land of nightmers for many european who have lived and worked there along time in some ways contributing to the econamy and the country, but that has never been apresiated, as with all third world type places when they have a good tourist base and infestucture is bulit up mostly from forighner efferts they get all snoty and o lets get rid of the forighner, it is very difficult to start a small busness in thailand now, and a recidency card for 5 years like you can get in spain forget it, YES YOU CAN SPEND ALL YOUR MONEY ON CONDOES ADVERTISED EVERY WERE COME AND LIVE IN THE LAND OF SMILES GET AWAY FROM THE COLD.

RUBBISHHHHH. you can buy a condo but you canot live in it perminantly Thailand is becomeing a nightmer the forighner is not respected andy more i say lets all get out and give another country a chance they will apreseate more the investments and people who want to live and work there.

Thailand is rude arigant and not a safe place any more you will get ripped of very easy more than before, or may be mugged or killed, any one thinking of going there dont go some were elese the thais are faulse fake people who hate the forighner but love his cash MONEY DOLLERRRRR. The thousands of poor people who will be thoughn out of thailand now due to new rules is hart braking the paine they must be suffreing of haveing nearly all there cash chewed up buy the thais and know just being thown out like rubish yes rubish that is why they are doing all this tuff stuff to get rid of the rubbish. GET OUT WHILE YOU CAN WITH WHAT YOU CAN BEFORE THEY MAKE IT EVEN MORE BAD OR WORSE, DONT INVEST IN THAILAND , DONT BELIVE ALL THE SMILES BEHINED THE SMILES IS A DEVIL WHO WANT YOUR DOLLERRRR NOT YOU.

Goodness me, all day on the beer?!? Lets hope its not Leo - it will be a hel_l of hangover!!

The time will come, when nations will experience continued 9/11 or 7/7 type terrorist attacks, and if the result is mass casualty of innocent human lives, then there will be a public outcry.

The greatest threat to civil liberties today is those above said further attacks.

Terrorism can be stopped, but only by extreme measures. The immediate arrest of all potential terrorists, torture of terrorists into inculpating others. Every one will be surveilled. Convicted terrorists would be punished, along with their kith and kin. All advocasy of terrorism would be criminalised (including peaceful advocasy). Then finally a complete ban on media reporting of terrorism, so terrorists would be denied propaganda.

The above posters who complain of loss of civil liberties, by providing fingerprints into a foreign land have lost touch with reality. Times have changed for ever, it is our duty to mankind to surrender these freedoms, so that future generations can have the chance to live with little terrorism, especially as nuclear and biological terrorism is just a decade away.

I believe that General Macarthy put this situation in the best light... He saw "Reds Under The Bed". I trust you are looking for good old Osama under yours!!

New changes for the Extension of stay based on Business for Oct 1st 2006.

You must now have a work permit to apply (Before you could just show the receipt from the Labor dept to apply for the extension of stay based on business)

The Thai business must have registered paid up capital of no less than 2 million Baht.

The business must have income to pay for all foreign employee salaries, including fringe benefits in the next accounting year.

The net equity on the balance sheet, must be not less than one million Baht.

No more one Thai employee ratio for a Consultant or Agent with the extension of stay based on business. This now requires 4 Thai employees per foreigner.The only categories that are allowed this ratio of one Thai employee for one foreigner are a Representative Office of an International Trade Office, Regional Office and Branch office of an International Company.

http://www.sunbeltasiagroup.com

More:

New salary requirements for the extension of stay based on Business starting Oct 1st, 2006

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=85886

I am sorry to be thick here... But...

I have communicated with Thai Consulate in UK and they have advised that, as I attend business meetings in Thailand, I require "B" Visa, whereas before I entered in a Visa Exemption. They have said that I need to do this to correct my status, which I am happy to do. I do not need a WP for meetings, so what is this all about??

the thais have done a brilliant job getting this airport up and running and i had total faith they would.

now i wonder what the doom sayers are going to say. ?

you remember punters dont you.?

all the people that slagged off the thais saying that it would never happen, there where threads of that garbage on here.

where are they now ?

hiding somewhere i suspect.

maybe under a very large rock holding hands together.

well done thailand and i love you more everyday.

Agreed. I will reserve judgement until the day I actually use it. In a week. Fingers crossed until then everything OK.

On this leaking roof - where is it exactly leaking to? Has anybody actually seen the effects??

Eerie experience interrupts rite

Ghostly encounters at Suvarnabhumi

Airports of Thailand (AoT) organised its largest religious rite at the new Suvarnabhumi airport yesterday to ward off evil spirits, only to experience an encounter with the unexplained. Rumours of occasional ''ghostly sightings'' have gone around since the first foundation brick was laid at the airport many years ago. The AoT is determined to correct the growing perception that the airport is possibly harbouring some ''uninvited inhabitants'' and to put its staff members' minds at ease. Yesterday's rite was presided over by 99 monks who chanted en masse to improve the luck of the new airport, set to open commercially on Thursday. However, halfway through the rite, a man appeared, quivering, and began to speak in a commanding voice claiming to be ''Poo Ming'', a guardian spirit of the land partially developed into the airport. He ordered that a proper spirit house be built at the airport to allow for its smooth operation. The man, who was unidentified, later passed out and woke up to find the spirit had left him. AoT president Chotisak Asapaviriya said the ceremony helped to boost the morale of airport staff, some of whom were unnerved after learning of frequent car crashes on the road running parallel to the airport's eastern runway. Some veiled figures have sometimes been spotted on the 6km-long road.

Continued here:

http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/24Sep2006_news01.php

Oh this is perfect - we have avoid sabotage of both communications and electrical systems, non-printing boarding pass printers, take an umberella for the indoor rain and NOW!!! TAKE A MONK WITH US TO WARD OFF GHOSTLY INTERVENTIONS!!!

I Had noticed this myself. It may be simply that, when you click on a thread advertised by a "breaking news" email from Thai Visa, you do not automatically log-on, you read the forum as a guest. You are only forced to log-on if you wish to post etc. Due to the number of "breaking news" items of late, maybe more members are reading topics directly from the link from their email...

I have a feeling the reshuffles arent being implemented to help border runners. But maybe the new guys in charge want to reach out to farangs and revoke the new laws, you never know.

I very much doubt that reaching out to farangs has a lot to do with anything right now. They need to clear their power base and build their own support system, from there they may well take a broader look at the canvas.

First coup that i feel was the best option available.. Long live the King.

Quite agree with you. We are the last thing on their mind. The only plus for us is that the new man in the chair will obviously have bigger fish to fry than making problems (and bad headlines in the west) for us. This may create an element (especially at the more mainstream tourist entry/exit points, such as the international airports) of a smile and a stamp in the passport.

If I am not mistaken, it was the sacked police chief that made the original announcement on the intended implementation of the Visa rules??

I am much less worried about the fate of MP's and TRT members than I am about the soldiers patrolling Chiangmai and guarding key installations here - none of them are wearing yellow ribbons.

How should we interpret that in Thaksin's home town?

Gaz

I noticed that too, and none of them were smiling as the General had requested

Is this true? No ribbons at all?

Highly significant if so... Maybe trying to prevoke a reaction???

Please confirm.

What's the word on the street Bankonians?

I understood Wednesday was to be a holiday with banks and government offices closed but what about the rest of the business?

Most important is Nana Plaza and Soi Cowboy still a go?

Had a great night in Cowboy tonight. Just got home actually... Shutting the office tomorrow though

fruitbatt

If you believe in such utter twaddle as the existence of stereotypical "national characteristics" perhaps you are living in the wrong century, my friend. This is outdated anthropology-speak worthy of Margaret Mead in the early 20th century. It is also racist bullsh*t and contravenes rule 3 of ThaiVisa.

then how do you account for the fact that thais think , believe and react differently to americans , who in turn think , believe and react differently to pakistanis , who in turn think , believe and react differently to ....etc.etc.etc.

why is it racist to suggest that those brought up in a rural thai village environment will have characteristics of behaviour and values and ways of dealing with things that differ from people brought up in inner city london.

they are called cultural differences. its not racist. its not derogatory. its fact.

we are not all the same on this planet , and when one group of people have to deal with or understand another group , it pays to study the national characteristics of that other group.

the article 'the thai national characteristics" is a well written thesis , that goes a long way to explaining why thais think , behave and react as they do , and why attributes that we think of as negative are seen as positive by thais and vice versa.

is it racist or unfashionably 20th century to describe the thais as "smiling" or the british as "reticent"

God, I thought I would never agree with you an anything, but you have this one spot-on!

Just now the BBC cable channel news was interviewing a woman who was saying she didn't like the way the constitution had been abrogated and she would prefer to see Thaksin tried in a court... and then it was cut off. Now it's back to international news.

I saw that too, I managed to hear the rest of that interview on the world service radio!

What was she saying that was so bad?

Anyone from outside of downtown BKK has checked if ATMs are still alive?

Might be right time to go get some cash.

Withdrew all cash from Kasikorn an hour ago.. A big queue + the machine had run out of 500's.Sukhumvit soi 55.

Was not going to take any chances...

Great what are you going to do with it? If it drops iin value against other currency you are not protected. You really think Kasikorn Bank is going to run out of money? Please! I have 3 million baht in there and it aint going anywhere. If I get more baht vs the USD great!!!! I may send more.

I am going to keep it in my safe. Been here too long to do otherwise. You do what you like - I was answering a question, not wanting a dim argument with you!!

No ATMS and transfers from other accounts to avoid the 40K max per day limit

It could be worse... - I'm stuck with UK cards, so each only has a £300 limit (20K).

Just dont withdraw sterling. wait till dust settles//

Anyone from outside of downtown BKK has checked if ATMs are still alive?

Might be right time to go get some cash.

Withdrew all cash from Kasikorn an hour ago.. A big queue + the machine had run out of 500's.Sukhumvit soi 55.

Was not going to take any chances...

a cheque at 1am?

No ATMS and transfers from other accounts to avoid the 40K max per day limit

Anyone from outside of downtown BKK has checked if ATMs are still alive?

Might be right time to go get some cash.

Withdrew all cash from Kasikorn an hour ago.. A big queue + the machine had run out of 500's.Sukhumvit soi 55.

Was not going to take any chances...

Quick question. Can you speak Thai? I can; and have been non-stop talking about this to Thais for the past few days, all of whom are horrified by the reality of this. If you cannot speak Thai and therefore have not actually been discussing matters with real Thais (that cannot speak English), then shut up. Enough said is the actual spelling

I speak fluent Russian and have been talking to the skanky Russian Ho's around Sukhumvit for several days ... and they are horrifeid!

PS .. Can we have an animated Smiley thats tossing itself too please?

Nostrovia!!

The tourists generally pay inflated prices for the services, usually double. Sure, the jobs created are beneficial, but these tourists rarely indulge in street food etc. Everything is pre paid, pre booked. I read the statistics 2 years back. A much larger percentage of every 1000 bht a bP spends stays in the LOCAL community. Package tourists' money make go to thais, but generally those who are already very wealthy.

I quite agree. I remember years ago when I was over here on Corporate trips and the only money I spent in the local economy was for a girl. Chain hotel rooms/car/food etc. Now, as the type of felang that they want rid of, 100% of my money is spent with local Thais and I would not be seen dead in my old haunts of Novotel, Marriot, etc...

It is not foolish, this new law, but spitefull to ordinary Thais...

... because of this exodus ...

Hi John K,

Please stop giving false news from your imagination !

From what we know until now, the only changes will be these ones :

- a lot of people living in Thailand will have to ask for a Tourist Visa when they used to make simple Visa Run.

- a few people making very frequent short stays in Thailand could have now problem to make them.

Nothing more.

Everything else is pure speculation and talking about Exodus is ridiculous

Pattaya46

How else does describe a situation when visa runners get to the border and are refused re-entry?

Cambridge Dictionary Definition

exodus noun

1. the movement of a lot of people from a place: