josephbloggs

I have already bought a paper and sit and read there and watch till a set of 3 seats becomes vacant.

Bag them, and stretch out....

That's right, because you deserve those three seats! To Hell with the other people!!

Are you aware of that this thread is nearly 4 years old

Ha ha, no - I didn't notice. What a moron.

I have already bought a paper and sit and read there and watch till a set of 3 seats becomes vacant.

Bag them, and stretch out....

That's right, because you deserve those three seats! To Hell with the other people!!

From VM you are very close to the entrance to the tollway and a straight-shot to SBIA, so a taxi seems like a much better option? Or even the 551 bus? (The mini-vans are not a viable option given the variable length wait-times and location south of the BTS station.) Given the OP's 12:00 Noon arrival at VM, a taxi will have you at the airport by 12:40 PM, while the journey via the BTS and SARL will take a lot longer given the long walks, ticket purchasing, train wait-times. FWIW both the Silom and Sukhumvit BTS lines have been experiencing long intervals over the past week, in some cases up to 20 minutes (the new signalling systems is really bad IMO, even when working, as the train control is crazy variable), leading to packed platforms and trains, so getting on a BTS train at VM with luggage may be challenging. Additionally, and not specific to the OP's inquiry, I have seen MRT (subway) security pulling aside travelers with luggage and having them open everything up, adding to a potential delay.

Long walks? It's about a minute from the BTS station to the ARL concourse.

Ticket purchasing? Maybe another minute. It's never taken me more than that.

Train wait times? This is a valid point but you know even if you were really unlucky it won't be longer than 15 minutes.

Personally if I need to know I'll be there by a certain time I'd take the train. The OP is pushing it as it is because Air Asia has some horrendous check-in queues. Why risk a taxi with all the variables that entails? By your reckoning (40 minues in a cab) you may save five or ten minutes if you were really unlucky on the train timings and the traffic was good, but you could lose so much more.

I;ve used them many times and never had a problem,even leaving booze and fags inside the case.

If your worried have your bag wrapped in clingfilm.

cheers

Wow, here I was reading the OP's post thinking, "This will be full of replies from the usual Thai-bashing negative Thai Visa nothing-better-to-do-than-criticise sad life grumble bags that we always get on here". They'll be saying don't use it, everything will go missing (even though they've no doubt never used the service), what can Suvarnabhumbi ever do right (nothing, nothing I tell ya! That train that goes from the centre of town direct to the airport terminal in 15 minutes is a DISGRACE!!)?

But, wow, what a pleasant surprise! Are the normal posts to follow?

I don't remember many, or hardly any, people here calling the ARL a dismal failure or suggesting it be shut down...

Here you go:

"The Express train is an abysmal failure. They might as well dump it now, before they commit anything more to the service."

Posted by some misery guts on page 2. That was what stuck in my mind - an absolutely ridiculous statement I'm sure you'll agree.

If I started a thread titled: "The Sky is Falling" I swear 60% of TV would join in saying, "Of course it is falling, this is Thailand!" or "I knew it would, Thais can't do anything right!" etc etc. Sad.

Either we are all whinging, overly critical, complaining and ungrateful or the Thais have it arse about face once again.

Make your own mind up on that one.

I have. And it is obvious to me. (P.S. it is not the latter).

Pretty much everyone on here loves a good old whinge about nothing with some condescending comments about Thais thrown in for good measure.

I honestly can't believe there are people on here calling for the service to be shut as it is a "dismal failure". Then again, actually I can believe it....and it's sad.

Ok, so far, sounds like it'll be either Vertigo or Sofitel silom sky lounge. :jap:

Vertigo is by far the best I have been to. I would say the view and atmosphere there are miles better than Sirocco. I have taken a few people there over the years - it is the best place in town for a sunset "wow factor" cocktail. And the prices - whilst not cheap - are just about on the right side of acceptable. Sirocco is a blatant rip-off in my opinion. I don't see how you can beat Vertigo for an all round experience.

Also, I agree with the other posters about Baiyoke. If you get a nice clear day (they happen occasionally) then it is well worth going up to the viewing deck - but the bar and restuarant are both pretty shabby. Such a shame really because the view is fantastic.

Also where to buy those cool lights that look like tear drops: silver in color. Outside Ekamai Major.

Thanks too in advance:)

If you mean those cool strips of lights that "fall" from top to bottom that they have outside the Funky Villa complex on Thonglor soi 10, you can get them at the light shop on the corner of Sukhumvit 35. Just saw them in the upstairs window yesterday as I had been looking for them too. The shop was closed though so I don't know how much they cost.

It hasn't been set yet.

It was fireworks. I could see them and then heard them.

They were a lot more "rumbley" than fireworks usually are and did sound very much like thunder.

But it was definitely fireworks.

Yeah, I can confirm this too. They were very long and rumbly though - the first time I heard them I wondered what was going on so went to my balcony to have a look.

8,200 baht a month + accomodation + tips(?) plus you pay extra for their ID/Permits etc... Sounds like you are overpaying them to me.

I hope you are joking. You do realise you are talking about human beings that may have families. For here that is just about an ok salary, but to say they are getting too much? Seriously, where do you come from?

Pretty sure you must have been joking....

So, just out of curiosity, I read somewhere that the price was due to go up for the phayathai line, when is that, does anyone know?

From the 1st Jan 2011 it will increase to 15-45 baht depending on journey length (from the flat rate of 15 baht now).

The Express will increase to 150 baht each way, as opposed to 100 baht (same day) return now.

Really? How many international airports elsewhere in the world have a rail link and at the same time have a case of a terrorist blowing up an apartment building along with himself?

Airports with direct terminal-accessible rail links (heavy rail or metro/underground) that have had terrorist attacks within their home nation's borders in the last 15 years:

- London Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted

- Manchester

- Birmingham

- Tokyo Narita (and a particularly scary terrorist attack as it involved releasing sarin gas on an underground train)

- Tel Aviv Ben Gurion (which I don't believe has airport-style security even though it is the most terrorist-at-risk airport in the world but happy to be proven wrong)

- Madrid

- Istanbul (via Light Metro)

- Atlanta

- Washington Reagan Airport

- Moscow's three main airports

These are just some that I can think of off the top of my head - I'm sure there are lots more. I don't think any have any serious security checks on them - but happy to be proven wrong. Plenty of developed countries in that list as well.

Quite frankly I think the OP's post is ridiculous. Being so condescending towards Thailand because it doesn't implement security on a commuter rail line that happens to include an airport stop? Come on...

Though perhaps we can all cobble together a few baht to help cover the cost in packaging him in bubble wrap for every trip on public transport he takes just in case he's in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Bad people do bad things. This is reality. Security is a balance otherwise none of us would ever leave our homes. Bangkok has done nothing wrong in not implementing the ridiculous security checks the OP implies should be enforced.

So this is just a commuter line that happens to include an airport stop? Or was this a line built with the specific intention to link the city to the airport? Words twisting....tsk tsk.

All those cases you have mentioned were terrorist acts directed on to the train systems, and without any intention to take control (or part) of the airport area. As I have said, I am not considering the trains as the soft target. If this is so, I would have included the mass transit system as a whole.

And I doubt grade A or B movies would have taught a bomb maker how to blow himself up.

If you had follow the news with regards to the series of terror acts, the suspected source of funds, and the alleged training grounds, would the points that I have raised be ridiculous?

So, if I've got this right, you think we need airport style security on the train because some bad person/people might use the train to go to the airport and take it over?

It is still ridiculous, regardless of the alleged training grounds in Cambodia, or where their funds came from. In fact that has nothing to do with anything. The train is a form of transport that goes to the airport. So are buses. So are private cars. Some people could reach it by motorbike! Therefore we need security everywhere and on everything in case someone goes to the airport and does a bad thing there.

Really? How many international airports elsewhere in the world have a rail link and at the same time have a case of a terrorist blowing up an apartment building along with himself?

Airports with direct terminal-accessible rail links (heavy rail or metro/underground) that have had terrorist attacks within their home nation's borders in the last 15 years:

- London Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted

- Manchester

- Birmingham

- Tokyo Narita (and a particularly scary terrorist attack as it involved releasing sarin gas on an underground train)

- Tel Aviv Ben Gurion (which I don't believe has airport-style security even though it is the most terrorist-at-risk airport in the world but happy to be proven wrong)

- Madrid

- Istanbul (via Light Metro)

- Atlanta

- Washington Reagan Airport

- Moscow's three main airports

These are just some that I can think of off the top of my head - I'm sure there are lots more. I don't think any have any serious security checks on them - but happy to be proven wrong. Plenty of developed countries in that list as well.

Quite frankly I think the OP's post is ridiculous. Being so condescending towards Thailand because it doesn't implement security on a commuter rail line that happens to include an airport stop? Come on...

Though perhaps we can all cobble together a few baht to help cover the cost in packaging him in bubble wrap for every trip on public transport he takes just in case he's in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Bad people do bad things. This is reality. Security is a balance otherwise none of us would ever leave our homes. Bangkok has done nothing wrong in not implementing the ridiculous security checks the OP implies should be enforced.

Phew, you and LakeGeneve have restored my faith in Thai Visa!! I thought I was all alone in this thread.....now it seems there are at least two other sensible people. Hurrah!!

Just to clarify, I am not against security - I Iove security!! I lock my doors, I have a safe, I think the more security you have inside an airport the better and I don't mind the delays because of it. Honestly, I will take off my shoes, belt, have a full body scan, whatever, if it leads to genuinely improved airport security. But people sneering because there are no security checks before boarding the train here because "it's Thailand, what else do you expect?" when there is no such thing on any airport train I have ever come across in my life is just ridiculous, condescending, and unfair. Seriously, I want to know what the poster who made that comment expects, and why he thinks the excellent system here is somehow behind the rest of the world.

I seem to recall that shoes was once never an item that was inspected in security checks... until someone was stopped from trying to set his ablazed. If he had succeeded, we probably will not be checking shoes even now because such an act is "just ridiculous, condescending, and unfair".

We're not talking about airport security here, we're talking about a train.

And the comment was ridiculous, condescending and unfair, because the poster was being derogatory towards Thai standards when the standards in this case are exactly the same as anywhere else in the world - perhaps even higher.

If I were you I would't worry about bombs on the ARL, but rather worry about when the first train is going to derail .

Why? What have you seen that suggests this might happen?

I don't think he is being condescending to Thailand at all, I personally would have thought in the current world security climate designing security features into a new system would have been sensible.

I know the MRT is not an airport train but they have security checks there, though I accept not on the BTS, are you saying that whilst the MRT is considered to be at risk the Airport Link isn't?

No, I'm not saying that at all. The "security" at the MRT stations is ludicrous - you may as well not have it. A cursory peek into your bag is not a security check. If you are in a hurry they don't bother you at all. And those metal detectors beep like mental but they never ever pull anyone over. So I don't consider it more at risk, I consider the pointless gesture they go through to be worthless. Likewise the metal detectors at shopping malls. Walk in through the carpark or (usually) anything but the main entrance and there is nothing. You have to love the entrance to Siam Centre from the Skytrain. There is a constantly beeping metal detector which you have to walk through - a stern man makes sure of it. Just to the right of this entrance is an escalator that goes about six foot to an entrance on the next floor. Here there is no "security" at all, and it is literally a few feet away.

Again, if you are going to have serious security on the train because it goes to the airport, then you need to also have it on all the buses that go there, and all the roads in and out. One of my favourite bits of pointless "security" is when entering the airport carparks. You have to open your boot, they look inside at a load of suitcases/boxes/bags, then wave you through. What is the point in that? If someone had a bomb then they'd just put it in a suitcase or a box or a bag. It is an airport carpark - of course people's boots are full of stuff!! Why do they want to look inside? Do they think a bomb would be labelled?

By the way they have trialed security checks on The Heathrow Express http://www.dft.gov.u...heathrowexpress

Yes, that was for about three weeks, nearly five years ago, when everyone was jittery after the awful July bombings.

Just to clarify, I am not against security - I Iove security!! I lock my doors, I have a safe, I think the more security you have inside an airport the better and I don't mind the delays because of it. Honestly, I will take off my shoes, belt, have a full body scan, whatever, if it leads to genuinely improved airport security. But people sneering because there are no security checks before boarding the train here because "it's Thailand, what else do you expect?" when there is no such thing on any airport train I have ever come across in my life is just ridiculous, condescending, and unfair. Seriously, I want to know what the poster who made that comment expects, and why he thinks the excellent system here is somehow behind the rest of the world.

Indeed it's a soft target like most everything in Thailand. What would make you think it would be any different?

So in England, or the US, or anywhere else, you have to go through security checks before you get on a train do you? No, of course you don't. So why be so condescending towards Thailand? I don't understand what people are expecting, I really don't.

I can walk on to the Heathrow Express in London with no security checks at all. None. Same wth any other airport train I have ever used anywhere in the world. Why do you expect here to be different? I can just imagine all these same people whinging on TV if they were delayed on the train to have their bags scanned or to queue up to pass through metal detectors every time they wanted to board.

The only train I know of with security checks is the Eurostar, but the reason for that is obvious.

For UK passport holders, Hong Kong cancel the old passport as soon as they receive the application, but the old passport is retained, when the new one is received the corners have to be cut off the old one.

The embassy in Hong Kong received my passport renewal application on 17 September. I'm still waiting for the new passport. If it hasn't arrived by the time I need to do my 90 day report (15 October) presumably I can use my "old" passport, even if it has been cancelled?

You should be able to, yes. I applied for my new passport during the time that the embassy would send it to Hong Kong for you (and just a few days before they stopped doing this and you had to do it yourself).

They told me that my current passport would be electronically cancelled as soon as my application was processed in Hong Kong, but it would still be perfectly valid for doing the usual Thai immigration stuff/90 day reporting etc.

Assuming that was correct information you have nothing to worry about.

I guess I got lucky with my application because I had my new passport in about ten days.

Airport Express Line: Average: 611 passenger a day - Revenue 61,100 Baht a day

Makkasan station: 296 passengers a day - Revenue 29,600 Baht a day

Suvannabhum station: 315 passengers a day - Revenue 31,500 Baht a day

Seeing as this is a non-stop service between those two stations, where are 19 passengers disappearing to between Suvannabhumi and Makkasan???

Cheap maids and nannies

Yeah, I mean what a drag it would be to have to raise your own kids or clean up after yourself.

Things I don't like about Thailand - people who think like that. ^

On the offchance your comment was tongue-in-cheek I apologise, but having spent a bit of time on Thai Visa I am 95% positive it wasn't. Sad, very very sad.

Not tongue in cheek at all. So, since you seem to be an authority, who do you suggest baby sits a child while both parents are working?

Actually I was being a bit of a bell end there, I apologise. If you are both working it's a different matter, but I know plenty of people who just use nannies to raise their kids for them because they can't be arsed (hey, it's cheap!) and it really annoys me. I've heard two people acually bragging about how they never changed a single nappy of any of their kids. That's something to brag about? Pretty sad.

Cheap maids and nannies

Yeah, I mean what a drag it would be to have to raise your own kids or clean up after yourself.

Things I don't like about Thailand - people who think like that. ^

On the offchance your comment was tongue-in-cheek I apologise, but having spent a bit of time on Thai Visa I am 95% positive it wasn't. Sad, very very sad.

It is worth pointing out that at the end of the line of the Airport Express at Hong Kong station most people grab a taxi to their final destination and although there is a link to the MTR it is quite a walk and relatively few take it.

Good point. Likewise the KLIA Express in KL. Whenever I've used it I've had to get a cab at the other end. When I arrive at Paddington off the horribly overpriced Heathrow Express I have to take a (horribly overpriced) cab. There's no way you want to be humping big luggage on the tube. Surely that's just accepted and normal?

Then again maybe MalaysianVisa.com and EnglishVisa.com are both full of whingey expats complaining about that very same thing, has anyone checked?

Same as Mo-Chit BTS station which requires a taxi ride to get to Mo-Chit bus station Again many problems traveling with heavy bags to catch a bus So who benefits from all these corrupt cock up ? Land owners and taxi drivers spring to mind There would be a lot of taxi drivers out of work if the airport and bus station links went completely to the correct destination as originally specified. In the UK airport links are now from central cities right into the terminal buildings

What the heck are you talking about? Who's catching a bus from where? The train DOES go completely to the correct destination as specified. Like the UK, it DOES go from the city centre right into the terminal building. Have you read any of the replies? Have you actually been anywhere near this train? Obviously not.

Yet another know-it-all-Thailand-can't-do-anything-right nay sayer who actually knows nothing about the subject at hand. All this misinformation is starting to become irritating.

A very inaccurate article, a bit surprised that it's not only been posted on this site, but also emailed round to the whole member database. Some examples:

..................

Nice one Dantilly, you must have been writing this at the same time I was writing mine. Almost the same post!!