Bangkok, Thailand
(19 – 22 April 2012)
Day 00: 19 April 2012
From: Changi International Airport
(Terminal 1), Singapore
ETD: 22:10
Airline: AirAsia
To: Suvarnabhumi International Airport,
New Bangkok, Thailand
ETA: 23:30
Typical me, I arrived at Changi
International Airport 1 hour before the flight. Yes, the queen of
tardiness strikes again. I was quite confident though since I did a
web check in using my mobile phone on my way home to pick up my stuff
before going to the airport. The only problem is I don't have a print
out email of my check in. Am I good or what? Luckily, Air Asia has
this kiosk where you just need to scan the bar code of your boarding pass in your mobile
phone/print out email. Thinking that luck is on my side, I
immediately scan the bar code on the kiosk but to my dismay I only received an
error. I tried again. Still an error. I ask an assistant and he just
directed me to the counter. Since I don't know what went wrong, if it's because of my
GPRS or because I am late and I can only use the barcode 1 hour
before the scheduled departure, I just follow his advise and went to the counter. Now this is bad as I still need to
line up. Fortunately, the queu is faster than I thought and I am able to get to my
boarding gate right on time. Plus one point for Air Asia.
The plane arrived right on time. Since, it's a budget airline I'm expecting it to be crammed inside and yes I am right. The ride was quite good and comfortable though I'm wondering why they turn the plane like they were drifting a car on a mountain way. The cabin crew were accommodating and pretty but hard to comprehend as their English is not that good. The view outside when we came to Thailand area of responsibility is beautiful, the lights was way better than Manila at night from above. We arrived at Bangkok five minutes earlier than the expected time of arrival. Well if you ask me I am definitely riding Air Asia again (of course if they have promos. Hahaha!)
Suvarnabhumi International Airport is
really big. I think bigger than Changi Airport but I'm not sure since
it looks like they only have one terminal for international flights.
We rode a bus going to the airport terminal from the airplane. Its
over crowded in the bus because all the passengers in our flight
squeezed themselves in. The travel time was about 5 minutes from the
airplane to the terminal.
The terminal is a haven for
shopaholics, there's a lot of boutiques where you can shop from Burberry, Channel and the likes to Bangkok own signature brands. It was
made of glass and the design, I thought of it as typical Thai's
structure. Overall the airport is nice and well lighted. They just
need to add more signs to direct the people on where to go.
At the immigration, it's also very
convenient. No long lines, maybe since I arrived midnight and there's
not much question asked. I just find the immigration officers wearing
a surgical mask a bit offending. Anyways, I went directly to where
the public transportation is (2 floors down) since I won't be able to ride the
airport train link as it closes midnight, I decided to take a taxi.
Upon exiting the terminal's arrival
area, a long queue of taxis are waiting. There's an assistant who
will assist you in giving direction to the taxi driver. But beware as
they don't ensure that the cab drivers will bill you according to the
meter. Once the taxi entered the highway right outside the airport,
the driver charge me for 400 baht, he will pay the toll and no
surcharge he said. Too tired to argue and converting the fare to SGD I just
agreed (16 sgd is not bad at all plus it's safer as he might leave me
in the middle of the highway). The drive was quite long, passing
through long stretch of highways and bridges. It took us 30 minutes to arrived at
the hotel without traffic.
Hey let's talk about the hotel and
my first day on my next entry.
