RealityEquation

∗ April Trip: Kathmandu to Bangkok

The coffee in “Coffee’s World” isn’t all that great, but the overwhelming explosion of lights and colours that is the international terminal of Suvarnabhumi International Airport (BKK) means that you really don’t mind. Something else you learn to really not mind is delays in Tribhuvan International (VNKT/KTM). “Delay” is really not the right word, I explained to some Israeli travellers wondering exactly why exactly nobody seemed bothered that they weren’t on board their scheduled Royal Nepal flight yet. I guess there really wasn’t much to explain after I showed them, at 13:05, that my boarding pass mentioned I should be boarding the plane five minutes ago. The aircraft hadn’t even arrived. But having looked at Thai’s TIA landings, pushbacks and takeoffs almost everyday for the past few months, I really hadn’t expected different. Sure, it was ten minutes off of when I had expected it to land, but I’m actually really impressed by the way the Thai 777 pilots made up for the lost time in the sky. In fact, they more than made up. The estimated flight time was 03,50hrs. We touched down after just 3hrs. I noticed mid-flight that we were traveling at around 540mph.

Suvarnabhumi. Wow. We reached the new airport at around 1920hrs when it was already pretty dark (thick clouds, too), just as an Air India 747 took off from the other runway. The lighting, let it be pronounced, is awesome. It seems everything is neon, like they imported starving out-of-work geniuses from Las Vegas to do design the place. It’s really impressive. I’d imagine it only makes things difficult for the pilots trying to maneuver their aircraft into the right gate. (”Do we turn left here where the lights are blinking?”, “No, no, those are there for decoration. We turn right where that glowing elephant is doing cartwheels.” “Ah, yes.”) It’s overwhelming.

Immediately after entering the building, I noticed the newness of it all. But this is Suvarnabhumi - the same airport that just a year ago was plagued by delay and controversy, was mired in trouble with baggage in the first week of operation and, more recently, criticized for cracked taxiways, calling for the old airport Don Muang to be reopened for certain flights. So obviously I’m very excited being here, writing this post from “Coffee World” on the third floor.

Our next flight, BKK-FRA in Lufthansa, won’t board for at least another three hours. Three hours till we find ourselves in a B747-400. Three hours to explore this insane show of stunning engineering. It’s nine now and the Lufthansa counter’s probably open now. Off I venture. More from Rome (or maybe even Frankfurt, if I find the time).

Cheers
Parimal (0900hrs, BKK local time)