Impressions of Suvarnabhumi (Su wan a poom)

First, let me start with the bad things. The name. Compare the way a Westerner would read it, to the way it's said. "Su varn a buh umi" vs "Su wan a poom" . From now on, this blog's offical spelling of the new Bangkok International Airport is - Suwanapoom. Suwanapoom International Airport, Bangkok. Has a nice ring to it.

As for the airport experience, I arrived and heard about some long walking to be done, however, I was 60 feet from the immigration counter when I exited the plane. Not bad at all. I had no wait at all in the immigration line either.. nice touch. Did not try the luggage system.

Leaving was pretty easy, but the "Hey, want a taxi" guys were a bit annoying. Pulled the same trick as in the old airport... go down to departures, and grab a taxi there. They are pretty efficient at making you pay a 50baht sir charge, so haven't yet figured out how to avoid that.

All in all, well done Bangkok.

Also, if you have a car and time, you can watch the planes coming in just off the runway by parking on an overpass. They come right overhead and make for some neat photos.

They are working on the airport link skytrain, which looks like it should be done pretty quickly.