I mentioned in a previous post that I came to Suvarnabhumi International Airport to catch another flight out the next day. So obviously I needed to stay somewhere in Bangkok for me to get the next flight out. Turns out, I didn’t really feel like heading out to Khao San Road and oversleep. I figured that I would be better for me to sleep here at the airport itself. This won’t be the first time I would be sleeping at an airport, since I had done it the previous year at the Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport.
As I was going up and down the rows of check in counters, I kept running into people since there were really a lot of them. Or maybe the main lane of the departure hall was not wide enough. Anyway, I was trying to find a place for me to get some shuteye but it was hopeless since there were still way too many people at the late hour. I decided to spend an hour or two outside the terminal building and just watch people go by.
When the crowd finally cleared, I can finally start to choose where I can sleep. The only large groups of chairs were the ones at the end of the terminal, facing immigration to the extreme right. There were a couple of shops here where I can buy some food but I wasn’t really interested. I picked a couple of seats and just lay my bag on the floor and my other backpack as my pillow. Needless to say, it was very uncomfortable, and I could hardly get any sleep. This is compounded by the fact that I started to get extremely cold in the terminal building.
As you can see from the photos, the roof of the terminal building was very high up so attaching airconditioning on the roof was not an option. The solution was to put airconditioning units on the ground so that they ended up looking like filing cabinets. Now the entire terminal building is practically covered in these airconditioning units and the spot I picked to sleep in was right next to one. The others have already been taken. So I didn’t really have a choice and I just took whatever was given to me. Freezing, I managed to get a few hours of sleep before it was almost time for my check in. I was also a little wary of sleeping too soundly, since I was the only one travelling and I do not want my stuff to get stolen. At least I would be able to sleep in the plane.
Going through immigration was a quite interesting since they needed to take your photo when you go out of the country. For this they were using simple web cams. I guess that was enough for them. Just beyond the immigration was a long corridor filled with duty free shopping. The shopping area was quite nice that it made me forget that I was still in Bangkok. A word of caution though, since people have warned me to be careful about my stuff and how other people might slip something into your belongings and blame you for “stealing”. You’d then either have to stay and be put in prison or bribe your way out.
As my flight departure neared, I went to the waiting area for the final security checks. It was here that security found out that I brought more than the allowed amount of liquid in my check-in baggage. Specifically, the liquid soap, mouthwash and the sunblock. I had no choice but to have it thrown away. I was extremely irritated because of this incident, that I couldn’t even talk to the security personnel was they were throwing it way. But you got to hand it to them, they were very thorough. My allowed liquids were then put in a clear plastic zip bag.
I took a few photos of the departure area before heading to my gate, where as it turned out, was already last call. There was a waiting van that would bring me to my Thai Air Asia plane, which was parked way outside the terminal building. I guess if want a cheap flight, I would have to put up with things like this. Anyway, this would mark the start of an amazing journey for me.
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