Cobra Swamp Errport
that facility is corruption-made-solid. it opened with not-enough bathrooms and numerous other complaints...only a year late though. they just finished the airport-express train.
all those name-brand shops with lots of staff and no customers are favors done by the (now-ousted) regime for the big people, the puuyai. as a result u have to dash 400 meters or more to your gate.
the duty-free shops DID serve a purpose not long ago. the clerk would give you a "free" pack of cigarettes or other small gift and drop in yr bag. u'd leave the shop and some eagle-eyed cops wd pull you aside and ask to see your receipt. naturally, the extra item wasn't on there, so they'd lock u up. while yr trying to process this, a "Sri Lankan" named "Tony" (not making this up--this was reported and a friend of mine got into a kerfuffle with Thai Immig, got locked in the cell and MET "Tony"...luckily he was traveling with his Thai wife!) wd offer to settle things for u...for a hefty fee of course. but considering the jail-sentences described to u, u'd happily pay.
this scam hit the local media, that didn't stop it. once it hit mainstream media (BBC etc), things fell apart. the PM himself,yes, the current guy, went to the airport to prove it had stopped. but the taxi-limo touts, like the gemstone-scammers, continue to operate without interference.
this airport is currently beyond capacity--no expansion-plans were ever made. that's why u see handwritten gate numbers taped to pillars and such. the idea is that it wd serve as a HUB for Asian air travel. too bad it got shut down by a bunch of dingbats in Dec '08. i had plans to meet my buddy Rico and was so furious i was ready to scrap them. Rico said, let's see if we can get there--in the event we did, but his Thai wife (yes, same guy) didn't as she was scheduled to go a week earlier.
we'd booked at a nice place on Koh Lanta for a relaxing chillout vacation. fortunately, we got there OK and the place was untouristed as wonderful Thais had punched a hole in their fellow Thais' rice bowl. the owner was very nice. one night she started explaining to us WHY the dingbats were able to close the airport: "well, they were there, and then they had to use the bathroom, so they let them in, and then they wouldn't leave, so it just couldn't be helped."
we were polite. but we weren't gonna let this rationalizing whaleshit slide. Rico's a lawyer, so he explained to her that signed legal documents must be physically transported daily, or deals will fail. "the airport-occupiers cost Thailand millions of dollars in cash, not to mention future business opportunities," he told her. she wrung her hands.
my turn. i told her that Thai ppl were stuck in HK airport with no money, no food, no place to stay and no way to get home. and that a late-night minibus trying to get to Phuket Airport crashed, with HKers on board. one couple was badly hurt: the woman survived, her husband didn't. that guy died because he came to Thailand for a holiday, i said.
she wrung her hands some more.
JtB
[ Last edited by JackTheBat at 22-4-2011 00:52 ] | |
