Flight : Air Asia AK 734 KUL-BKK
Aircraft : Airbus A320-200
Reg. : 9M-AFP ('Amazing' colour scheme)
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| Final approach to the airport. |
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| Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport. Opened in 2006, it replaces Don Mueang as Bangkok's International Airport. It's control tower at 132m height is the world's tallest. |
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| A sight that we will never see in KLIA. A tail of El Al aircraft from Israel, flanked by planes from Turkish and Japan Airlines. |
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| A view from inside the airport. Extensive use of steel and glass. Designed by American architect, Helmut Jahn. |
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| External view. The 3-dimensional steel trusses are exposed externally. |
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| Bangkok's taxis are very colourful. The predominant colour seems to be 'pink'. |
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| The airport is conveniently linked to the city via Suvarnabhumi Airport Rail Link (SARL). The trains were supplied by Siemens from Germany. There are two different services, the Express Line and the City Line. Opted for the City Line because it is cheaper and used extensively by locals. It is also slower and stops at more stations, providing better opportunities to observe Bangkok at a slower pace. Rode to the end of the line to Phaya Thai station which is connected to BTS Skytrain line. |
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| A few of Bangkok's skyscapers. This is the view from SARL's Phaya Thai station. Just across the bridge is Bangkok Mass Transit System BTS Skytrain station. Opted for this line instead of the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) because MRT is an underground service. Skytrain provides an elevated view of Bangkok. |
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| Upmarket residential units. |
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| What did I tell you? If New York is swarmed by its 'yellow' cabs, Bangkok is populated by their 'pink' taxis. |
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| An organic drinks stall. |
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| An unusual angle of a street vendor selling some kind of grilled meat on skewers. A bird's eye view of a basket of bird's eye chillies. The Thais certainly like their food 'hot'. |
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| Here comes the train. The unlimited travel daypass is quite cheap and allowed sight seeing in the comfort of an air-conditioned coach. |
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| Bangkok Mass Transit System BTS Skytrain also uses Siemens trains. |
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| A yet to be opened mixed development building. |
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| The landscaping is simple yet captivating. |
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| Tesco stores in Thailand are known as Tesco Lotus, due to some joint venture with a local company. This particular one is located in On Nut. There is a food court there serving a huge variety of food. However, since all the menus are in Thai and most of the vendors cannot communicate in English, decided to give it a miss for fear on consuming something that I'm not supposed to. So it's back to good old, boring McD. |
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| Fruit stalls outside of Chatuchak Weekend Market. The place is huge. There usually are more than 5,000 stalls in total. Unfortunately I was here on a weekday so decided to just snap this photo from Mo Chit station. Time to plan for another Bangkok trip, on a weekend this time. |
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| Wat Yan Nawa viewed from the platform of Saphan Tak Sin station. Looks like it is going through some renovation works. |
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| Intricate details on the roof of Wat Yan Nawa. |
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| Luxury hotels across the Chao Phraya River. |
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| This boat belongs to one of the 5-star hotels across the river. Most of the hotels have their own boats and provide free shuttle service for their guests to cross the Chao Phraya river where they can then ride the Skytrains to other parts of Bangkok. |
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| They usually have traditional roof and have intricate wood carvings internally. |
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| Tourist disembarking at Sathon Pier. Wanted to take a ride on the Chao Phraya Express but unfortunately time did not permit so only spent some time people-watching. |
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| I'm going to board that boat, the next time I come to Bangkok. Just mark my word. |
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| Finally back to the airport for the flight home. A busy and very cosmopolitan scene. |
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| A mythical Thai guardian statue silently watches over everyone that enter and leave Thailand through the airport. |
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| Some plane spotting at the airport. This is interesting because Air France do not fly to KLIA. This is F-GSPO, a Boeing B777-200ER, still sporting the old livery. |
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| Thai AirAsia Airbus A320-200 HS-ABC featuring a popular Thai rock band 'Carabao' or water buffalo in English. Have a model of this plane in 1:400 scale. |
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| Queuing for take off behind a Thai Airways International Boeing B747-400. Bye Bangkok. Will definitely be back and spend longer time. |
Purposely chose Thai AirAsia for the flight home. First time flying with them. Practically the same as AirAsia except that the plane have Thai registration with Thai flight crews. Of course, menus are also in Thai bahts. Nevertheless, all food served (except for some instant cup noodles) is halal.
Flight : Thai AirAsia FD 3575 BKK-KUL
Aircraft : Airbus A320-200
Reg. : HS-ABR
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