Tuesday, August 02, 2011

Bangkok Airport Link, Don’t

Well for those of you who are arriving in Bangkok, first advise, don’t take the bloody overhyped Airport Link. Well, fast as it may be, but when I arrived at the Makkasan station, it was like arriving on a deserted island after a shipwreck in the Pacific Ocean. See, Makkasan is supposed to be the so called “City Air Terminal” and one would perceived it to be well served or linked by other connecting public transport at least. Arriving at Makkasan, we found the place almost deserted. There were little staffs on duty and when asked where the taxi queue was, we were told, it’s on the main road. Main road??

That’s when we realized it meant going to the ground floor, out of the terminal, going on foot under the station lugging my baggage to the main road some 500 meters away and to flag a cab by ourselves. And while on the main road, I truly enjoyed inhaling the exhaust fumes of traffic which was at a standstill. I was also thrilled by the experience of waiting extremely long for the crawling taxi. City planners in Thailand (oh they so brilliant) decided to place the City Terminal next to one of the most congested roads (Ratchadaphisek - Phetchaburi intersection) in Bangkok just to proof to tourist the notorious traffic jams in Bangkok are for real. And I had heard on the news lately, the record breaking lowest number of passengers in a day was 300. The average was 1,600. A billion dollar project that’s more like a joke.