I dream of ice cream and planes parking in mini Sydney Opera Houses

Some websites say that Suvarnabhumi is pronounced Suwanapoom; others say it should be Suvanapoom (our pilot said it this way). Whichever way you pronounce that word, Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport is massive! It definitely is a major upgrade from the Don Muang airport. As your plane taxies, you can already see the airplane parking bays. They reminded me of the Sydney Opera House.

The passenger walkways from the plane all had images of Thailand’s king, all wishing him a long life. I read that he chose the name Suvarnabhumi. Of course, his picture also appears in almost everywhere in the city. He must really be a great man. I got the impression that his pictures were mounted by people who TRULY loved and respected him. Very unlike the pictures put up by some paid minion of your friendly neighborhood trapo.

We got off the plane and went to immigration. Suvarnabhumi had more natural lighting and, to me at least, felt more open. Kumi and I thought their passport control area lacked space. People took up the whole place. I was even thinking, “This is it? I though it was big.” Hah! The area looked small because there were A LOT of people coming in.

Our counter was in front of baggage conveyor belt #9. Our luggage was supposed to be discharged through belt #21. Boy, that was a long walk to the other side of the arrival area. And what do you know? There was another row of immigration counters on that side of the building. And more people coming in!

If Kumi and I didn’t know any better, we would have blown our pocket money off by hiring a limousine taxi to take us to the hotel. When you go out, the people lined up will offer you their “taxi.” We were looking for the public taxi queue but we only saw big, shiny luxury cars. That couldn’t be their public taxi! Last I checked even Singapore cabs weren’t that fancy.

So we walked back to the other side of the building—another long walk, and I was wearing platform wedge sandals! Okay, still no public taxi. Just limo taxis and the airport express buses. We went inside again and finally saw the sign that said public taxis are in the lower level. Whew! The fare to the city went up 50 baht from two years ago; this time we paid 400 baht.

Our next visit to the airport was for our departure. I saw that they had a viewing deck but unfortunately we were unable to go to it. Next time.

Apparently, you don’t have to pay the Bangkok airport tax anymore. I sure hope that was the case because we didn’t pay anything!

And did I mention that the Suvarnabhumi Airport was massive? From immigration, we walked past the usual airport duty-free shops. We used the moving walkways. We walked some more. We stopped by the duty-free shops, then we walked some more.

And then we saw the Dairy Queen signage. Mmmm…ice cream… We have been craving for ice cream the past two days. Finally, we can have our ice cream and eat it too!

I especially love the location of the DQ store. I love seeing planes take off and land, and from where we sat, I could see the arriving planes. I even saw the PAL plane that would take us home. I could have sat there with my feet propped up on the table, eating my ice cream and watching planes land all afternoon.

But, home beckons and soon we have to board the plane. We walk some more. We go through baggage inspection. We go down an escalator, walk to our boarding gate, then go down some more. We already surrender our boarding passes so we are essentially “boarded,” but we don’t go in the plane yet. We still hang around in a waiting area that had seats like the ones the Centennial Airport has.

With all the walking we did, I bet we only saw half of the airport. I’m sure there were a lot more floors and boarding gates we didn’t see.

Suvarnabhumi is really impressive—at par with HKIA and Changi. I wish we could boast something like that soon.

Bangkok loves Benjamin Becker

My friend Kumi and I recently visited Bangkok to watch the Thailand Open. Obviously, we are tennis fans.

The event was held at the Impact Arena. It's part of a massive property, about 20 minutes away from Bangkok's Victory Monument. The arena itself was impressive, although the bleacher type seats were a bit scary. If you have vertigo, don't look between the steps!

The restrooms were impressive too! The ground floor restrooms have, I think, 30 stalls. The toilet-flushes work. The faucets have running water. The soap dispensers dispense soap. The hand dryers work. The tissue dispensers contain hand towels.

Just the other day, I saw the men's final replay on TV. The court looked more spacious on TV. I was just thinking how spectacular Rafa Nadal would look while shouting vamos on that court (not picking his pants, though). Or how fascinating it would have been to see Marat Safin lumber along the baseline or even smash one of his rackets into oblivion. Obviously, I am a Safin fan.

Poor Thai Open. Until about a month ago, the organizers were proudly proclaiming that half of the world's top 10 were coming. Nadal was supposed to be the top seed. After the US Open and the Davis Cup ties, only Tomas Berdych and Tommy Haas made it. Well, Andy Roddick sort of made it. He arrived in Bangkok only to injure his foot in practice.

Poor Kumi and Ces. We bought tickets months ago, rubbing our hands in anticipation of Nadal, Djokovic, and Roddick. Instead, in the first match we saw, we had to settle for Benjamin Becker vs. was it Meffert? Heck, until now, I can't remember the guy's name. All I know is that he's a qualifier from Germany. To his credit, Mr. M made Becker work hard for the victory.

Okay, it wasn't too bad. It's all in the way you look at it. On the brighter side, we were in Bangkok, we were watching a sport we are passionate about, and we were on a vacation.

Since Nadal wasn't coming, I told myself I'll cheer for Dmitry Tursunov, whose sense of humor I absolutely adore. Usually, a stamp of approval from yours truly would guarantee a loss in the early round. The fates have been good to Dmitry. He went on to win the tournament.

The real darling of the crowd, though, was Benjamin Becker. I didn't know he was big in Bangkok. The crowd shouted encouragement, applauded his winners, and gave him a warm tribute as he stepped up the red carpet as the losing finalist. The tennis fangirl in me kicked in when, after the final, I took a picture of him and got his autograph when I had the chance. Don't ask me why; I'm not even a fan of his.

Dmitry actually went out first, just zooming by much to the disappointment of the waiting fans, including myself. Man, I was two feet away from him two days ago. My fangirl instincts should have kicked in then. I should have shouted, okay not shouted, but called out his name. Even if he snubbed me, at least I tried. But no, like a school girl, I just stared after him and giggled. Don't ask how old I am! In all due fairness, Dmitry spent a long time giving autographs for the courtside (therefore, already privileged) fans.

A few minutes later, Becker went out. He was a real sweetheart to the waiting crowd. He took his time to give autographs and chat with fans. Maybe that's one of the reasons the Bangkok tennis fans loved him.

That Sunday afternoon, on the last day of September, I walked away from Impact Arena and its impressive restrooms not a fan of the on-court Benjamin Becker, but of the off-court one.