Bangkok observations

In Bangkok, the SkyTrain continues to be a godsend for getting passengers up and out of the awful fume-ridden traffic. The SkyTrain is quite crowded during rush hours, but it’s air-conditioned, so being packed in isn’t bad.

I think there are plans to expand the lines even further. For now, they go just about everywhere a businessperson needs to go, plus they link up with the new subway system and the water taxi system on the Chao Phraya River. Outside every SkyTrain station there are many taxis waiting.

If you use a taxi, make sure it has a meter and that the driver actually turns it on. On my visit in January ’05 I had to remind a driver, and at first he pretended not to understand until I lunged toward the box to turn the darn thing on myself. He then reluctantly turned it on. All the other trips, though, were uneventful. It helps to have a street map with you and at least pretend you know where you should be going so you have less chance of the driver taking the “scenic route.”

Does not anyone but me think it is bizarre that there is a golf course running down the middle of the international airport in Bangkok? It is an actual country club and there are runways and taxiways running along either side of the long golf course. Players with carts have to stop and wait till your 747 lumbers by before they can cross the connecting road and proceed to the next tee.

I wonder what happens when a stray golf ball gets sucked into a jet engine. I wonder how the airport ever enforces security with all these golfers right in the center of things.

FLORENCE DRAKE
Readfield, ME