Arrival Hell

[allatsea2000]

i agree with most people that u just had a bad day.

The photos definately make it longer , but then again so do the passengers that Q up in the wrong gate, only to be told to go to the appropriate arrival gate.

I think a few people now have caught onto going to the departure area , always garanteed a cab within 5 minutes or so.

But as for crowds, left bangkok 2 days ago, and i dont think i have ever seen it so quiet, espescially when it is supposed to be high season,

As for pattaya ,the same goes, of course the popular clubs have people in them, but not as many, and as for the punters or evern the girls on what i call the guantlet run that leads to happy a go go, well it isnt ,

But hey there are stilll people and plenty of girls around

still lots of fun

[BadaBing]

Screw the hotel , go upstairs , 300 baht + toll 60 baht , arrive hotel in 30 minutes ::

 

Bada Bing

[BrownFox77]

All,

 

Thanks for all the replies, I did forget to mention something rather important. When I booked for a "limo" at the counter they admitted there were no cars available however they said it would only be a 10-15 minute wait.

 

Well, when I went to the other counter to give them my "paid slip" and get on queue there were a bunch of folks all complaining they were all told a 10 minute wait but they had all been there for 1 1/2 hours already. Not just Farangs - there was a young Thai women who was giving the manager of the limo stand a thourough scolding about being misled about the wait, their business practices, etc, etc (I think the manager ws quite happy to see her finally get picked up later)...

 

I do think I was a bit plain unlucky since all planes would have been backed up and circling due to the thunderstorms. I also made a critical mistake - as a smoker I stopped at one of the smoke rooms on the way to Immigration. While puffing away in the glass walled room I suddenly saw a huge throng of Japanese tourists racing to Immigration - I said to myself " Oh Oh" and quickly put out the smoke and ran to Immigration but alas the Japanese throngs were quite properly queued in place. ::

 

In the massive hall there were qute a few folks holding "placards" for people who arranged advance pickup so that might not be a bad option. Going upstairs sounds like a good idea also and that might be something to try.

 

To give all an idea of just how hectic it was in the airport, I made friends with a fellow punter from Hawaii who just happened to be sitting next to me on that last leg from Tapei. He suggested sharing a limo from the airport as it turned our hotels were pretty close. Well we got seperated in the masses and although I was in the airport for all those hours never saw him again.

 

As for the Photos at Immigration - I did see the cameras there however from what I saw they weren't taking anyones phtotos. If they were taking phtotos then they must have just been snapping them without saying anything as people were handing over their passport and boarding pass.

 

When I went thru Customs I did see that they seemed to be picking people at random to search their luggage as they walked thru the "Nothing to Declare" line - when I went thru there were about 6 people whose luggage was being searched and as I walked past they had 2 other inspectors free who seemed to be looking for the next person to search. Very glad I wasn't picked what with 3 large pieces of luggage - could have been an arrival Hell indeed...

 

Last night hit Patpong, it was busy but no where near as bad as Cowboy and there were definately more girls than punters.

I would have liked to had sampled many places but after Electric Blue (great), Thai Bar (not so good), grabbed 3 girls from Camelot (which was outstanding) who again helped to ease my earlier travel pain...

[BrownFox77]

Just a quick post note: my apologies in advance for any spelling etc errors. I'm at the Jasmine Suites and the Internet is so off and on spotty its hard to even post before seeing the dreaded "cannot find server error" so I've learned to "submit" quickly while I can. I've been here many times before and I've seen the Internet connection get slow for a few days then it would be fine later - I'm hoping that will be true again...

[Zorro]

Stickman said

The airport is often a mess. I go upstairs and get a cab that has just dropped someone off ? done that numerous times. A couple of times I have walked out onto the main road and got one. Never got a cab at the airport as the queues often seem long!

 

Would you mind not telling everyone.....more and more people have cottoned onto this..... i usually go upstairs to get a taxi as quite often there is a very long queue for cabs downstairs.

 

I am coming back on Xmas eve so i am sure it will be a shit fight....but hey who cares as i am on holidays.

[David_66_UK]

I don't mind the Taxi Queue - never had to wait more 20/30 mins - gives me plenty of time to build up my nicotine Levels again.

[jxxxl]

If you don't have any heavy bags, it's very easy to walk out ot the street and get a taxi. I fly domestic from CM and find the queue there can be horrible. Also, for some reason, the oldest most decrepit cabs are in the queue.

 

The departure area is a good, but more people are catching on and I suspect it won't be allowed much longer.

[liquidflux]

I think I remember seeing signs posted up there that say the taxis are for departing passengers only. Obviously they aren't enforced, yet.

[David_66_UK]

I know I am tempting fate here, and no doubt things change - but a lot of my waiting has been from getting the customers into the taxis with their bags, rather than a lack of taxis. I guess they made the space between the barriers tight to stop a mad scramble / folk missing out the Taxi Booth.

[David_66_UK]

I think they are enforced randomly - when I am outside departures smoking, I do sometimes see Taxis being waived away / moved on.