En Route
Author: admin
I have to admit to a fascination with airports. It almost feels like that is a secret one shouldn't tell others. Travel, especially the trans-ocean kind, is tiring. Emerging bleary-eyed from the recycled air only to have to cross through customs or find your connecting gate on the other side of the concourse grates on the nerves of even the most stoic flier. I'm sure it does. Still, airports serve as landmarks for travelers. It is the first and last part of their visit to a country. Sometimes it's the only part of a visit to a country. It is a place where thousands of individual journeys intersect. I guess there is a kind of buzz, or energy, in that intersection. Or maybe it's simply the buzz of great deals available at Duty Free.
I would like to introduce a new category for this blog: En Route. The posts in this category will focus on the act of travel, or the nuts-and-bolts, if you will (airports, airlines, trains, and so on).
I'll begin by throwing in a brief requiem for one of my favorite airports: Bangkok's Don Mueang. On September 28th of last year, this airport saw its last international flight touch down. Domestic flights continue; though all the international action has moved to Suvarnabhumi Airport, Bangkok's ultra-modern, but problem-plagued, complex. Dom Mueang was THE hub for Southeast Asia, and carried its job well. After September 11th, I remember the army of security people who were searching every bag by hand. The cheap colorful and hard plastic seats in the waiting areas gave a kind of 1970s vibe to the terminal, but did not make it uncomfortable. In the future, I'll focus on working airports, of course. Just wanted to pay my respects to Don Mueang.
