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BANGKOK INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT RAILWAY LINK SUPPOSED OPENING DATE IS DURING YEAR 2009

Suvarnabhumi Airport railway link should open early next year in 2009, this is at least the information spreaded by airport officials.

Bangkok Suvarnabhumi internation airport has opened its door 2 years ago in September 2006 but it still doesn't offer any rail link for passengers to reach their downtown hotels.

Airport official now spead the information that the long-delayed Suvarnabhumi airport railway link project will be completed by the end of this year and that service will start early 2009, but noone knows if this information is reliable as even the project manager might not really know.

Speaking after leading a media tour to observe construction progress, Banjongsak Panthon, project manager and engineer, said the civil engineering portions of the airport railway link project is some 78.5 per cent complete and that the electrical and mechanical portions are about 80 per cent ready.

How stupid are these official to give that kind of information and do they really want to loose face again when evidences will show that they were wrong again?

Official also brag themselves for the progress in the construction of the station and railway system, with Tub Chang Station set to become the first to be completed in July 2008, and now already being 60% complete.

So we can't believe that the entire project will be finished by the end of the year 2008 but 31 electric locomotives which are currently being built in Germany will anyway be brought into Thailand and will have to be tested for three months before opening for service to the public, so as soon you will heard that the construction is finished the rail link will need at least three more months before grand opening.

POST OFFICE AT BANGKOK AIRPORTS, SUVARNABHUMI AIRPORT HAS 24 HOURS SERVICE AND CAN BE USED TO SEND LIQUIDS AND OTHER PARCELS TO

POST OFFICE AT BANGKOK AIRPORTS, SUVARNABHUMI AIRPORT HAS 24 HOURS SERVICE AND CAN BE USED TO SEND LIQUIDS AND OTHER PARCELS TO YOUR NEXT DESTINATION

If you travel to Thailand and have to send some parcels before taking a plane you have to know that Thailand airports are very convenient to send parcels as Suvarnabhumi airport and Don Muang airport feature a post office, and the post office at Bangkok international airport is even opened 24 hours!

So you don't need to worry about you flight departure time and the airport post office opening hours as there will always be somebody in the office to take your parcel or sell you some stamps.

These airports post office can also be very convenient if you arrive at airport with liquids and flaks that you forgot to put in you check-in luggage, because you will be able to use the post office service to send your liquids to your home country of even to your hotel if you will come back to Bangkok for example after a trip to the beach at Phuket or Samui or a trip to the north of Thailand, as Chiang Mai for example.

But one thing you need to know is that it is officially forbidden to use post office service to send liquids, so do not go to the post office with your hands full of flasks and bottles to ask a box to pack them and send them to your next destination, as officers will show you the sign saying that they don't have service for liquids and bottles.

What you have to do is buy a paper box of the convenient size (from 10 to 24 THB) at the post office, pack your parcel somewhere else, and then go back to the post office with your parcel ready to send.

If you want to send it by registered service just write "souvenir" on the label and add "gift" so you won't have to pay any tax if you send your liquids abroad.

Also, if some of the bottles you have to send are glass bottles, you can buy bubble wrap at the airport post office as well as at any Thailand post office. Bubble wrap paper is very cheap in Thailand post offices, and you can buy 1 sheet (50x50 cm) for as low as 5 THB only. Buy as many bubble wrap sheets as you need and even put some around your box after having packed it if you want to be sure that your bottles wont break and that nobody will be alerted that the box contains liquids because of a leakage.

And don't worry, it's not really illegal to send bottles through post office, as some people who sell Thai beverages, bottles, and perfumes, do it on a daily basis, but Thai people and post office officers are just scared that you do not pack your bottle well and that they might break and soak others parcels sent through post office service.

So if you forget to put your Chanel fragrance or any other expensive liquid cosmetics or liquid medecine in your check-in luggage at Bangkok airports you don't need to throw them away anymore, you just need to go to the Thai post office at the departure floor and send your flaks and bottles by post to any destination, and it's cheap !

SMUGGLING DRUG FROM INDIA AT SUVARNABHUMI AIRPORT

Two Thai women were arrested at Suvarnabhumi Airport for smuggling heroin bars from India into the kingdom of Thailand.

These women were stopped at the Bangkok airport by official from the Office of the NCB Narcotics control board, following the arrest of other people also lately arrested for smuggling in heroin in bars and who told the police that two other women will smuggle in more heroin soon.

The two Thai women admitted that they were hired to smuggle in the drug to Bangkok and it would be later shipped to China.

It's always unbelievable that people still try to import drug in Thailand when the result is often life sentence, or at least lifetime jail term.

NO FLOODING AT SUVARNABHUMI AIRPORT

As water and rain drainage at Suvarnabhumi airport location is still a big wonder Thailand's Royal Irrigation Department (RID) has decided to dredge many canals to increase the efficiency of drainage systems around the airport.

Officials said that they are confident about the new Bangkok's airport not being affected by floods and that no water problems around the new international airport should be noticed for this rainy season.

Waterflow and drainage conditions are a big problem at Suvarnabhumi airport as the airport has been built on swamp without following some necessary building rules.

A budget of 80 million baht is planed to improve the drainage system around the airport and the army will help in this job but the overall project will be completed only in 2008, and the system won't be right away as efficient as expected.

AIRPORT RAIL LINK SKYTRAIN PROJECT AND SRT STATE RAILWAYS OF THAILAND

Once more in Thailand the Airport Rail Link project to connect Bangkok city and Suvarnabhumi airport will cost more than it should because of business favours granted to private companies, resulting in higher cost that the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) will have to face.

Most of the money must be paid to banks and other financial institutions and another part is from total interest calculated from the delay of an estimated 398 days before the project's delivery due date of November 5.

But Thai commentators said that State Railway Thailand shouldn't pay front-end fees at such a level, higher than the market rate as one cause of the delay was the SRT's failure to deliver the land for construction.

Investigation has started to try to find out who is responsible for the case which occurred during the term of the previous SRT governor and when the previous corrupted Thai Prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra was still on duty in Thailand.

SRT still has to fix for how long the delay of the rail link project should be extended, with help from B Grim International, Siemens, B Grim MBM Hong Kong and Sino Thai Engineering and Construction, of course.

International commentators said that if this case was treated seriously an outsider with no prior connections to the project would be brought in to investigate it, because one's wonder how a deputy governor couldn't know about and wasn't involved in the corruption? Impossible! And either he knew about it at the time and ignored it or participated in it, you can be sure that he won't accuse himself.
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