My Swampy experience

[BiggusDikkus]

The immigration and customs officials are ready for the masses. I deplaned around 4pm on Thursday. While the airport wasn't nearly as busy as it had been in 2019 — while there weren't patterns of planes unloading passengers in the middle of the tarmac away from the terminals and then herding them onto buses — once inside, the arrivals areas were buzzing.

After having seen an insane picture of the huge lines at customs earlier this month, I decided to book a Fast Track reservation through www.limousine.in.th so I could bypass any mess that might await me. As it turned out, I did not need this service as lines behind the plentiful customs desks were only three or so deep. What's more, the guide who was waiting for me as soon as I stepped foot into the airport, guided me past the first customs area to a second, which not only wasted several minutes but forced me to walk back almost the entire length of the baggage claim area once I zipped through customs.

The customs and immigration procedures have been streamlined since 2019, and there is no need to even fill out customs and immigration forms during your flight. Customs only wants to see your passport. They will also record all 10 of your fingerprints and take a photo. I really hate this collecting and filing away of my biometric data for no reason other than I fly internationally.

Anyway, if I saved anytime at all by going Fast Track, it was five minutes tops. So you might not need this service. And even if you do need the service to avoid long lines, its value is further diminished by the very long time it takes a plane's baggage to arrive at the designated carousel. By the time that happened, every singly passenger on my flight was already around the carousel. Not one bag made a second trip around, all being claimed on their first go-round.

I regretted my purchase of this Fast Track insurance policy, especially as my suitcase was in the final batch. I didn't save anytime at all. In the future I will only book this service if I know my suitcase is going to receive a PRIORITY tag.

Next up was immigration. Like I said, there is no form to fill out,  you  either walk through a green “nothing to declare” passage way or a red lane. In the green lane, passengers are randomly picked out and their bags given secondary scans. On this day, the randoms were all young women carrying large black bags of some kind.

My second mission was to head to the basement floor to exchange some currency near the train entrance so I would have some spending money once I got to Silom. Super Rich has moved. It is now down a pretty good distance from the train's entrance, on the right side, along with Happy Rich and Kasikornbank. Super Rich also does not have the best exchange rates anymore. Today, Happy Rich and Kasikorn were offering 3,555 baht per $100 bill. Super Rich was offering B5 less, and the lines were equally short at each place. (I did check a small, unbranded forex booth on Surawong once I got into town, and it was offering B3,500 baht per $100. It was night, and the big forex shops were closed so maybe there will be better rates on Friday.)

Now for my final mission at Swampy: leaving the place. I went back up a level, and the queues for the taxi were horrendous. I took a walk to the left as instructed by another poster on another thread to look for a second taxi stand with no lines, but there was none on this day. So I pulled out my phone and hailed a Grab SUV to my hotel for about B650, not bad! Grab drivers meet you on the second level (I thought the meeting place was the fourth level, so I had to hurry down two escalators, and look for my driver). The meeting place is also along the outer lanes, so you gotta cross those first lanes of traffic. They will tell you were to meet, like “Outside Exit 7.” Initially we couldn't find each other, so my driver called me and then we both started waving our hands high in the air so we could find each other. Had I been looking rather than waiting, it would have been easy to spot the SUV and license plate number. This Grab taxi option was extremely easy and receives the Biggus Diccus seal of approval. Download Grab, folks; it'll save you time.

Now onto another matter I want to put out there. Tomorrow I'm meeting a friend of a friend to give him some cash as he's still in a tough spot. He was the best friend of Dave, who died during the pandemic. I don't owe anything to this guy, now into his 30s, but thought I would be doing right by Dave by helping out his best friend. The three of us did share some magical New Year's and Songkrans.

I did try to transfer some money to him during the worst of the pandemic but instead TransferWise stole $500 from me. I'm still furious about that. After that experience I started saying no to requests for wiring more cash to Thailand. But now that I'm in his country I have no problem handing him what I would have given him had TransferWise not stolen it. Before I told him how much I was going to give him, he was sending me texts about how expensive it would for him be to fly down from his home in Chiang Mai and pay for a hotel. After I told him how much I was going to give him and he would be better off using a bus or train and staying with friends, he decided he'd hang around Bangkok for the weekend because he hasn't visited the city in a long while.

He's gonna have hundreds of dollars so why not enjoy it?

The problem is I know he's going to ask me to let him stay with me in my hotel, and to stay with me for my entire trip. He broached that subject once months ago and I brushed it off, giving him an indirect “no” that people in may Asian cultures are often adept at intuiting. Since last week, though, he has been texting me on Line, “How are you?” I reply, “I'm fine how are you?” He replies that he's fine too and I end the conversation by saying, “Well, I'll see you on Friday to give you that gift.” But that hasn't stopped him from texting me every couple days, “How are you?” I'm still fine, I say, just like two days ago when you last asked. See you sometime Friday.

So tomorrow when he asks to join me for the rest of my vacation I'm ready with my answer: “This is why I've been ghosting you on Line. I knew you were going to ask that even though we both know what the answer is going to be, even though you know I will not change my mind no matter what you say, so let's pretend you didn't just ask that.” I'll pause for a couple beats, then change the topic of the conversation: “So how do you plan to spend your money?”

Anyway, the thought of this possible confrontation — something that should be a happy occasion and reunion of sorts after three years — is keeping me from sleeping tonight.

 

Good night, everyone.

[zoomomancs]

I would reply: "I'm sorry, I often want to bring men back to my room so it's not possible for you to stay"

[gayinpattaya]

Did you hear about BOLT? I'm told their rates are much better than GRAB in Bangkok. 
Here in Pattaya, BOLT has destroyed GRAB. Everyone uses BOLT. 

I would be interested to know the BOLT situation in Bangkok now. I will be heading up there next week myself. 

[floridarob]

32 minutes ago, gayinpattaya said:

Did you hear about BOLT? I'm told their rates are much better than GRAB in Bangkok. 
Here in Pattaya, BOLT has destroyed GRAB. Everyone uses BOLT. 

I would be interested to know the BOLT situation in Bangkok now. I will be heading up there next week myself. 

I used Bolt the whole time, I liked it more.

[vaughn]

Thanks for the report, only a few more weeks until I will be following your footsteps and the excitement is building.

Suggestion to get out of the confrontation, just tell him you're meeting someone who you already agreed will stay with you.

[Olddaddy]

Never heard of a PRIORITY tag on baggage?????!!

Did you walk with the fast track ?

I always order the golf buggy 

Yes not much good if U get through quick then have to stand there 30 minutes waiting for a bag 

[BiggusDikkus]

3 hours ago, zoomomancs said:

I would reply: "I'm sorry, I often want to bring men back to my room so it's not possible for you to stay"

The thing is he knows this!

[Boy69]

4 hours ago, gayinpattaya said:

Did you hear about BOLT? I'm told their rates are much better than GRAB in Bangkok. 
Here in Pattaya, BOLT has destroyed GRAB. Everyone uses BOLT. 

I would be interested to know the BOLT situation in Bangkok now. I will be heading up there next week myself. 

In BKK Grab has very good service and competitive prices but in Pattaya the service was extremely expensive as far as I remember 3 years ago.

[gayinpattaya]

17 hours ago, Boy69 said:

In BKK Grab has very good service and competitive prices but in Pattaya the service was extremely expensive as far as I remember 3 years ago.

Yeah, 3 years ago Grab was great. It's amazing how quick things can change. 
I remember UBER in BKK being the best one. 

[billyhouston]

16 hours ago, gayinpattaya said:

I remember UBER in BKK being the best one. 

... and when Uber withdrew from Thailand, Grab bought them out. What followed was always going to happen.......  Bolt is now generally cheaper, I understand.

[macaroni21]

Got into Suvarnabhumi yesterday afternoon around 2 pm. Amazing. Hardly any queue at immigration, at most 2 or 3 persons. In my lane, I walked straight up to the booth. The majority of the passport counters were manned, but not 100%. 

Luggage collection wasn't too bad. Had to wait about 15-20 minutes, which is average or above average for most airports. 

[bkkmfj2648]

On 11/29/2022 at 6:49 AM, macaroni21 said:

Got into Suvarnabhumi yesterday afternoon around 2 pm. Amazing.

Shameless Mack is back in the house!!

Welcome back to LOS - looking forward to your updates....

[macaroni21]

Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm back for work. Am currently in neither Bangkok or Pattaya but in the boondocks for a project inspection. I may get a few days R&R in Bangkok at the end of the trip if inspection goes well and it frees up some time. Keeping fingers and penis crossed.

[billyhouston]

This morning flew down to Suvarnabhumi from Chiang Mai, on Thai. Baggage claim was a shambles and it was 45 minutes before the 'first bag'appeared. The airport wasn't even busy. I can see why they are considering awarding the contract to someone else. The sooner the better.

[vinapu]

16 hours ago, macaroni21 said:

 Keeping fingers and penis crossed.

try to do it after work hours though as doing it at work may make you an object of unwanted attention

[Olddaddy]

17 hours ago, macaroni21 said:

Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm back for work. Am currently in neither Bangkok or Pattaya but in the boondocks for a project inspection. I may get a few days R&R in Bangkok at the end of the trip if inspection goes well and it frees up some time. Keeping fingers and penis crossed.

I love you Mack 💜

Looking forward to more reports.

 

[10tazione]

Suvarnabhumi immigration queue:

saturday noon: 50 mins

thursday noon: 55 mins

 

[macaroni21]

11 hours ago, vinapu said:

try to do it after work hours though as doing it at work may make you an object of unwanted attention

To add to my "torture", the driver assigned to me is very good looking. But I see a wedding band on his finger.

[PeterRS]

I arrived back at BKK around 4:30 pm on Sunday. Despite there being many empty bays, my China Airlines flight had to circle around part of the airport because, we were informed our bay was waiting for a jet to vacate it. 20 minutes later we reached a bay which had just had a Turkish Airlines plane pushed away to be stored at another part of the airport until it departed for Istanbul close to midnight. This struck me as virtual incompetence on the part of the airport authoriites. If a plane is arriving only to deliver passengers but not to pick up any, why can it not be parked on arrival at an ajacent bay - or any bay for that matter. This would leave the China Airlines bay - with a near full plane by the look of the lounge area - free to accept the incoming aircraft without any delay. 

I was really surprised that fast-track Immigration was more full than I have ever seen it. Immigration did quite quickly open more desks but it still took longer than ever. No idea why!

[macaroni21]

1 hour ago, 10tazione said:

Suvarnabhumi immigration queue:

saturday noon: 50 mins

thursday noon: 55 mins

 

What time of day was that? I must have been very, very lucky.

On 11/30/2022 at 6:21 PM, billyhouston said:

This morning flew down to Suvarnabhumi from Chiang Mai, on Thai. Baggage claim was a shambles and it was 45 minutes before the 'first bag'appeared. The airport wasn't even busy. I can see why they are considering awarding the contract to someone else. The sooner the better.

I think someone else mentioned it before but this may not be the best course of action. The newly appointed contractor will not be able to produce the hundreds or thousands of replacement workers at a snap of a finger. Furthermore they need time to train the workers. What might be better would be to reduce the area of responsibility of the existing operator to something appropriate to the number of staff he has (e.g. 50% of flights) and give the remaining flights to the new operator. If necessary, get soldiers to do the job during the bridging period.

[macaroni21]

8 minutes ago, PeterRS said:

we were informed our bay was waiting for a jet to vacate it.

Of course there are many reasons why a departure is delayed, thus depriving an incoming flight of its assigned bay. But one possibility is that with a shortage of baggage handlers, loading the departing aircraft's luggage was taking longer than planned.

The shortage/incompetence of a baggage operator can have numerous knock on effects.

[10tazione]

2 hours ago, macaroni21 said:

What time of day was that? I must have been very, very lucky

Both days a little bit after 12pm.

The second time the whole ramp that is leading up to the immigration area was part of the queue. Only one of the two (?) immigration areas was open.

[fedssocr]

8 hours ago, macaroni21 said:

To add to my "torture", the driver assigned to me is very good looking. But I see a wedding band on his finger.

aren't most Thai guys flexible?

[vinapu]

12 hours ago, 10tazione said:

Suvarnabhumi immigration queue:

saturday noon: 50 mins

thursday noon: 55 mins

 

who says admission to paradise is supposed to be immediate ?

[vinapu]

10 hours ago, macaroni21 said:

To add to my "torture", the driver assigned to me is very good looking. But I see a wedding band on his finger.

that's ok as one should never mix work with amorous stuff