A Layover in Bangkok

I had flown Thai Airways Business Class and therefore had access to their Royal Silk Lounge, or in this case loungesssss.  I am now sitting in my third different Royal Silk Lounge of the day.  Royal Silk Lounges are scattered… no, smothered, all over the Bangkok airport. OBW (oh by the way) the lounges I speak of do not include those for First Class Passengers.  In some instances Silk Lounges are, literally, right across the hall from one another.

The lounges are all very similar, but I favor the layout of the lounge across from gate D1.  There are bunch of private alcoves to relax in. The one below is a separate room.

The food is plentiful and although there is not a huge selection, I noticed the staple of each lounge was anchored by rolls: small pastries stuffed with “stuff”… ham, tuna, chicken sausage, chicken ham (?) and chicken chicken (chicken?)  There are a lot of hot and cold beverages and a self service liquor bar.  My personal recommendation is the “Butter Coconuts” crackers…phenomenal (and I hate coconut)

 If you do nothing else, no matter how far you have to walk, (it’s a sprawling airport) visit the Royal Orchid Spa.

A business class boarding pass gets you a complimentary foot or head/neck message.  The spa is very peaceful and the masseuse did an outstanding job.  Post massage, the staff will make you a cup of tea accompanied by a few slices of oven baked banana.  Enjoy this while you relax in the Spa’s Lounge.

I don’t normally take pictures of bathrooms, but this wasn’t a normal bathroom:

The Royal Orchid Spa is the perfect experience after sitting in the same place for 17 hours.

THAI AIRWAYS: LOS ANGELES to BANGKOK 

Several hours after I arrived in Bangkok I was a little dizzy and felt like I was still moving; moving on an airplane that is.  It was at this time that I looked up a list of the longest flights in the world.  I was somewhat surprised to see the flight I had just taken was #3 on the list-#3 by scheduled time and #5 by distance, but enough about the facts, we wouldn’t want facts to get in the way of a good story.  A 17 hour flight is a 17 hour flight regardless of what class you’re seated in; although surely some real estate in business class can make the trip a bit easier to handle.    I cannot fathom doing this in coach; I would give myself a least 1 connection to fly to BKK from LAX if I knew I had to fly coach.  I timed our takeoff, from beginning of the roll to airborne and it came to 52 seconds.  This doesn’t sound like a lot of time but it is.  Lots of fuel to fly for 17 hours = lots of weight.  Now I have to try to write about those 17 hours in under 500 words.

Service

I did not find the flight attendants as approachable or outgoing as those on as Korean Air or Malaysia Airlines.  They were, however, attentive and professional.  They offered water, orange juice, hot towels and newspapers just before push-back.  They just seemed like they were anxious to get to BKK (Bangkok) but so was I.  On more than one occasion, I saw the flight attendant tidying up the bathrooms.  Instead of paper towels, cloth towels were in the bathrooms to dry your hands.

Seat

My in-seat power did not work at first, but I left my laptop plugged in for a few minutes and it began to charge. The seat is angled lie flat.  It was plenty comfortable for a few hours of solid sleep.  In certain positions the seat felt like one of those old pull out couches that have some steel bars in weird places that undulate into your back.  Amenity kits containing toothpaste, toothbrush, socks, eye shades, lotion, and a comb were at each seat.   The seat has a massage function, which I periodically switched on to help prevent me from getting blood clot.  I am kind of kidding, but kind of not.  There was an envelope at each seat with postcards, stationery and a comment card, just like a fine hotel.  There was no in flight magazine to be read.

Food

There were three (3) meal services on this flight: dinner, breakfast and a snack, but there were enough choices that you could have considered dinner breakfast, the snack dinner, breakfast the snack or…well, you get the picture.  While the food was good, I expected to see more traditional Thai dishes offered, but it was more of an international mix.

The flight attendants only brought the full drink cart out during the first service.  During the other services, they just brought a tray with water and orange juice.  They then had to scramble to a galley when someone ordered a cocktail.  The cocktails, by the way, were served in tiny glasses, like the size of the cups you rinse your mouth with at the dentist.  Not exactly a 42oz Canes tumbler…

Entertainment

The audio video on demand entertainment had lots of breadth, but not too much depth.  In other words a lot of variety but not too many choices within each variety.  There was an underlying theme to the movies: half of them starred Matt Damon..whoopee!!  I think January is Matt Dmaon month because he was also on the cover of Thai’s entertainment guide.

Some of the movies: Fame, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, Love Happens, Julie & Julia, The Hangover & Harry Potter 12.  The TV on demand (Better off Ted, Life on Mars, Trust Me) was pretty weak; nothing I had ever really heard of—the one documentary I started watching (The Media Project) was some yoyo screaming about not having al-jazeera TV broadcast in English so the other half of the world could “hear the other side of the story”  …shut that off pretty quick.  There were a ton of games.  I found out that I still have a soft spot in my heart for the original Super Mario Brothers, even though I can’t even get past the 3^rd level anymore.

We arrived at 6 am, right on schedule.  Thai Airways definitely met my expectations, but did not exceed them.  I would rate Thai as a strong 4 star airline.  My upcoming posts will look at Thai’s lounges in Bangkok and Thai’s regional service.  Thanks for reading.  Your feedback is always welcome.