Bangkok’s “Golden Land” Airport Opens
Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 09.28.06 | 2:26 PM ET
Despite the recent coup, Southeast Asia’s largest airport opened today, the highly anticipated $4 billion “mega airport” 20 miles from central Bangkok called Suvarnabhumi, or “Golden Land.” “First conceived in 1960,” the AP reports, “the high-profile project transformed a swamp where villagers once caught cobras for a living into a fertile ground for politicians and their cronies to profit from shady deals, allegedly ranging from land speculation to bribery and kickbacks from the $3.8 billion project.” Okay, so it got off to a shaky start. But since then, 99 monks and Brahmin priests have apologized to the spirits for any harm done. And now, travelers are raving about the place. According to the International Herald Tribune, officials hope the new airport, designed to move 45 million passengers a year, will “surpass Hong Kong as a regional air hub.” An express train to downtown Bangkok is scheduled to open next year.
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Jim Benning is the editor and co-founder of World Hum.
