Thailand opened a new airport about 20 miles east of the city today. The Suvarnabhumi airport is thanks to the ousted prime minister, who spent nearly $US4 billion to build the modern airport, and open it ahead of schedule. The airport is a welcome improvement over the old one, where you could even play golf between the runways (click through to the rest of the post to see pics). It was a sad airport. The new gateway to Bangkok will feature new technology, such as fingerprint scanners to nab criminals and electronic machines to read passports before boarding flights.

The first flights out of the country were not as smooth as they could have been. Understandably, many of the employees were just as confused. This led to some frustration on part of the passengers who lost luggage and ran into snafus with the new check-in software system. The THAI Airways staff was issuing boarding passes by hand... welcome to the 21st century in Asia!

Seeing golf carts waiting for a 747 to cross a runway and the greens outside of the windows as you taxi is a thing of the past!