While en route from Bangalore to Tokyo we switched planes in the new Bangkok airport. That new airport is truly a bizarre place… beyond huge… futuristic… planned to surpass Singapore as a regional hub for South East Asia. Two things made the airport bizarre… arriving into the old airport at 3:45 AM one often got lost trying to find the connection desk. A traveller really needed to know what they were doing to find it and at that time of day there was no one to ask where to go. Believe it or not, the same is true for the new airport. A Thai Airways personnel told us where to go to transit, but gave us the wrong directions. My companions found a place for a quick nap and massage while I hunted down the transit desk. The deja vu was weird. I thought to myself, "new airport, same dilemmas, but wow, I’m not in Kansas anymore."

Second, the airport could only be described as a shopping Walt Disney. There are stores everywhere but not your usual lay-out… all the stores flow with the lines of the facility… futuristic art deco cafes and bars lay about with various types of science fiction-like  mood lighting that all seem to come together as if one is inside a giant aircraft frame. Thanks to the transit issue I was unable to take pictures but next time through the airport I will capture the place in photos. Finally, while boarding, we were informed one of our bags was missing. (That turned out to be a clerical error and the bag promptly rolled off our plane in Tokyo.) After heavy security – the flight’s final destination was the US – we left the anomalous Bangkok airport. As we flew to Tokyo another phenomenon – at the other end of the spectrum from our Bangkok experience – was sweeping the planet: The Free Hugs Campaign. First, watch the video below and then go here to the Personal Democracy Forum to read the background. The articles author’s even reference back to the ground breaking Cluetrain Manifesto, which could only mean… somebody’s down-to-earth, grass roots idea has finally arrived. I watched it, read it and thought, "I’m not in Suvarnabhumi, anymore."