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[QUOTE=Kuratla;2342507]
anyone know a pharmacy to get legit / safe Viagra in Bangkok? Thanks in advance.[/QUOTE]Handy location is the pharmacy in the lobby of Foodland on Soi 5. Best price in the area too I think.
They stock branded (genuine from original patent holders) and generic for more reasonable cost (Indian or Thai manufacture).
Apcalis (tadalafil) and Kamagra (sildenafil) certainly in stock. Maybe others.
I was reading on Pattaya One News that immigration lines on arrival at the BKK airport are over an hour long now due to a new finger printing process. Is this true?
[QUOTE=Nixonbd;2343001]I was reading on Pattaya One News that immigration lines on arrival at the BKK airport are over an hour long now due to a new finger printing process. Is this true?[/QUOTE]I landed at Suvarnabhumi a month ago, everyone had to fingerprint scanning.
All 10 fingers.
I arrived in the morning around 07:30 with A LOT of other flights arriving in the same hour or so.
As I recall the immigration process took about 15-20 minutes from when I entered the que until I was cleared and went to get my luggage.
So not much of a difference from previous to fingerprint scanning.
[QUOTE=Nixonbd;2343001]I was reading on Pattaya One News that immigration lines on arrival at the BKK airport are over an hour long now due to a new finger printing process. Is this true?[/QUOTE]Very true pick up a family member today it took him 1:30 to get out of Immigration with his bags.
[QUOTE=Nixonbd;2343001]I was reading on Pattaya One News that immigration lines on arrival at the BKK airport are over an hour long now due to a new finger printing process. Is this true?[/QUOTE]Upon my arrival from Manila one afternoon recently, there was a large line ahead of me moving very slowly with bottlenecks at various turns in the que caused by people not moving forward to available immigration booths. I had had enough by the time I advanced to first turn at far end of the que, so I bent under the cordon rope and was suddenly 2nd in line at the particular immigration booth in front of me. No one in line said a word. They were all in a semi comatose state or else preoccupied in their personal conversations with each other. I am not proud of what I did, but the long immigration lines and the sheepish, dopey tourists that create the bottlenecks are intolerable. That's why I try to avoid international arrivals and departures at BKK airport as much as possible.
International arrivals and departures are much more manageable at DMK. Unfortunately most, if not all European and American international arrivals and departures are through BKK. No other airport in Asia is this bad or even close to being this inefficient, not even Ninoy Aquino, which is the 2nd worst airport in Asia. I recently sailed through Philippine immigration in 5 minutes although getting a taxi outside MNL was another story. 555. But seriously, the Thai authorities have to do something about BKK. It's a national disgrace. Talk about "Face".
Hey, remember when air travel was fun.
[QUOTE=Nixonbd;2343001]I was reading on Pattaya One News that immigration lines on arrival at the BKK airport are over an hour long now due to a new finger printing process. Is this true?[/QUOTE]Took me about 20 minutes in Don Muang. Singapore was actually about the same. Singapore used to be lightning fast. Both have finger printing now.
[QUOTE=NattyBumpo;2343260]Upon my arrival from Manila one afternoon recently, there was a large line ahead of me moving very slowly with bottlenecks at various turns in the que caused by people not moving forward to available immigration booths. I had had enough by the time I advanced to first turn at far end of the que, so I bent under the cordon rope and was suddenly 2nd in line at the particular immigration booth in front of me. No one in line said a word. They were all in a semi comatose state or else preoccupied in their personal conversations with each other. I am not proud of what I did, but the long immigration lines and the sheepish, dopey tourists that create the bottlenecks are intolerable. That's why I try to avoid international arrivals and departures at BKK airport as much as possible.
International arrivals and departures are much more manageable at DMK. Unfortunately most, if not all European and American international arrivals and departures are through BKK. No other airport in Asia is this bad or even close to being this inefficient, not even Ninoy Aquino, which is the 2nd worst airport in Asia. I recently sailed through Philippine immigration in 5 minutes although getting a taxi outside MNL was another story. 555. But seriously, the Thai authorities have to do something about BKK. It's a national disgrace. Talk about "Face".
Hey, remember when air travel was fun.[/QUOTE]Natty, you know better than to ride coach economy into Asia. Premier Econ and business gives you a "quick pass" for immigration. Never more than 2 in front of you.
If they don't give it to you ask for the Purser and tell him your a FF and ask for one. They have extra.
RL.
[QUOTE=NattyBumpo;2343260]
International arrivals and departures are much more manageable at DMK. Unfortunately most, if not all European and American international arrivals and departures are through BKK. No other airport in Asia is this bad or even close to being this inefficient[/QUOTE]Unless when you arrive at DMK at the same time as some flights from China. Oh my god, those groups are terrible. (But groups of any nationality are terrible.).
I have never waited more than about 15-20 minutes in the arrivals queue at BKK. Occasionally maybe 25-30 minutes, which is too long, but 15-20 minutes is doable IMO.
And even if you only had to wait for 5-10 minutes it wouldn't make much difference, because you still have to wait for your luggage after immigration.
[QUOTE=NattyBumpo;2343260] No other airport in Asia is this bad or even close to being this inefficient, not even Ninoy Aquino, which is the 2nd worst airport in Asia. I recently sailed through Philippine immigration in 5 minutes although getting a taxi outside MNL was another story. 555. But seriously, the Thai authorities have to do something about BKK. It's a national disgrace. [/QUOTE]I don't really understand you. I am in and out of BKK regularly, and it is not the most annoying of International airports by a long way, and even Don Meuang was not the most annoying in the old days when it was BKK.
Heathrow is far more annoying, as is LOS Angeles (although a few years since I used it). Had a horror over crowded stop at Narita many years ago, and another irritating stay at Dubai or similar due to poor lay out to force you pass a very long set of duty free shops.
Exited BKK after midday on a Saturday recently. Security queue and Passport check queues were not long at all. No issues whatsoever. Possibly helps I have gold card for quicker check in. You can get the Elite whatever for faster airport service at immigration and security.
I mainly exit and arrive at BKK on a Sunday or Saturday, and these tend to be quiet days. Other options are arrive late at night or very early morning. Sunday is ideal to avoid difficult Bangkok traffic.
Maybe my advantage is I am not flying to or from USA and the times for arrival and departure are not at absolute peaks. I have been at BKK on a rare occasion when the immigration queue was extremely long, so I know it exists, but not sure why so bad at certain times. Insufficient staff at peak load times is most likely.
I always exit plane and get to immigration very fast, no stops at the shops, walk fast to beat the rest of the rabble. Usually do not meet the exceedingly long queues. My past experience of LOS Angeles was vastly longer queues. Would like to avoid that airport if flying in or out of USA, if possible. I guess the larger the airport, the worse it is. Hence Heathrow is a horror airport made so much worse when bad weather hits.
It would not be fair to compare BKK to some other minor International airports in Asia, I think. Singapore is very busy so a fair comparison.
Djakarta would have far less long haul International flights arriving one would thinks, yet still has more than one terminal. I would expect Manila to have less traffic but don't really know.
When I am flying domestically in Thailand, I am happy enough to use Suwanaphuum (Thai Smile flights for example) over Don Meuang, even some would greatly prefer DMK with so much less total traffic.
Never really thought to b*tch about about BKK that much. Much more annoying experiences are possible once you are on your long haul flight.
If you want a really horrible International airport and airline combination, Ryan Air at Stanstead and other airports in Europe (like Cologne for example) is my worst experience ever. Never again. A torture experience from start to finish.
Ryan Air is El Cheapo flights so I guess you get what you pay for. I had no clue the seats would be such torture though.
Another horrible experience many years ago was Malaysian Airlines from KL to BKK (Don Meuang probably). The food was horrible, and the leg room was suited to dwarfs. Being tallish was definitely a problem.
Most unfriendly staff on an airline. I probably give the prize to British Airways hostesses. Be*tchy. Gay stewards are more helpful. Ha ha. Never had any problems with Thai Inter or other Asian airlines staff at all.
I have an genius engineer buddy that works at BKK, so will be interesting to hear his view about whether BKK is a disgraceful airport or not. I trust him, I think, to give a somewhat unbiased view, since his area is flight safety. He did warn me that some Air Asia franchise members don't have a very good safety record (Probably Indonesia and Malaysia members. Could do a web search for the details), so he would not fly with them. Not clear if he rules out Air Asia in general. He did not mention any of the other small tin-pot airlines in Thailand, however many will remember the old airline 12-Go that crashed at Phuket in bad weather a few years back, but possibly due to poor safety standards as well.
So I think your choice of airline can be more important than your choice of airport overall. BKK does not disturb me at all, probably avoiding its worse times.
Man. Y'all are some impatient mfs. Bring an ipod to listen to or a tablet to look at while you wait if you are too freaked out to talk to the person behind or in front of you.
Syzygies, I avoid Heathrow. I haven't been there in over 20 years. I read somewhere that they have the highest percentage of misplaced or lost luggage of any international Airport in Europe or the USA. I prefer changing planes in Zurich.
LAX & Newark are always fun. I was robbed a few years ago while going through the security line in Newark! Somebody snatched my money belt while I was getting gamma-rayed. Houston is my favorite international arrival airport in the USA. Atlanta is not too bad either. But for some reason I expect more from Thailand! There is no reason why Swampy should not be as efficient in processing new arrivals as say Singapore or HKG.
Of course, YMMV. I have had good international arrivals at BKK too on occasion, but I have also had horrendous ones. My recent arrival from Manila was shaping up to be a 45-minute wait until I saw an opening and jumped the que. No such luck on my 9:30pm arrival from the USA. It took 60 minutes to get through immigration then and that is a "disgrace". 555. And I was not laughing at the time.
But I think you are right about the time of arrival. It does make a difference. When I fly the Euro route from the USA and arrive at BKK on a Thai Air flight at 5:30 am there is usually no line and I am through Immigration in under 10 minutes which is very good. But when I fly the trans pacific route from the USA and land at 9:30 pm or arrive in the late afternoon from another Asian country, the lines and wait times can be really bad.
International arrivals at DMk are not problem. I am usually the 1st or 2nd passenger to reach the immigration area and there are NO lines. Thus I sail through immigration in a couple of minutes. I have few complaints about DMK although departure check-ins can be a little harry, but that is the Airlines fault. Don't you just love Air Asia? For this reason I try not bring check in luggage, especially if I am on a week or less visa run flight. It cuts check in time down to almost nothing.
[QUOTE=Smoothy;2343376]Took me about 20 minutes in Don Muang. Singapore was actually about the same. Singapore used to be lightning fast. Both have finger printing now.[/QUOTE]Recently couple of my friends entered into Bangkok via DMK and it took them couple of hours in emigration line.
Strangely, I never had this problem in BKK so far, but I always arrive or depart in early morning.
[QUOTE=MrEnternational;2343629]Man. Y'all are some impatient mfs. Bring an ipod to listen to or a tablet to look at while you wait if you are too freaked out to talk to the person behind or in front of you.[/QUOTE]Flying is to get you from point a to point be. I look at it this way: I jump into a plane in Atlanta and 12 hours later I'm in Korea and 5 hours later in BKK. For say 500. Bargain.
Accordingly, the suck factor of security waits, delays, pushy Chinese, nasty IOs, lost baggage, smelly fat drunks next to you, bad food, constipation, viruses and all else pale for me. For $500 and 24 hours what should I expect, a coddling? And I only need to do it once every 6 months or so.
Traveling anywhere sucks unless you choose to go absolutely first class. Like your own plane. Or in a Maybach with a stripper moonlighting as your driver. P.S. Your tray table in Business class still has my [url=http://isgprohibitedwords.info?CodeWord=CodeWord116][CodeWord116][/url] germs on it.
If you look at everything truly sucky in this world as "wow dude, check THAT out LOL" you will be a lot happier. So will those around you.
[QUOTE=EdSetra;2342520]Handy location is the pharmacy in the lobby of Foodland on Soi 5. Best price in the area too I think.
They stock branded (genuine from original patent holders) and generic for more reasonable cost (Indian or Thai manufacture).
Apcalis (tadalafil) and Kamagra (sildenafil) certainly in stock. Maybe others.[/QUOTE]Perfect. Picked up some Kamagra at Foodland today. Super cheap. First time using ED meds will be on Wednesday with a Tulip girl. While I don't have issues getting an erection, I do have issues maintaining one as time goes on in a session. Hoping this complication will be solved on Wednesday. Looking forward to it immensely.
[QUOTE=Kuratla;2343982]Perfect. Picked up some Kamagra at Foodland today. Super cheap.[/QUOTE]How much was it?