I woke up early that morning feeling a bit excited as I was about to fly the Queen of the skies - Boeing 747! It's quite remarkable that Thai Airways operates heavies between Phuket and Bangkok - and there's a wide choice - from Airbus A330 through Boeing 777-200, 777-300 to Boeing 747. Occasionally they also send Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner and I guess Airbus A350 will make appearances too. I've booked myself for 10:55 departure scheduled to be operated by Boeing 747-400 series.
I did check-in on-line the day before and got assigned seat 24A - at the back of business class cabin at the lower deck - at least I had a window seat! I guess Thai Airways did not recognise my Avianca Amigo Diamond status. Their website does not distinguish Avianca from Avianca Brazil unfortunately and contacting them by twitter and facebook didn't help - I had better luck with LOT Polish Airlines on the other occasion.
But first things first - before heading of the airport I had a breakfast - hotel breakfast was pretty decent, a small buffet of European and Asian hot bits. It was ok, but nothing to write home about.
The breakfast room was located on the third floor - it would be nicer if it was on the rooftop (which was mainly unused but swimming pool). View from the breakfast room:
I planned to walk to the airport, but the reception told me there was a free shuttle service - why not then? I took one at 8:30 - bit early, but I wanted to meet fellow aviation geek flying from Phuket on an earlier flight.
TG204: Phuket to Bangkok
Airline: Thai Airways
Flight: TG204 HKT ✈ BKK
Aircraft: Boeing 747-400 HS-TGB
Gate: 11
There was a security scan at the entrance to the domestic terminal, very efficient one - I guess they were looking for large/obvious things. After security I headed to the business class check-in desk to ask if I could get boarding pass printed and cheekily asked if I could move to the front of the plane. Check-in agent spoke to someone on the phone and asked if 2A was ok - it was more then ok! Basically got moved from "extra recliner seat" to "fully flat bed suite"
I also put my hand luggage suitcase into hold - not sure why I broke my own rule of taking it as hand luggage whenever I could.
Anyway, I was happy I was flying in the First Class seat on this short hop to Bangkok
After another security check I quickly located my friends and spent time chatting with them till their departure time - they were on TG202 departing 50 minutes before my flight. When their boarding was called, I still had few minutes spare, so decided to check out the lounge offering in Phuket.
I went to the Thai Airways business class lounge which was located at the back of the terminal building. It was small, but I think adequate as most flights departing from here were short hops around Thailand anyway.
There was also a section reserved for First Class passengers and top tier frequent flyers
Some hot snacks (dim sum?)
Cold snacks
Drinks and sandwiches
Since I had a good breakfast, I only opted for some fruit salad snack
While waiting in the lounge there were two power outages roughly 5 minutes apart - no one seemed bothered by it!
Boarding was called around 15 minutes before scheduled departure time - there was no announcement in the lounge, attendant just carried around the lounge a sign with a flight number.
We've boarded through the gate 11 - the jetty was attached to the new terminal and we had to walk through the corridor from old domestic to the new international terminal building. Interesting thing was that there were also passengers boarding from the international side - transfer passengers maybe?
My date for today's flight:
Boarding completed reasonably fast, while waiting for the departure I got a welcome drink - iced tea - and a hot refreshing towel.
My seat looked rather impressive:
The seat felt very private - I could barely see other passengers on board with me - here the view from seat 2A:
There were also some newspaper laid out in the middle section - they were put away before departure as no one was interested in them
Before we took off (a very short taxi to the take off!) I've caught Thomas Cook Airbus A330-200 parked nearby next to the domestic terminal:
I guess the corridor connecting domestic and international can be used in both directions according to demand.
New terminal building from the tarmac:
Taking photos through the windows was a bit difficult for two reasons - I was far away from the window and the windows itself were a bit bended making some parts of the image blurred.
After take off before turning left towards Bangkok I snapped a glimpse of Ao Phang Nga National Park in the distance:
Shortly after take off breakfast was served - there were no menus and no choice, despite being seated in the First Class cabin the service was exactly the same as in business class. Today's only option was prawn and rice omelette:
Accompanied by fair trade coffee served with organic sugar!
After service has been completed, I had a look around cabin. The thing I've noticed earlier was - this First Class seat had exclusive access to 4 windows:
It's worth mentioning that while BA fits 14 First Class seats in the nose section of 747, Thai has only 9.
IFE was stuck on map and adverts - so I couldn't test it. Screen was large and of average quality, it was also fixed to the wall.
I really liked though the fresh flower they had in the cabin - each seat had one!
The seat itself was very wide and would make a very comfortable bed I bet!
I also checked out the business class cabin:
Not sure if I would be up for spending 10 hours in one of these on the way from London to Bangkok!
On approach to Bangkok I snapped a photo of the airport from the air:
And the rooftop of the Phoenix Hotel, where I would spend next 48 hours!
air Hong Kong Airbus A300
Royal Flight Boeing 757-200
And another one which I think just landed:
Etihad Boeing 777-300ER
We were following that Shanghai Airlines Boeing 737-800 quite close... too close!
And eventually we've parked next to Thai Airways Airbus A330-300
As it was domestic flight, we made our way to the luggage reclaim belts, it took a bit for bags to arrive:
Out of boredom I snapped the garden outside...
When my suitcase arrived I found it that the handle would not pull out
So it survived a JetStar flight, but not Thai Airways... argh!
I headed to the baggage handlers where a very nice Thai representative took an incident report. She promised someone would arrive at my hotel within 2 hours to collect my bag and fix it by the end of the next day. I kind of doubt that but decided to remain positive. I went out looking for my hotel's shuttle, but could not find one. Queue to taxis was long, so decided to take the train - as it was just one stop and a little walk, so why not?
15 baht later I've arrived at the train station only to realise that it was 1pm and sun was baking everything what was moving right now. I had to walk 1.5km with my camera backpack and suitcase without pull out handle. Nice - 20 minutes later I was at the hotel. Hotel was OK, quick check in and I got my hotel room key. A shower later I unpacked my suitcase and headed back to the reception to leave it for repair man to collect. The reception girls were super helpful, my suitcase got indeed collected an hour later.
Since I had nothing better to do, I headed upstairs to the rooftop to check out the spotting location. I've spent a whole afternoon there - there's a bit of a shadow, hotel has got cafe downstairs and alternatively sells cold drinks at the reception. I'll cover spotting in the separate post. Here's what the rooftop terrace looks like:
Around 5:30pm they've changed runaways, so I headed downstairs to get another refreshing shower - it was very humid and hot up there! Then headed to the main local street in search for place to eat.
Nearby temple from the bridge on the main road:
My dinner for tonight looked a bit rough
The menu was in Thai, but had descriptions in English too. After ruling out cats, frogs and snakes I went for just sweet and sour chicken with chestnuts.
While I was eating local cat came and sat close to me watching something moving in the distance
After dinner I headed for Seven Eleven to stock up for the next day of spotting at the rooftop. The plan was to go to the other location mid day when the sun changes. So I need water and snacks.
In front of Seven Eleven a local lady was selling fried fish - why not? It was delicious!
Spicy dried mango - one of my favourite snacks!
Dehydrated mango - all time classic.
