The Demons of Suvarnabhumi Airport

Suvarnabhumi Airport, better known as Bangkok International or to old Thailand hands as Swampy, because it was built on swamp land, is in the news once again this morning.

Although today the "Demons of Suvarnabhumi" that are making the news are not the taxi mafia or indeed the staff of the King Power outlet, that have grabbed the headlines this year. No this time the demons are "Yaksa," high ranking demons or to be precise 12 statues of them modelled on original works that are to be found in the Grand Palace in Bangkok.

The valuable works of art that are spread around the inner passenger area of the airport and in the past have received little attention. Well that is about to change since the Airport Authority of Thailand (AOT), is set to spend 1 Million Baht relocating the statues to the check-in area.

Now I love Thai art work and I must admit I have never noticed the Yaksa at the airport myself so I think the move is quite positive. However digging a little deeper into the story and it seems that the move is not being made just to satisfy the art loving general public, no part of the reason for the move is that staff of shops in the duty free areas consider the statues are bringing bad luck.

Which of course might lead one to wonder if the bad luck that the statues are bringing on the staff has led to the exposure of some of the scams operating at the airport in the very shops they work in.

Perhaps the AOT could better spend the taxpayers money relocating the real demons of Suvarnabhumi, housing them in the Bangkok Hilton and throwing away the keys as this would seem to be a far more satisfying and cost effective way of improving the passenger experience at the airport.

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