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Catching Flights, Feelings & Good Vibes at Koh Samui Airport

By Aakash Karkare


The modern airport is not something most people are a fan of. Of course you might associate them with happy memories because going to one means that you are going on vacation but all that standing around in lines, and being x-rayed, and moving through lines like school-children on a picnic is not most people’s idea of fun. Most airports that I have been to in India and around the world, including Bangalore’s new airport, which I must admit has very good architectural style, all have the same vibe and appearance. Of course some might be cleaner. Some might have better X-ray technology which means you don’t have to remove your watch and belt, or sometimes even your tech products from your bag into a separate tray but at the end of the day, it’s going to be more or less the same experience. At least, so I thought, until I flew to the Koh Samui airport in March of this year. 






The plane that took my friends and I from Phuket to Koh Samui was already a small plane. So small that I stood almost as tall as it and the staircase of the plane came from the door to the ground and no additional stairs were required. When we landed in Koh Samui a woman gasped because the tiny plane landed on the runway with a huge thud and it was almost a welcome to a different sort of experience. The place was desolate. There was only one plane in the area and instead of a bus a vehicle that was a mix of a train and a golf caddy took us to the main terminal. On arrival we just passed through it, remarking how different it was from any other airport we had ever seen and I put it out of my mind during the remainder of the trip. 


On returning to take the flight to Bangkok to take my flight back to Mumbai, I reached a couple of hours early for my 7pm flight. That’s when I truly realised that even an airport could be a great place to be. Everyone seemed calm and relaxed and the airport cafe was an open air place that had a full view of the sunset and runway and there were bean bags kept in the garden so you could read and watch the sunset while drinking your coconut water (Thai coconut water is better than anything I have had in India) or coffee or beer; and attain a kind of blissful relaxation. I have increasingly come to think that transit is one of the best mind states in which to be. There is nothing you can do about any of your problems or concerns or stresses when you are in this in-between state. It’s just you and your thoughts, your podcasts, your books, your music, with nothing else weighing you down. 


And Koh Samui airport exemplifies this more than any other airport. People do complain that it has no air conditioning and the humidity and heat can feel a little oppressive but for once, it didn’t do that to me. It was late March and the Thai summer wasn’t in full swing but I don’t think I would have cared even if it was. The only place, surprisingly enough with air conditioning, were the toilets.





There was a relaxed air permeating through everything. There were a few duty free shops (also in the open), a plethora of seating in the open where you could lounge with a beer and plenty of charging ports in the waiting. It didn’t have the anxious, stress-filled quality that airports normally seemed to have. No one, not even the officials, were in a hurry or had frowns on their faces. 


Some googling has revealed that there are only two terminals and there are plenty of flowers in them. It opened in 1989 and is privately owned by Bangkok Airways. Mostly domestic flights go there, Singapore and Hong Kong flights being the exception. Says The Telegraph, which has a surprisingly high number of posts about it being the best airport/tiny terminal in the world, that the airport’s low-rise buildings are made of teak and have thatched roofs which might further accentuate the beach resort vibe. 


Going to Thailand can be quite a mixed bag. The food is great. The alcohol is great. It’s better planned and cleaner than India. The plethora of sex tourists do give it a bit of a seedy vibe. The 20-something Western tourists do nothing to help that atmosphere. It's become far too touristy and commercial. One has to go deeper and deeper into the islands to escape the city and find unspoilt nature. But at Koh Samui airport one seems to get all the promise of relaxation before the vacation has even begun.

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