Thailand Update – Sunday 30th October

Thai­land Update – Sunday 30th Octo­ber

Bang­kok

 The situa­ti­on in Bang­kok remains very much the same as we repor­ted yes­ter­day, Satur­day 29th Octo­ber.

Suvarn­ab­hu­mi air­port remains open as nor­mal.  We recom­mend to allow addi­tio­nal time at the air­port for check in.

The cent­re of Bang­kok, whe­re the hotels, main tou­rist sites, shop­ping cen­tres and night­li­fe are­as are loca­ted, has not had any floo­ding. All ser­vices (such as power and water) con­ti­nue to ope­ra­te as nor­mal in the­se are­as and both the sky­train and the sub­way are ope­ra­ting as nor­mal.

While the­re has been some floo­ding near the river at high tides, the main hotels loca­ted along the Chao Pra­ya River con­ti­nue to ope­ra­te as nor­mal; howe­ver, no hotel shut­tle boats are allo­wed to ope­ra­te on the river.

We are not ope­ra­ting the Klong Tour and no boat trips are cur­r­ent­ly per­mit­ted on the Chao Pra­ya River. The muse­ums and Viman­mek Man­si­on are cur­r­ent­ly clo­sed. We are moni­to­ring the other tou­rist sites and will amend iti­ne­ra­ries accord­in­gly.

Are­as in the nort­hern sub­urbs of Bang­kok remain floo­ded. Cha­tuchak mar­ket will not ope­ra­te this wee­kend. Don Muang air­port has clo­sed and the air­lines which nor­mal­ly ope­ra­te from this air­port, Ori­ent Thai Air­lines and Nok Air, have relo­ca­ted their ope­ra­ti­ons to Suvarn­ab­hu­mi air­port.

Tomor­row, Mon­day 31 Octo­ber, is a public holi­day for government workers in Bang­kok and neigh­bou­ring pro­vin­ces. All com­mer­ci­al banks and most pri­va­te com­pa­nies will remain open during this time. Embas­sies such as the Ger­man, Bri­tish and Aus­tra­li­an Embas­sies will remain open.

The safe­ty of our cli­ents is our num­ber one prio­ri­ty and we are con­ti­nuing to care­ful­ly moni­tor the situa­ti­on regar­ding the floo­ding in Bang­kok and will pro­vi­de updates as nee­ded.

Other Are­as of Thai­land

The town and his­to­ri­cal park of Ayut­ha­ya remain floo­ded and no tours are ope­ra­ting, howe­ver the flood water is rece­ding. All boo­kings which inclu­de Ayut­ha­ya will be rerou­t­ed and we will inform the cli­ents and their tour ope­ra­tors. Train ser­vices to the north and south of Thai­land have been dis­rup­ted; howe­ver this does not affect our cli­ents as we do not inclu­de the­se train lines in any of our iti­ne­ra­ries.

The rest of Thai­land (Chiang Mai, Hua Hin, Cha Am, Pat­ta­ya, Koh Samui, Phu­ket , Khao Lak, Phu­ket) has not had any floo­ding and all tours and packa­ges are ope­ra­ting as nor­mal.

Quel­le ICS

Überschwemmung Thailand /​ Informationen Südostasien

Thai­land
The situa­ti­on in Bang­kok has been updated on the sepa­ra­te News­flash sent out ear­lier today.

The town and his­to­ri­cal park of Ayut­ha­ya remain floo­ded and no tours are ope­ra­ting.  Train ser­vices from North Thai­land to Bang­kok have been sus­pen­ded and any cli­ents that boo­ked the train will be trans­fer­red by vehi­cle ins­tead.

The rest of Thai­land (Chiang Mai, Hua Hin, Cha Am, Pat­ta­ya, Koh Samui, Phu­ket, Khao Lak, Phu­ket) has not had any floo­ding and all tours and packa­ges are ope­ra­ting as nor­mal.

Myan­mar
Last week an iso­la­ted flash flood in Pak­ko­ku to the north-east of Bagan cau­sed dama­ge to buil­dings and infra­st­ruc­tu­re. The water is rece­ding quick­ly, howe­ver due to a dama­ged bridge we have had to amend the rou­ting of some of our tours. All affec­ted cli­ents and their tour ope­ra­tors have been infor­med of the alter­na­ti­ve arran­ge­ments.

Viet­nam
Dong Thap and An Giang pro­vin­ces in sou­thern Viet­nam expe­ri­en­ced some floo­ding last week howe­ver the water is rece­ding.

All our tours in Viet­nam are ope­ra­ting as nor­mal.

Cam­bo­dia
Siem Reap is no lon­ger floo­ded. All excur­si­ons are ope­ra­ting as nor­mal with the excep­ti­on of the boat trip to Chong Kne­as, as parts of the road are dama­ged as a result of the floods. All affec­ted cli­ents are being con­tac­ted and offe­red alter­na­ti­ve tours.

Due to the floo­ding in Cam­bo­dia , the annu­al Water Fes­ti­val, which was due to take place from 9 - 11 Novem­ber, has been can­cel­led.

Laos
All tours are ope­ra­ting as nor­mal.

Quel­le: ICS

Madame Tussauds eröffnet in Bangkok

Am 4.Dezember 2010 war es end­lich soweit - in Thai­lands Haupt­stadt wur­den die Tore zur berühm­ten Aus­stel­lung der Stars und Stern­chen von Madame Tus­s­auds eröff­net. Über 70 inter­na­tio­na­le und loka­le Berühmt­hei­ten fin­den Sie im welt­weit zehn­ten Wachs­fi­gu­ren­ka­bi­nett im Siam Dis­co­very Cen­ter in Bang­koks Stadt­zen­trum. Die Rie­ge der dar­ge­stell­ten Per­sön­lich­kei­ten reicht von Künst­lern und Wis­sen­schaft­lern wie Albert Ein­stein, Lud­wig van Beet­ho­ven und dem berühm­ten thai­län­di­schen Schrift­stel­ler Sun­thorn Phu über his­to­ri­sche Per­sön­lich­kei­ten wie Prin­zes­sin Dia­na und Köni­gin Eli­sa­beth oder den thai­län­di­schen Mar­schall Plaek Pibul­song­kram bis hin zu Hol­ly­wood­grö­ßen wie Geor­ge Cloo­ney, Brad Pitt und Ange­li­na Jolie. Natür­lich dür­fen in solch einer Aus­stel­lung auch Sport­ler wie David Beck­ham oder der 2,29 m gro­ße Bas­ket­bal­ler Yao Ming nicht feh­len.
Die moder­ne, inter­ak­ti­ve Kulis­se erlaubt es den Besu­chern Prä­si­dent Barack Oba­ma in sei­nem “Oval Office” zu besu­chen oder mit Liver­pools Ste­ven Ger­r­ard einen Elf­me­ter zu schie­ßen. Eine Beson­der­heit ist auch der “König­li­che Raum”, in dem die Figu­ren der Eltern Sei­ner Majes­tät König Bhu­mi­bol Adu­ly­adej aus­ge­stellt wer­den und Besu­cher einen Ein­blick in die Geschich­te der Cha­kri-Dynas­tie erhal­ten.

Bangkok Airport Zug nimmt Betrieb auf

Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport

Bang­kok Suvarn­ab­hu­mi Air­port

Von vie­len heiß­ersehnt - nun end­lich ist es so weit: ab 23. August 2010 ver­bin­det der Suvarn­ab­hu­mi Air­port Link den inter­na­tio­na­len Flug­ha­fen Bang­kok mit der Innen­stadt!

Von der Innen­stadt zum Flug­ha­fen­gibt es zwei Mög­lich­kei­ten. Die “City Line”, die im nörd­li­chen Innen­stadt­di­strikt Pha­yat­hai star­tet, hält an den Sta­tio­nen Rajprarop, Mak­ka­san, Ramkhamha­eng, Hua­mark und Ban Tubchang, bevor sie nach ins­ge­samt 30 Minu­ten Fahrt den Flug­ha­fen erreicht. Der Preis liegt in der Ein­füh­rungs­pha­se bei 15 Baht. Abfahrt ist alle 15 Minu­ten. Alter­na­tiv gibt es doch den “Express Train” . Der Zug star­tet alle hal­be Stun­de am Bahn­hof Mak­ka­san und fährt in 15 Minu­ten non­stop zum Air­port. Für die­se Fahrt muss mit hun­dert Baht etwas tie­fer in die Tasche gegrif­fen wer­den. In Mak­ka­san sol­len die Rei­sen­den in Zukunft auch ihr Gepäck ein­che­cken kön­nen, dies ist aber noch in der Test­pha­se und wird nicht vor Ende s Jah­res ein­satz­be­reit sein.