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

News Thailand: flooding Neueste Nachrichten über die Überschwemmungen in Thailand

 

We would like to update you on the latest situa­ti­on regar­ding the floo­ding and wea­ther con­di­ti­ons around Thai­land.

Ayutt­ha­ya is still floo­ded, and all Asia World sight­see­ing tours to Ayutt­ha­ya are sus­pen­ded until at least the end of Octo­ber. Our sight­see­ing tours to Lop­bu­ri and Uthai Tha­ni are also sus­pen­ded, but all other Asia World tours are ope­ra­ting as nor­mal, inclu­ding our sight­see­ing tours in Bang­kok.

Some sub­urbs on the far north out­s­kirts of Bang­kok have been floo­ded, but so far the city cent­re has­n’t been affec­ted. Many shops and houses are lay­ing out sand­bags to pro­tect against the floods, but so far they have not been nee­ded in cen­tral Bang­kok. The aut­ho­ri­ties are doing their best to mana­ge the flow of water so that it drains saf­ley into the sea through Bangkok’s exten­si­ve canal net­work, and during this pro­cess it is pos­si­ble that some canals may overs­pill and cau­se some floo­ding. Howe­ver, at this sta­ge it looks unli­kely that the cen­tral busi­ness district and the are­as whe­re most tou­rist attrac­tions and hotels are will beco­me serious­ly floo­ded.

We are moni­to­ring the situa­ti­on very clo­se­ly and, as always, the safe­ty of our cli­ents is our num­ber one prio­ri­ty. If the situa­ti­on chan­ges in Bang­kok or any other part of Thai­land we will update you as soon as pos­si­ble, and we have very care­ful con­tin­gen­cy plans in place in case the floo­ding is wor­se than expec­ted.

The floo­ded high­ways in Cen­tral Thai­land are star­ting to clear, with some sec­tions that were pre­vious­ly floo­ded beco­m­ing acces­si­ble. Howe­ver, as a safe­ty pre­cau­ti­on our clas­sic Bang­kok to the North over­land tour is still being re-rou­t­ed along high­way 340 ins­tead of Asia High­way No. 1, which results in an extra 2.5 hours jour­ney time for this tour.

All trains from Bang­kok to the north of Thai­land are can­cel­led until fur­ther noti­ce.

The­re is no dis­rup­ti­on to any air­ports in Thai­land, inclu­ding Bangkok’s main inter­na­tio­nal air­port which has for­ti­fied its flood walls as an extra precua­ti­on.

Quel­le Asia World

New airport Lombok /​ neuer Flughafen in Lombok

 We would like to inform you that from 1st Octo­ber, 2011 all inco­m­ing and out­go­ing pla­nes are using the new Lom­bok Inter­na­tio­nal Air­port (Band­ara Inter­na­tio­nal Lom­bok).

 The new air­port repla­ces Sel­a­parang Air­port, the islands pre­vious sole ope­ra­tio­nal air­port situa­ted at Ampen­an, on the West coast of Lom­bok near the capi­tal of Mataram. Sel­a­parang Air­port was clo­sed on 30th Sep­tem­ber, 2011.

The new air­port is situa­ted in Tanak Awu, in Kabu­pa­ten Lom­bok Ten­gah (Regen­cy of Cen­tral Lom­bok), around 40 km south of the pre­vious Mataram Sel­a­parang Air­port.

 The new loca­ti­on of the air­port has two impac­ts :

 -        The trans­fer from Lom­bok to Gili Trawan­gan takes more time.

-        The trans­fer from Lom­bok Air­port to the main requested hotels takes around 1h /​ 1,5h.

 The most usu­al way to get from Bali to Lombok/​Gili Trawan­gan is by pla­ne and then a boat if going to Gili Islands. As it will take more time now, we recom­mend to take a fast boat from Bali to Lombok/​Gili Islands. The­re are several com­pa­nies ser­ving Bali-Lom­bok-Gili Trawan­gan or Bali-Gili Trawan­gan.

Flughafen Airport Lombok

Hol­ding the Apron Strings in Lom­bok - The government now esti­ma­tes that the inau­gu­ra­ti­on of the Lom­bok Inter­na­tio­nal Air­port on Bali’s neigh­bou­ring island to the east, will take place in Octo­ber, 2011. The new Lom­bok air­port covers 585 hec­ta­res and will enhan­ce tou­rism to Lom­bok due to its abi­li­ty to hand­le lar­ger air­craft. The airport’s deve­lop­ment cost RP. 802 bil­li­on (US$91 mil­li­on), an increa­se from the Rp. 665 bil­li­on (US$75.6 mil­li­on) ori­gi­nal­ly esti­ma­ted for the pro­ject.

Changes in Border Crossing Regulations in Myanmar

The Myan­mar Government has recent­ly revi­sed their rules and regu­la­ti­ons regar­ding Bor­der Crossing effec­tive from 01 July 2011.

All tra­velers ent­e­ring Myan­mar are requi­red to exit the coun­try through the same bor­der.  E.g. cli­ents ent­e­ring  the coun­try from Tachi­lek will have to lea­ve Myan­mar through Tachi­lek. Flights from any other air­ports or over­land bor­der crossings will not be allo­wed.

The above men­tio­ned regu­la­ti­ons are valid with imme­dia­te effect for an inde­fi­ni­te peri­od of time.
We will keep you infor­med about any other deve­lop­ments.

If you need any fur­ther infor­ma­ti­on plea­se con­tact your sales per­son in char­ge.

Los Angeles: Freeway zum Flughafen gesperrt

Geschäfts­rei­sen­de und Urlau­ber in Los Ange­les und Umge­bung, die am drit­ten Juli-Wochen­en­de mit dem Auto unter­wegs sind, soll­ten ihre Fahrt im Vor­feld genau pla­nen. Das gilt ins­be­son­de­re für Flug­rei­sen­de, die per Auto zum Los Ange­les Inter­na­tio­nal Air­port (LAX) fah­ren wol­len. Grund ist die Voll­sper­rung des Free­ways I-405 zwi­schen Ven­tu­ra- und San­ta Moni­ca-Free­way auf einer Gesamt­län­ge von zehn Kilo­me­tern. Die ers­ten Zufahr­ten wer­den am Frei­tag, 15. Juli, ab 19 Uhr dicht gemacht. Bis Mit­ter­nacht soll die Sper­rung abge­schlos­sen sein. Sams­tag und Sonn­tag bleibt der Free­way geschlos­sen. Ab Mon­tag, 18. Juli, 6 Uhr, soll der Ver­kehr dann wie­der rol­len. Die Behör­den erwar­ten erheb­li­che Ver­kehrs­be­hin­de­run­gen und Staus auf den Umlei­tungs­stra­ßen. Ins­be­son­de­re Pas­sa­gie­re, die aus dem Nor­den und Osten zum Flug­ha­fen anrei­sen, müs­sen mit deut­lich län­ge­ren Fahrt­zei­ten rech­nen. Auch Rei­sen­de aus Down­town LA soll­ten für die Fahrt zum Flug­ha­fen mehr Zeit ein­pla­nen. Detail­lier­te Infos zu den Aus­wir­kun­gen der Sper­rung sowie wei­ter­füh­ren­de Links hat der Air­port im Inter­net ver­öf­fent­licht.

Infos für Rei­sen­de am Flug­ha­fen LAX unter www​.lawa​.org/​405

Neues Terminal am Doha International Airport

Neu­es Ter­mi­nal am Doha Inter­na­tio­nal Air­port
 
 Auf dem Doha Inter­na­tio­nal Air­port wur­de am Diens­tag ein neu­es Abflug­ter­mi­nal eröff­net. Im Ter­mi­nal B wer­den die Pas­sa­gie­re von rund 30 inter­na­tio­na­len Flug­ge­sell­schaf­ten wie Luft­han­sa, Bri­tish Air­ways und KLM/​Air Fran­ce abge­fer­tigt. Zur Aus­stat­tung gehö­ren ein gro­ßer Check-in-Bereich, eine Online Check-In Lounge, ein Wech­sel­schal­ter, eine moder­ne Gepäck­an­la­ge und meh­re­re Lebens­mit­tel­ge­schäf­te. Das bereits bestehen­de Ter­mi­nal, das jetzt Ter­mi­nal A heißt, ist künf­tig für die Flug­gäs­te von Qatar Air­ways reser­viert. Im Ter­mi­nal A pro­fi­tie­ren die Pas­sa­gie­re der­zeit vor allem von einem erwei­ter­ten Check-in-Bereich. In den kom­men­den Mona­ten ist die Ein­rich­tung zusätz­li­cher Gates und die Umge­stal­tung der Oryx-Lounge geplant. Das neue Ter­mi­nal soll die stei­gen­den Pas­sa­gier­zah­len so lan­ge auf­fan­gen, bis im nächs­ten Jahr in unmit­tel­ba­rer Nach­bar­schaft der New Doha Inter­na­tio­nal Air­port eröff­net wird.
 
Infor­ma­tio­nen zum Air­port unter www​.dohaair​port​.com

EU-Länder halten an Flüssigkeitsverbot fest

EU-Län­der hal­ten an Flüs­sig­keits­ver­bot fest
 
 Es kommt, wie es der Flug­ha­fen­ver­band ACI Euro­pe vor­her­ge­sagt hat. Die für den 29. April geplan­te Locke­rung des Ver­bots von Flüs­sig­kei­ten im Hand­ge­päck wird nicht in allen EU-Län­dern umge­setzt. Wie bri­ti­sche Medi­en berich­ten, will Groß­bri­tan­ni­en aus­sche­ren. Damit wird das Flüs­sig­keits­ver­bot zum Bei­spiel an den Umstei­ge­flug­hä­fen von Lon­don wei­ter­hin gel­ten, und Pas­sa­gie­re, die aus Dritt­län­dern über Lon­don nach Deutsch­land flie­gen, müs­sen im Duty Free Shop gekauf­te Flüs­sig­kei­ten dort wei­ter­hin abge­ben. Den Berich­ten zufol­ge sol­len auch Frank­reich und Ita­li­en in Betracht zie­hen, die Locke­rung des Ver­bots zu igno­rie­ren. Laut Brüs­sel sol­len Flüs­sig­kei­ten, Gels und Sprays, die an Dritt­län­der-Air­ports gekauft wer­den und in ver­sie­gel­ten Plas­tik­tü­ten ste­cken, vom 29. April an beim Umstei­gen inner­halb der EU nicht mehr ein­ge­zo­gen wer­den. Die euro­päi­schen Flug­hä­fen hat­ten jedoch bereits befürch­tet, dass es in ein­zel­nen EU-Län­dern wei­ter­hin stren­ge­re Rege­lun­gen geben könn­te.

Was Airlines und Airports bieten

Air­port Bang­kok:  für Umstei­gepas­sa­gie­re bie­tet der Air­port-Betrei­ber einen Coun­ter, an dem Flug­gäs­te je nach ver­füg­ba­rer Zeit buchen kön­nen. Der­zeit gibt es 14 Ange­bo­te. In 4  Stun­den kön­nen bei­spiels­wei­se eine Stadt­rund­fahrt, eine Boots­tour oder ver­schie­de­ne Muse­en besucht wer­den. Auch ein Din­ner in einem tol­len Restau­rant ist mach­bar. Wer noch mehr Zeit hat (ab 7 Stun­den) kann sogar eine Run­de Golf spie­len.

Sin­g­a­po­re:

Der Flug­ha­fen ist bekann­ter­ma­ßen, beson­ders schön und auch ohne Ange­bo­te fällt es nicht schwer, die Zeit zu ver­brin­gen. Trotz­dem  wird eini­ges gebo­ten:  neben 24 Stun­den Shop­ping, gibt es einen Schmet­ter­lings-Gar­ten mit Was­ser­fall, einen Kak­tus,- Farn,- Orchi­de­en und Duft,- und Licht­gar­ten.  Auch Well­ness und Gesund­heit kom­men nicht zu kurz, ein beson­de­res Ver­gnü­gen ist das Fisch­s­pa für die müden Füße.  Lust auf Schwim­men? Auch ein Pool mit Jacuz­zi ste­hen zur Ver­fü­gung und bei min­des­tens 5 Stun­den Auf­ent­halt, gibt es eine kos­ten­lo­se, zwei­stün­di­ge City­tour.

Weather Situation Phuket Koh Samui Südthailand

Plea­se allow us to keep you updated on the latest wea­ther con­di­ti­ons in Thai­land:

 The wea­ther in sou­thern Thai­land has impro­ved great­ly over the last 24 hours, and things are star­ting to return to nor­mal. The cur­rent situa­ti­on is as fol­lows:

Phu­ket:

Wea­ther is fine on Phu­ket today, and the air­port and all major roads remain open.

All of our island tours and speed boat trips are ope­ra­ting now, alt­hough they could be can­cel­led if the wea­ther wor­sens.

All boats and fer­ries from Phu­ket to near­by islands are ope­ra­ting as nor­mal.

Koh Samui:

 

Alt­hough the­re has been some rain­fall today, the floods on the island have signi­fi­cant­ly redu­ced, and trans­port around the island is rela­tively easy. The­re is still some clean-up work to be done, but things are retur­ning to nor­mal.

Koh Samui air­port is open and ope­ra­ting as nor­mal.

All fer­ries and boats to and from Koh Samui, bet­ween the main­land and other islands (Koh Pha Ngan, Koh Tao) are run­ning as nor­mal.

All of our sea excur­si­ons, island tours and speed boat trips are ope­ra­ting now, alt­hough they could be can­cel­led if the wea­ther wor­sens.

Kra­bi:

 

All fer­ries and boats bet­ween Kra­bi and near­by islands are ope­ra­ting as nor­mal today.

All of our sea excur­si­ons around Kra­bi  are ope­ra­ting now, alt­hough they could be can­cel­led if the wea­ther wor­sens.

Kra­bi and Trang air­ports are still open and ope­ra­ting as nor­mal.

Sou­thern Thai­land:

 

Nak­horn Si Thamma­rat air­port is still floo­ded and the­re­fo­re remains clo­sed as of today.

 

No trains are ope­ra­ting to or bey­ond Nak­horn Si Thamma­rat, the most sou­ther­ly pro­vin­ce that trains are ser­vicing is Surat Tha­ni.