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Thailand
Sukhothai Airport – The World’s Prettiest Airport?
Sukhothai Airport – The World’s Prettiest Airport?
Sukhothai Airport in central Thailand has to be a contender for the world’s prettiest airport – it’s like landing in an ornamental garden rather than an aviation terminal
Whilst digging around in my travel photos I came across these pictures of Sukhothai Airport which I took back in 2006 when visiting the Sukhothai National Park. Sukhothai is Thailand’s answer to Angkor Wat, and you can read more about my visit to Sukhothai’s amazing ruined temples in my previous story.
What struck me looking at these photos of Sukhothai Airport again was just how ridiculously pretty the place is. The whole airport is open air, using the traditional Thai sala style. Besides the graceful spires of the roofs, the whole airport is surrounded by beautifully manicured ornamental gardens, which looked particularly lush the day I took these photos as it had been raining previously.
This airport was built by Bangkok Airways who have a near monopoly on flights into Sukhothai. Bangkok Airways also operates flights from Bangkok to Koh Samui and purpose-built the airport on Samui which follows similar principles as Sukhothai Airport and has won numerous architecture awards for its back-to-nature philosophy. I think I prefer Sukhothai’s airport though, simply because it’s smaller and not so crowded with people.
That is nice, it would be great if international airports infused more of their traditional architecture into their designs, normally you don’t feel like you’re in another country until you leave the airport, most of them are all just “same same, but different”.
I think the rural airports in Thailand are all just plain awesome. We just flew out of Samui airport to get our Thai visa’s renewed and I was amazed at the free wifi, snacks and papers. It was pretty amazing incorporating all the natural beauty of the area. I wish the airports in Vancouver would be less “business” and more natural like this, though the rain may be a problem :>
Beautiful photos, and an interesting post. Thanks fpr this
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