After our dreadful hotel experience on Phuket, arriving in Bangkok this afternoon was like coming home to the good life. The taxi ride into this bustling metropolis was smooth and took just a little bit longer time from the new Suvarnabhumi International Airport.

Bangkok’s new airport is gorgeous – on the outside. On the inside something has gone terribly awry. Floors and ceilings are flat and hard, wall decorations range from being boring to presenting horrendously ugly paintings and ubiquitous baggage carts are heavy and bulky. Worst of all is the really bad lighting. As we walked around the airport, it felt as if we had been time machined to an airport in the former Soviet Union.

I think airports should be positive, futuristic and full of energy.

What happened? With so much architectural talent, design excellence and avant-garde culture thriving in Thailand, Charlotte and I both were deeply disappointed to see Suvarnabhumi in such dreary light. Hopefully this is just temporary and that soon a bright and brave creative team will fix things and meet the challenge of redesigning and redecorating a modern airport.