The Suvarnabhumi Airport Museum

I've been living in Bangkok since 2013, and I'm still finding interesting hidden gems all the time. The city is endlessly fascinating and surprising.

A while back, my wife forgot something on an airplane. She was able to contact the airline, who put it in lost and found, and we had been meaning to make our way to the airport to pick it up, but Suvarnabhumi is kind of far from where we live, and we kept putting it off.

This week, we finally decided to make a day of it and to discover some attractions at and near the airport that I had always wanted to check out.

The Suvarnabhumi Airport Museum (located on the sixth floor of Parking Garage 3) is a small museum dedicated to the history of aviation in Thailand and to Suvarnabhumi Airport, a real wonder of architecture and the pride of Thailand since it was built in 2006.

The old airport, Don Mueang International, is still open, and it's actually the airport I typically prefer to fly out of (because it's closer to where I live and is the hub of most of the budget airlines). Don Mueang, which began operating in 1914, is actually the oldest airport in Asia!

By the turn of the century, though, Bangkok's popularity as the world's most visited city, necessitated something bigger, and the government went all-out on its sleek and modern design. It even boasted the world's tallest air traffic control tower until recently unseated by the tower at Kuala Lumpur International in neighboring Malaysia.

The airport was built just east of Bangkok in neighboring Samut Prakan province in an area formerly known as Nong Nguhao, meaning "Cobra Swamp". The unpleasant, swampy land was sparsely populated, and a perfect place to build a new international airport.

The airport's name "Suvarnabhumi" (su-wana-boom) is Sanskrit for "land of gold". The name was chosen by the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX) as a reference to the mythical Buddhist kingdom of the same name, said in Hindu mythology to be found somewhere east of the Ganges in central Indochina. Think "Avalon", "El Dorado", or "Shangri-La".

In Thailand, the number 9 is considered to be especially lucky and auspicious, and the architectural design of the airport was created with the philosophy of "9 Wonders" in mind. In essence, as long as architecturally possible, measurements were made so that each digit added up to the number nine. This was my very favorite fact that I learned while visiting the museum.

Just a few examples:

• there are 126 glass facade trusses (1+2+6=9) each spaced 9 meters apart
• each section of the concourse truss is spaced 27 meters apart (2+7=9)
• the passenger terminal is 441 meters long (4+4+1=9) and 45 meters tall (4+5=9)
• each of the main pylons in the passenger terminal are spaced 81 meters apart (8+1=9)
• the two main pylons in the terminal are spaced 126 meters away from each other (1+2+6=9)
• the passenger terminal is 108 meters wide (1+0+8=9)
• and there are 108 sets of concourse canopies (1+0+8=9)

The museum also detailed the art and sculptures decorating the terminals, including the giants guarding the check-in hall and the murals and statues from Thai mythology which can be found all throughout the airport.

Going to the lost and found ended up being a really good excuse to see some things that we had never seen before. I would never have visited this museum on any of my trips in or out of Thailand and doubt I would ever have made the trek out to the airport without a reason to do so, but I'm really glad to have done it.

And good news! Pinky was able to recover her lost item!

All's well that end's well.