Aircraft Disposal Site In Central Bangkok Is World Tourist Attraction

By Mohd Haikal Mohd Isa BANGKOK, July 12 (Bernama) -- Hidden in the centre of the city of eight million people is a commercial aircraft disposal site which has become the latest tourist attraction in Bangkok. Daily, tour vans and buses ferry tourists from all over the world to the site, overrun with undergrowths, which is located at Soi 105 Ramkhamhaeng Road. Complete with cameras and digital videos, foreign tourists were willing to pay an entry fee of 600 Baht (US$17) a person to enter the site which now housed three ageing commercial aircraft. Currently, the front fuselage of a Boeing 747 aircraft and two complete but dilapidated McDonnell Douglas MD-82 and several other aircraft sections, which could not be identified, were on the site. A Singaporean tourist, who only wanted to be known as Lim, said he only came to know about the existence of the site, known as 'Airplane Graveyard Bangkok', via a European tourism website, which is specifically for unique attractions. "I try to look for information on the site on Thailand's official websites but failed. Maybe, the authorities do not recognise it as a tourism product," he said. Lim, who was at the site with his wife, spent two hours exploring every aircraft and took photographs of the numerous equipment inside them. "It is not everyday that we can enter every nook and cranny of an aircraft which are normally out-of-bound areas such as the cockpit and cargo hold. So, it is a unique experience," he said. Indeed, the commercial aircraft dumping site in Ramkhamhaeng is only popularised by European tourism websites to those who could be bored with the normal attractions in the city of Bankgok and wanted to try something unique. The tourism websites said the aircraft disposal site was among the unique attractions which is a must visit for tourists to Bankgok. Further boosting the attractiveness of the site was the question which could not be unravelled concerning how the aircraft, which weighed thousands of tonnes each, could have been moved there from their original sites. "It is a mystery as to how the McDonnell Douglas MD-82 aircraft, each of which is 40 metres long, can be placed here, together with bits and pieces of other aircraft, far away from an aircraft runway," said the tourism website. According to a caretaker of the site, who was known as 'Madam', not much was known about the site or the aircraft, except that they belonged to a businessman. Although not allowed to talk to the media, 'Madam' said there were 10 people from three families who lived in the aircraft. 'Madam' admitted to being among the individuals who called the Jumbo 747 aircraft home. (photoBERNAMA) -- BERNAMA