Bangkok’s Don Muang airport has closed after 92 years of commercial operation, making way for the new Suvarnabhumi airport. Yesterday the old airport was full of people taking photos. I feel a little sad, even though I’ve only been acquainted with the place for a handful of years. It wasn’t the best airport in the world, but neither was it the worst. It had a lived-in homely feel. There was never any hassle at customs, and you could always get something to eat and drink. And I’ll always remember the first time I stepped outside into the hot muggy velvet of a Bangkok night and felt inexplicably welcomed; that first drive down the expressway, past more massed city lights than I’d ever seen, and wats with mirror-tiled bargeboards that seemed to ripple like dragons as the headlights went past; the sense of a genius loci both holy and worldly, merciful and mischievous, and very much a thing unto itself; the unexpected feeling that I could happily live here.

There are reports that the new airport is haunted. Yay!