After a visit, he said the airport's conditions were bad - from the runway, the parking bay to the passenger terminal, where the number of toilets remains insufficient.

Surprised by his comments? Yes - after being open for more than a month, these sorts of observations have not faded away.

In a way, it reminds us of the mess at Royal Flora Ratchaphruek 2006.

Taking place in Chiang Mai, the international flora expo has drawn much criticism.

Prior to the opening, reporters failed to receive their badges, even after a number of calls from the organiser's public-relations officers, who wanted to check the identities of the reporters. In the end, it was resolved by allowing reporters to register in front of the expo and get the necessary pass.

Then there have been reports of insufficient transport inside the expo, which expects to accommodate tens of thousands of visitors a day wandering through the vast grounds amid extreme heat.

There are also stories that some flowers have been picked by naughty visitors.

We also know that some booths are not quite fully finished. In some areas, beautifying the booths are large banners featuring painted flowers, as if to increase the attraction of those booths that actually have so few real ones.

Then there are real flowers dying from the heat.

Last, we learn that the expo has been turned into an olfactory sensation of an unexpected kind by 700 portable toilets that have failed to keep pace with the calls of nature.

One week after the opening of the expo, 560 kilometres north of Bangkok, organisers admitted that onsite toilets had been overwhelmed by the thousands of visitors flocking to visit and were raising a stink among the floral displays.

The international floral expo was one of the pet projects of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was born in Chiang Mai.

Indeed, it was also Thaksin who rushed the opening of Suvarnabhumi Airport.

We wonder if whether the airport and the floral expo had been given more time to prepare before opening its doors, would these problems have occurred? Or is it just the nature of Thais - we are never 100-per-cent prepared?

achara_d@nationgroup.com