At the end of last year I went to Bangkok for spotting and vacations. I've arrived on the night of 26th from IST and departed back Ataturk airport on the 2nd of January.
I did spotting from every day from the 27th until the 31th. On the 1st of January I was too tired to go spotting after partying all night, and on the 2nd I've returned to IST. During this time of the year the winds are from the north, so you will have runways 19's in use: 19R for arrivals and 19L for departures, altough same interesting stuff landes on 19L. It was hard to find a good spot in the morning, and I only did it on the last day (it was so easy to get there, that I don't know how I didn't think about it before). Basically there are two fences, and there is a rood that goes all around the airport between those 2 fences. You are only outside the airport area when you clear the 2nd fence, and taking photos between the fences is forbiden. So basically for the morning spot all you have to do, is walking next to that 2nd fence and you will find a great place to stay, altough there are no shadows. A photo with my 3 megapixles camera:
In the afternoon you just move to the other side of the road and stay on the sidewalk. There are enough trees to give you a nice shadow (it really is hot there):
How to get there? Well, I allways used the taxi, for being easy to find one, wherever you are, and also for being so cheap. Tell the driver to go the International airport (that's probably one of the few thing they understand). Go to the departures level, and pass this are, you will now be leaving this area through the "Airtport Exit" exit. It will be a left turn. After this you will came to a main road heading west. You need to go east, so a couple of meters ahead there's a U turn. Do it. You will pass same builings until you find the "Transaportation Center on you left side. There you need to make a right turn to head south. You will be travelling southbound for a couple of km (at this point you are still inside the airport zone, between the 2 fences. You will see great location for spotting, but remember, you will be sent away by police. That's for sure. So, let's continue down the road, which at the end will start making a turn by the righ. You will see a bridge, but you won't go up. Just before it, exit to the left. You will pass under the bridge, and you will exit the 2nd fence. To your left is the morning spot. You have to walk to that place, just a few meters away. And on the other side of the road you will find the afternoon spot. Travel to this area, both in and out, by taxi, it will be about 400bath one way (about 8€ I think)
The weather was nice altough many clouds passing by made me missing same photos (plus the most interesting stuff usually landed on 19L). I usually would take a photo with 400mm just to get the registration, which worked just fine.
Well, now time for same photos:
I will be uploading more photos in the future, meanwhile if you have any questions about the spots, I will be happy to help. You can check the log on the correct topic.
Have an excellent weekend
