Vlog by Kara and Nate Buchanan documenting an overnight layover in Bangkok while en route to their 97th country, Bangladesh. They discover and stay in a basement capsule hotel at Bangkok airport (requires exiting airside and clearing customs), show the capsule and locker setup (four-digit PIN), describe amenities (earplugs, wipes, water, USB ports, mood lights), note there are no showers but complimentary lounge access is available, compare this stay to a poor capsule experience in Japan (2016), and recommend the capsule as a better alternative to sleeping in the terminal during a ~13-hour layover.
Questions this video answers
Bangladesh (their 97th country).
About 13 hours (plane leaves at 10:55 next morning; arrival ~9:45).
No — it's located in the basement outside of the secure/airside area; you must clear customs/enter the country to access it.
A four-digit PIN code.
No — the capsule hotel had no showers; they had complimentary access to an airline lounge instead.
Chapters
This is where we're sleeping tonight.
We're Karen Nate. We've been traveling full time for the last four years, pursuing our goal of visiting 100 countries. We spent the last week in Myanmar cruising up the irrawaddy river with 36 of our newest friends. But today it's time to say goodbye to this beautiful country.
All right, we are heading to the airport to start our journey to our 97th country of Bangladesh.
Even though Mandalay, where we currently are and Dhaka where we're going are not that far apart, it's still going to be a pretty long journey and that's because the cheapest flight included an overnight layover in Bangkok.
Normally we try to avoid sleeping in airports because it can be a pretty miserable experience.
However, we are actually super excited about tonight's layover. We have flown through the Bangkok airport so many times, but I had no clue that there was a capsule hotel located in the bottom of the airport.
We don't have to sleep on the ground tonight.
So apparently everyone who flies on Bangkok Airways gets access to their lounge. So it's about how you would expect. Very crowded, but they have free popcorn, coffee and bananas. So I'm not complaining.
Two hours to Bangkok.
We have the whole road to ourselves.
Flight bonus members and all passengers of Our Flight Video 714 by 4 Suva Naphum Airport.
Passengers concepting on the domestic.
Or international flight with Bangkok Airways, please contact our grand staff. Alright, we have made it to Bangkok. It is currently 9:45. Our plane doesn't leave till tomorrow morning at 10:55. So our 13 hour layover starts now. Unfortunately, the capsule hotel is not actually located inside of security. So you do technically have to enter, enter the country, go through customs and then find the basement.
But I think it's gonna be worth it.
This is where we're sleeping tonight. We're literally in the middle of the basement. Our beds are just right here.
It's not like a hotel. They've just set them in the middle of the floor. But it looks like the future is.
This is hilarious. I was not Picturing. There's like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. We're checking in.
So we've been assigned a locker and a capsule. Cara entered a four digit PIN code for both of us. So we'll use that code to access both of them.
This is way bigger than I thought.
It was going to be.
We got these two giant lockers.
All right. I just got a room tour from the super sweet lady and it took about five seconds. Let me show you around. First impressions. This bed is actually really soft. I feel like I'm in a spaceship. It's so like white and futuristic. And there are mood lights. That's the first thing I'm gonna play with. This is my control panel. All of these buttons. I have no idea what does what yet.
Pink for sure. This is a fan. Air fan. It says. Ah. I like the noise. That kind of drowns out some of the airport sounds. This place isn't exactly soundproof like I pictured it being.
We have some. Some USBs. A fast and slow. It says reading light. Sleep mode.
Sleep Mode. It is 20 degrees Celsius in here at 10:41. Looks like I can up the temperature with this.
No.
Mystery bed. And I think that's it for the control panel. We also have some amenities. We have two capsule hotel. Stay fresh, little wipes. Mmm. So we don't have a shower in here. So this is how I will freshen up before bed tonight. Actually smells really lovely. A bottle of water, toilet paper. Ah. And earplugs. This is a nice touch. Earplugs is highly recommended to significantly increase the quality of your sleep. The walls of this place aren't exactly thick.
Yeah. We have two very nice pillows and a big thick blanket. This bed is huge. We easily could have both slept at one. I don't know if that's what you're.
Supposed to do if you're booking online. You're technically not allowed to sleep two people in here, but you could totally get away with it. Just have one person come check in and get the capsule and then the other person can just sneak in. Save you like 50 bucks.
That would be very dishonest. But it's totally doable as long as you had enough room for your stuff. There's also WI fi with the password on the mirror.
So safe. And that about wraps up my room tour. I'm excited. I'll be so rested for our travel day tomorrow. All right.
I feel like every move in this place is so loud. There's literally someone sleeping right under us, right beside us. And I think I'm right here next door.
Well, it looks the same. I think the reason that we're so excited to be staying here is we finally have the opportunity to redeem staying in a capsule hotel.
This is not our first time staying in one of these.
The first time we ever stayed in a capsule hotel was our first week of full time travel back in 2016 in Japan. I just really Feel like we can't capture Explain this moment.
It was a night to remember.
First we went to the wrong one. It ended up being like. How do I put this? Just like borderline creepy.
We were separated on different gender floors. So Cara had to go sleep by.
Herself with no lock on the door. It's just a curvy. Everyone was smoking inside.
It was just like a box. Sleeping in a box filled with smoke.
Still smell it. The pillows were like this big and they were made out of beans in like a bean bag.
It was. And the mattress was like an inch thick. And then there's concrete underneath.
Oh, it was so bad. It was just dark and cringy everywhere. Our room came with these nice ropes.
Ain't they cute?
I think tonight it'll be a little better.
And we were so like fresh to travel that everything. We were just wide eyed the whole time.
What is this? This people sleep here.
Everything's confusing in Tokyo anyways. Especially when you're new at travel. We got back on the horse.
This will be better. It's a miracle we're still traveling.
Okay. Quick bathroom tour. Much quicker than usual. Because it's just the airport bathroom toilets. There is one interesting thing though. It's like a communal toilet paper. There's no toilet paper in any of the stalls. You have to get the toilet paper before. Which I didn't do. Whoops.
Have I mentioned that this is so much better than sleeping on the floor or on the couch in the lounge at the airport? And it's pretty amazing that we have this giant comfy bed in the Bangkok airport basement. All right.
These beds are so big. And Nate's just right next door. I'm thinking about going into his castle. You would think since we're always together, I'd be happy to have a break. But I miss him.
What's up?
Can I sleep with you?
It's warm in here. I don't know if two people's body heat in one little square. Yeah. Come on.
I didn't really think about the body heat thing. Nate's really not fun to be around when he's hot. Get in here. Sleepover.
I feel like we're making the rules, but there's so much space. It's a queen size bed you can easily do this to.
All right. We're calling it a night.
Good night.
Good morning. Very bright in the spaceship this morning.
Try to get your coffee. They don't take card.
I actually slept great.
Would you recommend the capsule? Yeah.
I don't think it's as soft As I thought it was this mattress. It's pretty firm, but other than that.
All right. The only checkout instructions the way you gave us. Just don't tape my sandals.
As you may expect, there were no breakfast options or shower facilities, utilities at the capsule hotel. But we do have access to a lounge where both of them are free.
This is the happiest I've ever been before having caffeine.
Thank you.
Real coffee.
And last but not least, not a bad breakfast. Dim sum, ice cream, and coffee. And it's all free. Club lounges. This. This is one thing I've never seen in a lounge before. Not bad, Singapore Airlines.
Unfortunately, there was no shower in the Singapore Airlines lounge, but we did have.
Ice cream for Ryan.
So then there's another one just like right around the cor.
All right, we are going to end this video here. And in the next one, we are continuing our journey to our 97th country of Bangladesh.
This is what happens every time we stop for a few seconds.
Be an adventure.
So if you enjoyed this video and you want to follow along with the next one, it really helps us out if you hit subscribe.
It's actually kind of hard to drink coffee while you're getting massaged. It's rough morning here.
Okay.
Let me show you around.
Great start.
I call this a wipey bath. I do these way more often than I should.
Escalatory things that are down and then they're flat, then they go down again.
