planes, trains, n tuk tuks….

Grabbed my morning bag o” coffee and headed to the airport for our flight to Hanoi Vietnam.  (yes, you heard right, liquids in Laos are often served in plastic bags w/ straws.  coffee, smoothies, soup, sauces.  and miraculously they defy gravity and stand up straight when set on a table!)

Checked in for our flight on Lao Airlines and were greeted w/ a ”you can not board this flight..

”come back in 3 days.”

Apparently there had been some mix up w/ our vietnam visas and the date to enter the country wasn”t until the 13th.  We pleaded our case and I think at one point htreatened to chain ourselves to the desk.  After 2 hrs of whispering and disapearing w/ our visas (thank goodness we got there early) they said they had contacted Vietnam immigration and we ere ok to go.  A dubious claim but we didn”t care.  figure it was a step in the right direction.

But now we had to board the dreaded Lao Airlines flight.  Something neither of us were happy about being our only option out of LP, since they have the worst  crash record of any airline and has yrs past stopped even reporting its safety record.  Boarded our 2 prop plane ready to sputter down the lone runway and were pleasantly surprised!  Clean, bright, painted with appealing Asian scenes on the cockpit wall, a fantastic box meal w/ green swirly bread pudding and french roll pork sandwiches and fruit.  Not bad at all!  especially for a 1.5 hr flight?!

*side note:  Awoke w/ a rather worrisome looking bite/ infection on my forearm.  Looks like a red figure 8 or infinity symbol 1.5” long and really painful like a burn?!  Don”t know how i could have not felt a bite or burn that severe.  Will keep you posted.*

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