Holy Rats! Batman!

 

January 4^th 2023 – Someplace between here and there

Yesterday in Luang Prabang was the first day I used the alarm function. Five am comes very early, even in the tropics.

530 coffee and on the pavement at 545. Off we went through the dead quiet streets. Except for one guy, everything he said he had to say loudly, and he had a lot to say. Then every dog he saw on the street he approached and it would usually start barking. I would have shot him if I lived on that street. He really ruined the tranquility of a morning intended for contemplation and reflection as we shared alms with the monks.

The ship had already arranged our spot on the sidewalk to present the alms to the monks. A long 10 person mat and ten little stools, more suited for seating kindergartners that adults. Butts lower than knees and knees at your chin. A covered bowl before each stool and a sash to wear. Left shoulder across the body and tied at the right waist.

Down the street in the darkness I could just see a line saffron starting to show. Then they were on us. A very orderly line of men each in turn stopping to receive a pinch of rice before stepping to the next person on the sidewalk stools.

From the corner there were about 20 tourists and then one local woman. She had all the proper equipment and what I thought was a trash basket. Each monk would receive a pinch of rice, but every now and then one of them would drop a white mass into her trash basket. I thought it was nice she has a place for used Kleenex. I was wrong as I found out later. The basket was when a monk thought he had too much food, that he would take some of his own and place it in her basket. Than at the conclusion she would either leave the basket or it would be collected by the poor and they would also have some food for the day.

After the monks ended we briskly walked to the morning market. It was different than both night markets. The one in Vientiane was mostly for locals to but clothing and phone cases and the like. Prabang Luang was an organized Cairo street bazaar. Morning market was some tourist incentive purchases, but primarily it was for the day’s grocery shopping. Fresh fish, and cuts of meat. Vegetables and herbs. Live chickens and of course what would a day’s menu not include? A nice dried rat or bat. All cleaned and ready for roasting.

Then back to the boat for our breakfast and some upstream motoring. This gave me an opportunity to pick at the knots of my crone bondage and I got all off without resorting to scissors, my teeth or a machete. Soon after my chakra’s were released, or cleansed we arrived at some caves.

These caves have been used for centuries as a place to bring and leave a Buddha statue. The cave is jam packed with them. Big ones, small ones, and even pocket sized ones. Everywhere a statue. So many in fact there were so many that they had to find a second cave higher in the cliff for more. The cave was ?? 200 ?? steps from the main one. When I got there, my Apple watch was buzzing like a hornet. I guess I had closed my ‘Steps ring, my Exercise ring and my Stand ring’, plus 15 flights of stairs.

Back at the first cave there was a mat and on the mat was a cup of chopsticks and pieces of paper in slots on the wall. You took the cup in your hands and tapped it gently as the chopsticks slowly inched up the cup until one fell out. This was your fortune. You looked at the number on the stick and found the corresponding numbered piece of paper and your fortune was written on the paper. Some fortunes were good, and some were not quite as good. It goes without saying that mine was perfect.

As an aside each Buddha pose is for one day of the week. For example, the Buddha standing with palms facing out front at chest high is the Monday Buddha. Based on the day of your birth. Google told me my birth day and it is the reclining Buddha. I do believe that finally something I can put my faith in.

Evening we beached at a sandbank and the crew started carrying tables and chairs out onto the sand. Some of the crew climbed into the jungle and starred tossing down dead trees and limbs. The plastic chairs were draped in cloth and then tied with ribbons and set in a semi circle around the dried logs. With the help of a Butane torch it was soon a nice bon fire an our dining room was prepared. Grilled food came by and then at the conclusion of dinner we set paper lanterns into the night sky. I was expecting hokey and instead was really pleasantly surprised.

Bed and morning came at 630 to the sound of engines and the day was started. A few hours of motoring and another sandbank and another village tour. Each one is the same as the one before, but each different in it’s own way. This one felt more like a real village, not a government planed community. The streets were not linear but instead followed the contours of the earth. This village had been established a long time ago. The tourist draw for this one was the women did fine embroidery in their down time and excellent work at that. The ladies would then take their work to Luang Prabang to sell in the night market. I think they were happy to see us for a few reasons. No UPS fees to get the embroidery to the big city on a long tailed boat. All cash, well the night market is all cash to begin with and no haggling. I think the passengers were happy too. No haggling, one flat price and they were pretty certain of getting an item made in Laos and not some factory I China.

I bought one and paid for it in Kip. I heard “Do they take dollars?” No. One of the members of my tribe puled me aside and asked me if I had any more Kip. I had a million (+\- $65) and so I had to lose my millionaire status. Alas now I am just among the 100k class.

Back to the boat and lunch.

New Year and you don't need to buy her a drink first

January 2 2023 – Luang Prabang, Laos

If there are no pictures, they will come, just not good internet

Out with the old and in with the new, though it feels like nothing has changed. In reality probably nothing has. I made and Irish Exit around 1030 and was in bed by 1045. I was still feeling tired and beat up and Judi gave me a couple Advil night time tablets and the rest is blank until 5 or 6am. It was the best sleep I had on the trip up to that point. I the movie ‘Airplane’ has a scene where someone is having a panic attack and one of the crew members calls out “Does anyone have a Valium?” and twenty people are offering all sorts of assorted narcotics. It was almost like that when I said to my seatmate at breakfast that I had forgotten my Aleve at home. Tylenol, Advil, Aspirin and some European brands I had never heard of all in different dosages and addition effects. Cold, nighttime, etc. were all offered by the entire table. Judi’s offering worked well.

I did hear some yelling and Happy New Year shouts, but I turned on my other side and was back asleep in a thrice. It was very, very quiet on the boat the next morning.

The reason I left without saying good bye is there seems to be a formal ceremony about leaving. Need to explain and sometimes lie. One male passenger has a medical problem that makes swallowing difficult and uses two walking sticks for balance. If I get up to leave the table, he stands. It is sweet and makes me feel unworthy, and a hint uncomfortable. If I get up for water or something, he’ll stay sitting, but when I leave, it’s – stand, nod and say good night.

The locks begin operation daily at 8am and we were the first in line. At 730 we started moving toward the dam and at exactly 8am our boat’s nose was just entering the first lock. The lock is wide enough for the boat with maybe ½ to ¾ of a meter on each side. The big doors in the back slowly shut. I can watch the daylight go narrower and narrower until the doors are shut. I couldn’t feel the boat rise, but I could watch the walls descend by the inch. When the water reached a certain black line, the doors in front opened and we entered the second lock and repeated the process once again.

When the doors in front opened we floated free into a large lake. No longer the river that we had been on the previous days. Several hours later after sunbathing and lunch off on the next excursion. The butterfly garden, waterfalls, black bear rescue and an added treat of the bison farm. The waterfalls are world famous and on my required list for Laos. The bear, butterfly and bison farm not so much. As matter of fact I would have skipped the butterfly farm. Flying worms are fine and all, but not my first choice for reason to offload and reload a 9 person mini van.

The walking path up to the falls passed by the Black Bear Rescue and we gawked at the area to find a bear, but the keeper told Vieng that the bears probably were just resting. I asked Vieng if he knew what the bears ate. “He said vegetables, but no meat”. “I said would you please make a sound of a vegetable, maybe they will come then” --- he didn’t laugh. My crew mates did though.

The rest of the trek up the stream to the pools and waterfalls was a nice walk. Each pool better than the once before and the same for the falls. At the final falls it all made the butterflies, bad joke and sweaty walk worth it for me, as did it for a million of my closest friends. It is generally busy, but ‘Doh!’ -- it is New Year’s day and everyone has the day off. I jostled and got jostled for prime photo real estate. It used to be that there was that one photographer who would hog that prime spot, changing lenses, F stops, shutter speeds and filters for hours, until I would often just step in front of his camera and get the photos I wanted. Now it is the Instagram people. Generally a female with a boyfriend standing in the same spot for pose after pose after pose. Hair, behind the ear, hair over the ear. Look up, look down, move 1/16th of an inch and do it all again only this time look at the camera over your shoulder. I found that when I got bored watching them, if I didn’t ruin their picture, just invade to camera man’s personal space they got the ideal and relinquished the spot for others. I wasn’t a complete twat about it, I hope. I did offer and had accepted with pantomime that I’d take a picture of both of them together and I promised I wouldn’t run off with their camera, a time or three.

Time ran out and we walked back down to the mini busses and off to the Bison farm. Lao eat meat, but not milk. The bison farm is trying cross breeding and education of the Lao people that with 40% of their children malnourished that maybe a better solution would be give the kids milk and not kill the cow. It was a good presentation. I did find out that you don’t have to buy the cow a glass of wine before you can touch her tits. The most fun was watching our group try and milk a cow. But the biggest thrill for the crowd was feeding thee young’ins from the bottle. The guide said they were too old to be on milk and should be solely on vegetation but one or two of them were addicts and would do anything for their ‘fix’.

Back to the boat and sun-downers and appetizer. Then there was some sort of dancing with weird hand contortions, that looks like they were trying very hard not to smudge their freshly painted nails. Someone should tell them about gel nail color, but it might have an effect on the dance I fear. Then several mature women went and practiced bondage on all of us. There are 32 (?) Chakras (?) and the 16 women each tied two ropes out wrists.

After that we looked like we had tried to cut out wrists and then bandaged them with torn bed sheets.

Dinner and bed followed.

Today we visited the former palace of the King. It was built in the 1930 by the French, so wasn’t very historic. There were 16 panels of a mythical story. One of those, if you complete the task you get wishes granted. So the husband and the wife decided to strive for the wishes. I don’t remember all of the wishes, but shiny black hair, eyes as blue as a butterfly wing, sons, and breasts that always looked up. No saggy boobies.

The whole place as a NO area. No knees, shoulders, hats, shoes and camera. A few temples, but if you want to know more about them I’ll loan you my Lonely Planet book.

Back at the boat for lunch which was the same as before, way too much food. Then I went to the back of the boat and found my local narcotics pusher and begged a nice German Camel filter.

The afternoon was free,, so I did Rest and Relaxation and nixed the bike ride. The traffic is similar to most Asian cities, center lines are not here to prove you are on pavement, not for traffic separation. Stop signs are suggestions. Pedestrians are targets, and an motor scooters are Kamikaze.

I wandered around on foot a bit after 4pm and over the next 3 hours ran into half of my crew mates. One couple left the ship for the night. Their cabin is back by the engine and generator and neither of them could sleep since the start of the tip. There got a hotel off the boat for the night.

I had some round Lao pancakes. That were darned good. Did some shopping, and did some so-so negotiation. One transaction she was very happy with the sale, which means she had just caught a huge Tuna. There was so much goodness in the exchange she ran around her stall slapping the other merchandise with the bills. Sort of telling tem “See?? This is what you are supposed to do !”. The other purchases were more along the give and take where they start high, and I start low and we play numbers.

Walking back to the boat, down a dark, untouristed street I watched the men skin a crocodile and set up a barbie on the sidewalk. Not in a brazier, but in the actual concrete. A few meters on, up the street weaved a local who had had several to many BeerLao’s. Who gave me a friendly hello, he was with two women. One f the woman kept saying “Madame, madame” When I looked at her she was squatting in the bushes of the Royal Palace pee’ing. Yup, ways too many BeerLao.

Back on the boat after supper one of my favorite tribe members and I had a nice long chat about our mutual home towns. The live in a town that is the conclusion point for an aproximate 40km pilgramage. I’ll have to get her to write the name of the town for me, since I have the memory of a Gold Fish.

Then bed with a 5am wake up call to go feed the monks.

 

New Year eve

 

December 31 2022 – A dam on the Mekong

 

I'll get pictures for this when i get stronger WiFi

Another day of little occurrence. It is New Year’s Eve and it seems like it is a big deal to almost all the people on this boat except for me. Last year on this same day, and probably next year will be the same. I fail to see what the big hullabaloo is. Even the boats cast is offering a special dinner the included steak and free wine for everyone, regardless of financial outlay. I’ll let them have their artificial celebration and maybe at 2pm tomorrow I’ll celebrate, when it is midnight at home.

Last night was a little rough in the sleeping department. Light chills and aches. 6Am magical elixir of caffeine and sugar got things mostly on the right path. The vessel's plan was 630am departure and a village or two stop and hopefully 330pm at the dam to get on the lock up before the 4pm closing.

Well the thick morning for put the end to that exciting day. What is it? Man plans, God laughs. Well you could hear the guffaws from the coming from the clouds this morn. Around eight it had cleared enough that we could see across the river and enough that we could safely (?) navigate.

The rest of the morning was motoring alone the river and motoring along the river, etc, etc. I listened to two life stories and got bored with that as so started my stopwatch and timed each of the lap walkers. It was neck and neck fr a while between the Canadian and the Swiss. In the last final seconds the Canadian edged ahead of the Swiss by Gnome.

Then there was lunch, where I am not certain that the passengers were eating because they were hungry, or out of boredom. As has been the previous lunches it was the size of dinner for most people, except Americans. After that we slid onto the bank for a village tour. I don;t think this one was any better or worse that the previous one. Vieng kept this walk more about the village and less about being children’s Willy Wonka of candy at the conclusion of the walk.

The river bank was steep and all alluvial sand. The crew was good enough to cut foot holds into the sand and the path was lined with the entire ship’s compliment stationed just far enough apart of form a human bucket brigade to pull each of us up the bank.

The two highlights for me was the distilled rice wine tasting and … Yesterday had been a big celebration and there was of course still a few men helping to clean up that was left of the party. By that I mean, they were sitting in the shade, swapping lies and downing shots. It came time for my trial by liquid fire and I got a Ladies size of a pour, which was about a shot glass full. I took a sniff and found it completely odorless as well as ice clear. Everyone was watching me, my fellow tribe mates, the locals and the crew. I thought a sip would not be in the spirit of the occasion so tossed it back like a Russian sailor on shore leave. I didn’t get an ovation, but I do feel I was at least entertaining.

Of course the tribal members was ‘Sah Be Dah”ing and one they passed . I bet even a few of them said hello to the pigs in Lao. I am minding my own business, not Sah Be Dah anyone an a late elementary school girl came over and said “Hello” Wow! She knew Hello and goodbye. She didn’t know “Name” yet, but she got the concept and after “My name is Theresa”, she came back with “My name Mong”. I thought she deserved more than a sah be dah,, or Kop Jai. (Thank you). I gave her my pen and she Kop Jai med. Then she walked a few steps away and tested it on her hand. Luckily it worked. -- gave a pen to a boy years ago and he wrote on his hand. It was a new pen and did not write, and he told me. I just need the friction of a piece of paper to get the ball to do that first bit of a roll to get the ink to start flowing. I whipped out my Lonely Planet an found a blank page and mimed scribble here. “Oh, no Madam!!”. It took some convincing him it was alright to write in my book. It was MY book! To both of our satisfaction the pen came to life and scribbled in the book. --- back to the village. Five minutes later Momg handed me a flower, and her posse also added a few more. My cynical self said she wanted something else, but all I has was cash. No more pens absolutely nothing. They hung around until we got back on the boat. I’ll have to buy 10 pack of pens at the next city we come to.

Then we were back motoring up the river. I found a unclaimed chaise and stretched out and zoned out. Three thirty came and went so we missed the boat elevator and on we chugged. We stopped in view of the damn dam and here we sit.

New Year’s Eve dinner was special with actual steak. The chef got an ovation after the meal. I am still on the ‘Let’s not get more of Theresa” program o stuck to appetizer and soup.

Now the boom box is cranked up and the girls are dancing with the girls, just like in High School. I should take over dj’ing the choices are questionable.

Tribes decided

 

December 30 2022, Someplace in Laos between here and there

We’ve been on the boat for a little more than 12 hours and already the tribes seem to have separated. Some great, some neutral and one that is entitled.

One couple from Toronto In like her a lot. She doesn’t candy coat how she feels about things. She is the kind of a good friend everyone needs. Someone who will tell you the truth. It may not be what you want to hear but it frequently is what you need to hear.. She runs a blog www.travelingjudi.com I’ll have to remember to check her writing out, from time to time.

There are the two belles of the ball from Orlando, both on the younger side of the passenger census. Sisters and cute. There is the Australian couple. He used to work for the foreign service in the 70’s, so I assume he was a spy. I’ll have to see how he drinks his Martinis. There is the Anglo/Thai couple. Not the typical old guy looking for a Thai honey in Patya Beach. They met in Austin Texas of all places and have been together for something like 40 years. Boy, she is a talker. I don’t think she has ever had an unspoken thought, but she is sweet and funny.

Then there is the woman from J’Berg South Africa, via England. I get the feeling that life was pretty good for her, until it wasn't. She hasn’t had a positive thing to say about anything in the brief conversations I’ve had with her. At lunch in Vientiane she told Vieng out guide she needed some batteries for her Mini Mag light. They had to be AA, she repeated about 3 times, and when he asked to see the flash light, she pulled it away and emphatically said it needed AA batteries. I put her on the naughty list over that.

My nose has been running better than a Rolex. That and shortness of breath, really knocked me off my usual ‘Tigger-ness”. I was Eore all day. I wasn’t sure if it was Malaria, Dengue Fever, or a new variant of COVID 32-Omega. Then again I might just have been a darned cold. I grabbed my softest pack and stuffed it under my head and closed my eyes for the entire 6 hours. I don’t know if I slept or not, I just know I wasn't totally there. Got on the real boat, had a quick dinner of appetizer and soup and went back to my stateroom at 830 and was asleep by nine. I woke up after total blankness and said “Siri, what time is it”, It is 4:11” I was really happy with that. Seven solid hours the best I’ve had in a week.

Three cups of Laos’ answer to Starbucks and it as Easter Morning for me. Se has risen!

This morning was foggy so the planned 10am requisite village tour has been delayed until this afternoon. So instead we can learn how to say hello and good bye in Lao. Apparently they don’t know about Google Translate. I didn’t bring a sweatshirt. What do you need a sweatshirt for, past experiences in SE Asia is any clothing is too much clothing. It seems on the Mekong I the morning, you do need a sweater or light jacket. All I have is my purple parka which is a hint overkill.

1130am cruising along, and I think we are caught up for a while.

I passed on the language class. I really didn’t think I would retain much of it, without using it. Lunch was larger than my regular dinner. I have got to start saying ‘No’ but everything is too tasty. We nosed into the riverbank and gangway set and off we went to do the village walking tour. When I was in Syria I went to a museum at Palmyra, it was school field trip day. Children would run up to me and say “Hello” and run away hundreds of them. I tied ‘how are you?’ back, but eventually a teacher told me that the students only knew “Hello” in English. I kind of felt the same here, except in reverse. My crew mates were all “Sah Be Dah” everywhere. Over and over. I sort of felt bad for the villagers. Our wrangler Vieng coaxed the children to come with us, with a “Don’t give them money, but yo can buy them something at the store before we leave”. That damn Thai twat was handing out change to the kids. Apparently her hearing is not as good as her stupidity.

The ship's Purser Mr. Jimmy came up to me to find out which Thai airport I was flying out of so he cold set up transportation. I guess no one had ever done what I want to do, stay in Laos and cross over with the boat to Thailand. Vieng had to explain to him twice what I oped to do. I think it will work out.

Overheard today: “I like the younger ones”. I didn’t tell him ‘Dude, at your age hey arr ALL younger ones.’

My boat is (again) a bus

 

December 29, 2022 – Pak Lay, Laos

A few days to cover and it should be short. Just the regular complaining.

We got up ready to hear out to the boat. Boarded out mini bus and drove to the nearest Best Western hotel. What is the world is going on? Seems the river is too low for our cruise boat to make it to Vientiane. So our boat cabin is a corporate concrete box. Except for the not view it is the same as any other Best Western anywhere except Dhaka Bangladesh. I settled in and waited for notification on what to do next. Eventually I caved ad went in search of the rest of the group. Not on the second floor dining room. Not on the lobby, but a receptionist took pity on me and called the guide.

A tuk-tuk ride to the restaurant and some grub. I enjoyed it, most of the crowd thought 3 star was too hot. Then

off to the regular tourist trail. A couple important temples, none of them over 200 years old Siam trashed the city before heading home in the 1800’s.

Then to a big Arc triumph that was made with cement from the USA. The purpose for the cement was to build a new airport. Of course it went to building a monument.

Back at the hotel for drinks and dinner I feel crappy and went to bed at 9pm. 4Am wake up and flopped until 6 since we had to be on a bus for a 2 ½ hour ride to a small boat to take us to the big boat. What can you say about a bus ride? The wheels on the bus went round and round.

Then a jetty and out boat to the boat. I am all peopled out so kept to myself and dozed most of the 7 hours. On the boat cabins assigned, safety briefing and now dinner.

As I told you it was going to be short. That and I still do not feel well and seem to have left Alieve back home. I’m going to try and stay awake until 9pm. I am such a big girl.

The wheels on the bus ...

 

December 27^th 2022, Vientiane, Laos

Well I think I am here. As a friend said – If you wanted to relax you could stay at home, but you like adventure. - Well I have had about enough adventure for the next couple of days.

Over breakfast yesterday in Bangkok I made a flight reservation using Air Asia’s app for a Lao Airlines flight too Vientiane at 2pm. Lots of time to get to the airport and jump trough the ticketing process and then of course the “formalities”.

At the baggage counter I present the e-ticket and she can’t find me in the system. Like I was expecting anything else? Of course not! Computer keys clicked and Thai exchanged among the staff. Maybe since it was booked today it isn’t in the system yet. “Where did you buy the ticket?” - Air Asia app. - “You nee to go see them” – But?!?….. - They are at counter ‘F’, you are at counter ‘S’. I broke out my binoculars and could barely make out the big ‘F’ at the other end of the terminal. - Sigh! Okay.

At ‘F’ there are two young people in Air Asia red vests, clearly marked as trainee. Blah, blah, Lao Airlines, row ‘S’ .. etc, etc. -- Blah, blah, this is Air Asia. This ping pong goes on for a few minutes. No raised voices, just each side stating their situation. At last the male trainee says come with me. So back to ‘S’.

My telephone is handed from hand to hand, more blah, blah. Finally a supervisor comes over, looks at the phone information and says “You made the reservation for tomorrow, the 27” I looked and sure a Hell, I had the wrong date. I wish I could blame it on the computer, or the airline or the clock, but I just wasn’t paying close attention when I made the reservation. I handed the Air Asia trainee a small handful of paper with the king’s picture on it and thanked him profusely.

Now to fix my mistake. The supervisor says the entire flight is booked for today. Maybe I could go on the standby list. Okay that is an option. The awaiting hotel in Vientiane what booked pre paid booked for two nights and I had already requested them to change it to tonight and tomorrow, I can’t do that again. Fine, please put me on the Stand-by list.

A very short time later the supervisor came over and said I was very luck and they had a cancellation and I had a seat. There was a change fee (of course) of 30 USA bucks, but that is a small price to pay from my point of view at this moment. Some fooling around with dollars to Bhat and I watch the conveyor belt swallow my checked luggage.

Thai TSA is like every other TSA and even though I am nearly in my bra and panties I still beep. Uh … elbow repair bionic implant perhaps? That did the trick. Next stop, and I do mean stop – Exit Immigration. I checked my watch when getting in line 1205. Four officers for general public, and one for crew members. AS expected from the bureaucracy the Crew Member officer can not even think about asking a normal passenger to come to his kiosk. 1245 and I was past that gauntlet.

The plane was on time, only 15 minutes late and it did look like every seat in the house was filled. I doubted that I was very lucky when the supervisor said that, now I was a believer.

In Laos more paperwork and lines for Visa On Arrival, but it went pretty smoothly. A $7 (USD) taxi ride and I was at the hotel. The an at reception said he had personally allowed my last minute change of the booking and there was not charge. I am not sure what the hotel is trying to be. Maybe post modern Paris. Are deco chairs in the large wine room. Furniture that looks like it was poured when being manufactured instead of assembled. Regardless of their style. My room is very large and will do nicely for the next two nights.

With a huge relaxing sign and some horizontal time on my bed just enjoying the calm, I was here. Yes it was an adventure.

------

Around 7pm I decided to venture out for dinner. There is a nice promenade along the Mekong and I knew from YouTube that there was food served along it as well as the night market. I walked along and past numerous temporary restaurants and then I was into the area which was obviously not the right direction, because there was no one and the lighting was getting spaced further and further part. A U-turn and back to a likely looking spot with fresh seafood on display and a charcoal brazier. It looked as good as any.

The menu had a seafood salad that sounded interesting. I still had a full day in case it turned out to be more than interesting. Spicy? Not Lao spicy please, but some spice please. Shrimp, octopus, unknown fish, sliced carrots, onions, bean sprouts and a great dressing. One bottle of BeerLao and water and I was in Anthony Bourdain heaven (well not quite, since he is in actual heaven, but you get the idea) It really was good. I mean really. About the equivalent of $6 Uncle Sams.

Night market was back past my hotel, I could almost make out the lights, just a few kiosks past “F”. Hundreds of 10 foot but 10 foot blue tarp covered sales areas. It was not a tourist mecca, it was for locals. Sure there was the occasional knock off handbag, or wearing apparel but t was for local consumption, bot the tourist trade. I passed thousands of people and only saw a small handful of western faces.

I wanted two things. A leash for my iPhone and a curling iron. I ordered a curling iron from Amazon a week before leaving home. AS of today it still hasn't been delivered. No luck on the phone handle, but found a curling iron. $20 USD? No. $15 USD? No. $10 USD? Fine. I probably could have gotten it for less, like $3 USD, but what the heck?

In bed by 1030pm and slept mostly until 0630 and here we are at breakfast.

Plan today is get my nails done find a Laos Lonely Planet and change some USD into some new and strange paper. I have my notes written by the staff to give to the Tuk-Tuk pilot and will head out in a second or two.

 

December 26 – Boxing day 2022 – Bangkok, Thailand

When we last left out intrepid traveler she was waiting for a flight from Tokyo to Bangkok and hoping to get the fancy seat she paid for instead of the cardboard box the airline said that was available. Well thanks to Ms. Nakamura I did get a nice fancy seat and it was on a bulkhead. Handsprings and back flips !! So what do you get for extra $$ on Japan Airlines? You get fuzz slippers, a small kit with a mask and toothbrush. More legroom if you are not on a bulkhead and maybe ½ an inch wider seat. The TV might be a hint larger. Quite frankly, the economy seat with a bulkhead from Seattle to Tokyo was a better ride. Free advice, if you can get a bulkhead set in economy don’t waste the extra $$ on the slippers and toothbrush.

My seatmate was the absolute Sphinx. Not a peep out of him for 7 hours. He did take my ice cream though. That communication was all in pantomime.

Exiting the plane in Bangkok, a JAL employee was holding a page with my name in BIG letters. Huh? Am I getting a free hotel suite? A limo ride to Laos? Free upgrades for life? Alas no, They want my printed itinerary that is was given in NRT that said this flight was regular economy and not Premier Economy so they could change it on their forms. Never mind thatt the SEA – SF – NRT as still on that same sheet and the SEA – NRT flight that I did get was actual regular old economy. As long as they got confirmation the I wasn’t going to take advantage of them, they didn’t care that I felt that they were taking advantage of me. That discussion will be dealt with once my Reebok are back on USA dirt.

BKK was a mix master. Immigration was smiles and Merry Christmas. The airport shuttle was ready to levitate me to my overnight hotel. Passport and credit cards were exchanged and I had a room. The receptionist asked me when I was leaving and since I didn't have a firm air booking to Laos it told he I didn’t know. She informed me than check out was 24 hours from right now. What? No 10am or 11am without an extra fee? Is was great !

The room is huge in relation to the hotel in Tokyo. The bed was billed as a King Size. I swear you could have placed two of my at home Queen sized beds on it and still had room for a toddler.

Six hours in the Land of Nod and things are looking up. Breakfast just like at the Hilton in any large US city. No eels on the menu. I made fight arrangement from here to Vientiane at 2pm so have plenty of time to get on the next silver tube.

-- So for now – that is all the drama.