Soi Rungland in Pattaya is always
the place to be on New Year's for
some up-close fireworks.New Year's Eve is always spent at Rick's Margaritavilla bar on Soi Rungland because (a) Rick makes a Mexican food feast, and (b) the Vikings next door at the Scandanavian restaurant always set off about $1,000 worth of fireworks.
Since we had a 4:30 a.m. taxi going to the airport for our 8:00 a.m. flight to Vientienne, Pui decided to bow out of the New Year's party, and just Pot and I went and joined all our Rungland friends for some celebrating. Pot wasn't too keen on the fireworks, but wasn't scared of them either.
Vikings in the foreground watching
their fireworks. Nobody got hurt this
year. Last year, somebody lost a toe.Shortly after midnight, it was off home where I managed to get in an hour's rest before we were picked up by our 4:30 taxi. This being my first trip to the new airport (and it being New Year's day... and at least a half dozen other unknowable variables), I decided to err on the side of caution, and arrive 2½ hours before our flight to Vientienne in Laos.
No worries though. Our taxi driver was a regular Mario Andretti, doing 160 kph the whole way to the airport, and we got there in just over an hour. (That compares rather favorably to the 2 hour trip (minimum) it used to be to the old airport.
The new Bangkok airport
is quite pretty in the
main concourse.Checking in at the new airport was relatively hassle free, and immigration let me check out without a fine, even though I was officially an overstay on my December 31 visa. The airport is quite nice out front, just like the reports, and then kind of falls off the further away you get from check in.
Pot steps onto an airplane
for the first time. I was
more excited about it than
he was, I think.So Pot finally got to take his first plane ride. I was expecting some jumping for joy, some peed-in underpants, and just general overjoyedness from a kid who goes into rapture just from seeing a contrail in the sky... but overall Pot was pretty calm although still amazed and thoroughly happy about flying.
Checking into Laos was pretty much no hassle, though the half-hour wait seems to exist no matter how you try to get from Thailand to Laos, and vice versa. Pui and Pot, being Thai, didn't have to wait for visas (which is where the wait comes from going into Laos), so skipped blithely past customs, and had gathered all the bags, and had a cab waiting for me by the time I was finished with slogging my way through the bureaucratic rigamarole. The taxi drove us to my favorite in-town hotel, The Duang Duane. $20 a night, close to the river, and bath tubs. 'Nuff said.
The three of us walked down to the river and had lunch at the riverside stalls there. What a ripoff: $10 for Lao street vendor food? Deee-amn.
After that, since we were all working on about 3 or 4 hours of sleep, it was back to the hotel for a nice hot bath, and a nap.
Bor Pen Nyang restaurant... Two views,
night and day. The Mekhong river is
quite low at this time of year.We woke up in the early evening, and went to find a place to eat. We actually walked for quite a while before coming to my great discovery for this particular Lao trip: Bor Pen Nyang rooftop restaurant on the riverfront. The name makes it sound like a Lao place, but it is Western food oriented. Just like my ultimate favorite Vientienne restaurant, La Terrace (tragically closed New Year's Day), they have really good food at really good prices, and the lounge/bar atmosphere means it is a good place to finish dinner and then relax. The decor is all teakwood, and the view over the river is amazing.
From there, it was home and off to bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment