Tuesday, November 23, 2010

The Friendly Skies - November 24th, 2010





















The Friendly Skies




The school gave us only one day’s warning that we had a vacation so we had no time to take the overnight bus and we flew to Paksé in the south of the country.




The taxi company I called the night before assured me the driver would be there are 5:00 AM to pick us up and they even gave me his telephone number. When I called him at 5:15 to find out what was happening I had clearly woken him up. The flight was at 6:30 and at 5:45 we managed to flag down a passing tuk-tuk and made it to the airport with moments to spare.





If you ever need at taxi in Vientiane, here are the numbers NOT to call: 020 77 87 31 14, 020 56 92 11 11, and 020 55 42 13 81.





Airports in developing countries are such a gas. Everything is intimate and charming. Guys smoke in the restaurant and you walk out on the tarmac to get your plane. An airline poster wishes you good luck, which is not totally reassuring.





Inside the aircraft we fought off mosquitoes. A stewardess crouched in the back of the plane sorting out used breakfast boxes and the flush button inside the un-lockable toilet was held in place with a Band-Aid.




But we made it.

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