Flight to Vientiane

I’m writing this now, whilst flying over the hills/mountains between Hanoi and Vientiane in Laos. It’s all the more fun because right now Nick is currently in a bus, and has been for the last almost 24hrs going to the same place. Now, having told a number of people that I was doing this, the general impression I got was that the extra $140 I spent was totally worth it. Keep in mind it’s only a US$14 bus trip vs US$154 flight.

But now as I sit here after my delicious in-flight meal I starting to believe them. I also got to sleep in a bed last night, Nick slept in a crowded bus with the A/C off packed to the rafters with animals and locals.

In other news, just before I headed to the airport, I bought a replacement camera, a IXUS 95IS probably for more than i would have paid back home, but now I can restart the chronicles of my journey, and in a random pleasant surprise, discovered I had a few more pictures than I thought on the other memory card I’ve been using, including some from Ha Long bay.

Here is my nice little plane, it’s almost empty too, I have 1 person sitting within 4m of me. I’m sure Nick is in a similar boat.

My leg room, (I got an exit row).

 

The view as we leave Hanoi, it was pretty hazy outside.

Yes, I even read the in-flight magazine, (as Sam and Harry suggested.)

My Lao’ian in flight meal, (the Beer Lao was served moments after).

The weirdest part of the journey was that since there was only 3 crew on board, the second pilot performed alot of the inflight service. Not sure what would happen if the other pilot had a Heart attack right now. :S

  

Ah well, that concludes this update, since I've discovered a few photos from Hoi An, Hanoi and Ha Long, I will update on them soon enough (went back and did them before finding internet and posting this so look below), plus I have a number of photos I took with my mobile phone from my Sa Pa trek through the northern mountains of Vietnam and the hillsides covered with Rice Paddys.

UPDATE:I’m now in Vientiane, found Nick fairly easily after running into other people from his bus who knew him, and am hopefully heading to Vang Vien tomorrow sometime although not sure how.