Day 5: LPQ to BKK

Wrapped up our time in Laos this morning, with L choosing the chicken soup for breakfast and discovering why I’ve been sweating so early in the day (the chilli fish sauce packs quite a kick). Wrapped up with a stroll around the block and along the river, and finally bravely took the plunge and had a Laos coffee.

FYI, Laos is one of the largest coffee producers. However, when left to their own devices, they, like many SE Asian countries that got refrigeration long after they got coffee, found their own path to making this beverage palatable to the populace. In Laos, this involves lots of sugar, sweetened condensed milk, and some strong coffee, and results in a dark sludge so sweet it instantly sets your teeth on edge, long before the caffeine gets into the bloodstream. This is a drink to fire up the senses, at least while the sugar rush holds.

Other random Laos thoughts:

• folks very very rarely use their horns here, it’s just not how they roll
• I must research the whole dill and fish combination, did the French import or export this?

Then it was off to the airport, where stupid me had backed my swiss army knife in with my medications, and put it all in my hand luggage. Damn, that knife got me all across Eastern Europe in 2009, and has served well since, opening bottles, cutting labels, tweezing splinters, and doing all a swiss army knife should. Gone in a moment of stupidity in Laos.

Luang Prabang airport (LPQ) is an interesting one, a pagoda on the outside, and a barn on the inside. Upstairs in the international departures is a combined smoking area and food court, so if the cancer sticks don’t make you choke, maybe “fusion” offerings like bolognese spring rolls, or sausage bruscetta might.

LPQ to BKK was uneventful, Thai Smile airways were a perfectly competent budget airline to us, getting us to Bangkok in one piece, and not losing any of our luggage (actually, for the first time ever in out travels, we arrived at the baggage carousel at exactly the same time our bags came around together).

We didn’t get too badly fleeced by the taxi driver taking us to the hotel, having read all the horror stories I was alert. He did try some enthusiastic rounding of our fare at the end, talking up 406 baht to 450, but settled for 420 when I demonstrated I could also do simple maths (we didn’t have exact change, and given he’d taken us through Friday afternoon Bangkok peak hour a little tip seemed okay). Note to self, must look up if/when/how to tip in Thailand.

Bangkok on a Friday evening is noisy and busy. A bit of a shock to the system after Luang Prabang, I think I could handle the busy if it wasn’t 80-100+ dB of busy. There was some sort of industrial/rappers in a blocked off bit of street, and close enough they drowned out the traffic and the trains going overhead. I like a good, loud gig, especially when I want to dance, shout, and feel the music. When I want to find a restaurant offering Thai food, in a place I’ve never been before, and also communicate with L in a civil tone and avoid scooters that seem to appear out of even the smallest gap in traffic: not so much.

I’ll reserve my judgment on Bangkok for now. It seems to have good points, and not so good points, so we’ll see which way the scales fall. Dinner was okay, solid for about $25, but the pad thai was a bit bland. I’ll see how the shopping pans out tomorrow.