Getting a flight from the island of koh samui (with 3 hour stopover in bangkok) to vientiane (capital of laos) was probably twice the price of 20 hours bussing it but we were assuming more than twice as comfortable/tolerable. This may be true but at the time I must say it was an ordeal. It was probably in most part down to the fact that we were feeling awfully sorry for ourselves – not to mention ill – and yes this was self inflicted but I will relay the tale to you at any rate! The following is taken from notes I scribbled on the flight from bankgok to Vientiane to keep my mind preoccupied…..
We couldn’t believe our luck when our extremely friendly check in clerk offered us seats on the earlier flight to Bangkok (thus saving us a wait of 1.5 hours – we’d over estimated on travel times!). not only this but he offered to check our bags through to Vientiane even though we’d booked with two separate carriers! He advised us that we needed to check through ourselves in Bangkok for our boarding passes and gave us a slip of paper with the appropriate gate/section. He also put stickers on us and we were on our way! With no time to get water for our dehydrated throats we boarded the Bangkok airways flight outa there! There was an in flight service but to our dismay there was nothing for sale (where’s ryanair when you need them ey?!) so we had to make do with the thimble size cups of water and juice to quench our thirst. This as you’ll rightly say is no big deal…..the trouble started when we got to Bangkok! I had been thinking on this first flight of the next flight we were to catch – with Lao Airlines. This instantly brought images of ‘Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom’ back when Indi escapes the evil Lao by getting on a plane with the taunt of ‘Better luck next time Lao Che!’ of course to close the door to reveal that he’s doomed on board ‘ Lao Airlines’. What fate was to behold us?
Upon arrival in Bangkok our stickers had identified us to a lady who directed us off to a security entrance where she subsequently closed off the entrance behind us. Although we had at least 4 – 5 hours until our flight we felt like we’d just made it on time as we were hurried through! It wasn’t until we were upstairs wandering into the ‘transit lounge’ that we realized we’d no boarding cards for the next flight. This then produced the wild goose chase that was trying to locate the check in desk as per the details on the slip of paper we had. It took us nearly 2 hours to find despite numerous directions being given. It really was trying to find the fifth corner of a square room as we were wandering around concourses 'a –d' only to be told we needed to get to e!! we eventually found the elusive entrance to that particular area which was a door with no handle on one side HIDDEN BEHIND A WALL!!
We couldn’t believe our luck when our extremely friendly check in clerk offered us seats on the earlier flight to Bangkok (thus saving us a wait of 1.5 hours – we’d over estimated on travel times!). not only this but he offered to check our bags through to Vientiane even though we’d booked with two separate carriers! He advised us that we needed to check through ourselves in Bangkok for our boarding passes and gave us a slip of paper with the appropriate gate/section. He also put stickers on us and we were on our way! With no time to get water for our dehydrated throats we boarded the Bangkok airways flight outa there! There was an in flight service but to our dismay there was nothing for sale (where’s ryanair when you need them ey?!) so we had to make do with the thimble size cups of water and juice to quench our thirst. This as you’ll rightly say is no big deal…..the trouble started when we got to Bangkok! I had been thinking on this first flight of the next flight we were to catch – with Lao Airlines. This instantly brought images of ‘Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom’ back when Indi escapes the evil Lao by getting on a plane with the taunt of ‘Better luck next time Lao Che!’ of course to close the door to reveal that he’s doomed on board ‘ Lao Airlines’. What fate was to behold us?
Upon arrival in Bangkok our stickers had identified us to a lady who directed us off to a security entrance where she subsequently closed off the entrance behind us. Although we had at least 4 – 5 hours until our flight we felt like we’d just made it on time as we were hurried through! It wasn’t until we were upstairs wandering into the ‘transit lounge’ that we realized we’d no boarding cards for the next flight. This then produced the wild goose chase that was trying to locate the check in desk as per the details on the slip of paper we had. It took us nearly 2 hours to find despite numerous directions being given. It really was trying to find the fifth corner of a square room as we were wandering around concourses 'a –d' only to be told we needed to get to e!! we eventually found the elusive entrance to that particular area which was a door with no handle on one side HIDDEN BEHIND A WALL!!
So we get to the pretty small plane and with the propellers outside the wing it really did hark back to the Indiana Jones image. In my musings on the previous flight I wondered why we were supplied with life jackets and not parachutes as surely they’d be far more effective than a device you can only use if you’ve survived the plummet into the ocean?! Indiana Jones didn’t have a parachute or a life jacket…but at least he had a raft. That’s more than I can say for us! Liam wondered what the sign “USE BOTTOM SEAT CUSHION FOR FLOTATION” meant on the back of the seat in front. This question was answered upon reading the safety leaflet. Nope, no life jacket for us as it wouldn’t fit under the seat most likely. Yes, we were expected to actually rip the seat cushion up and use THAT as our saving floating device!! The noise is deafening and my stomach’s lurching as much as the plane did during take off…..
Needless to say we survived the flight and managed to muster the conversational chatter to share a cab into the city, get some food and collapse exhausted into bed for hours.
Needless to say we survived the flight and managed to muster the conversational chatter to share a cab into the city, get some food and collapse exhausted into bed for hours.
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