Laos Airlines AGAIN!! Are we crazy?!?

Trip Start Jun 11, 2008
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Trip End May 14, 2009


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Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Had brekky about 9am at a restaurant overlooking the river. We then jumped into a Tuk Tuk and went to the airport. Now I use the word airport very loosely! It was more like a council toilet block randomly situated in the middle of a field! The check-in lounge was actually outside the front of the "airport". On this day the airport was clearly struggling with the amount of work they had on - there was FIVE flights leaving today!
The runway actually finished in the side of a mountain, so if we don't get enough speed up in take off, then.....well.....splat!!
One thing that was impressive about Laos Airlines and this "airport" was the speed of departure. Our scheduled departure time was 13:10. We were sat in the departure "lounge" at 12:55, but we were in the air by 13:05!! No messing about getting people on board at all. All we needed to do now was avoid that mountain!!
The flight was similar to our last experience, although lunch was peppered pork with rice this time. The landing in Chiang Mai was the same, a bit bouncy and issues with actually stopping! I am sure the pilot did a handbrake turn this time!
We got a taxi from the airport as it was only £2.00 into town. We checked into a place called SK House in the main area of Chiang Mai. The room was a bit skanky, but the guesthouse itself seemed OK. It actually even had a pool - you couldn't see the bottom of the pool though.....not because it was deep.....you just couldn't see the bottom. I don't think you would be able to see your own hand if you dipped it in the water.....in fact, it would probably just dissolve!! I tried to encourage Lorna to have a quick dip, but even she was having none if it.
We took a walk around the top part of the city and found ourselves a bar called Chiang Mai Saloon which had free internet. So we stopped off for a couple of swift ones whilst Lorna caught up on emails. This place has a good Western menu so we may eat here another day.
On the way back to the guesthouse we found a trekking company which did a trip that covered everything we wanted to do, Elephant riding, white water rafting, bamboo rafting, waterfalls and jungle trekking. We decided to book it for Thursday the 11th. The trip was for 3 days and 2 nights so we are looking forward to this.
After a shower and change, we decided to go for a curry. We found a place called New Delhi Restaurant which was doing a special of a mixture of chicken curry, potato curry & vegetable curry with all the naan bread, poppadoms and rice.......all for just £1.50!! Bargain.
We didn't do much after the curry before hitting the sack.
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