opushomes

Like some members of this forum, I collect airlines. In March I left Marsha in Saigon to make her way back to BKK on AF and eventually to PDX on NW. I struck out for PQC (Dong Duang for the initiated), Phu Quoc (for those not) for a couple of days of exploration. Said exploration consisted of beach-sleeping and food eating. Oh yes, most of the town was viewed on the transfer to and fro. I met up with Marsha for 3 hours at the Holiday Inn Silom (Priceline because she wanted to be near the silver shops) in Bangkok until she left at 3 a.m. to endure NW home.

Now the tale of Lao Airlines.

Lao Airlines is the former Lao Air. In earlier times, it had a somewhat negative reputation due to falling frequently out of the sky. It also had a non-functional web-site and one could not buy a ticket even though some former Lao citizens currently living in the U.S. had their telephone numbers listed on the non-functional pages. I believe one must either get a haircut or fill up the tank, but not buy a ticket. They were honorary ticket agents.

Having been to Laos before on Bangkok Airways and wanting a somewhat less expensive way to get there, I did a web search. One city I wanted to visit was Vientiane. Having read Shawn's (B747.***) reports of his day trip to Vientiane, I explored recreating it. Since I had a knee replacement less than 6 months ago, it is tough to sit in the back of a pick-up truck for over an hour, thus his route of BKK-Udon Thani, songtao (or maybe, bus) to Nong Kai, Tuk tuk to the Freedom Bridge, the truck across and tuk tuk to town sounded like agony and it appeared that I might save only 400 baht for the experience.

So I explored the web further. The plan was to visit Vientiane and go on to Luang Prabang to stay at my favorite hotel there and to see if anything had changed in the last year and a half. Google got me to a functional (somewhat) Lao Airlines web-site that had a great rate for airfare VTE-LPQ-VTE and 2 nights at the Villa Santi. After finally figuring out how to get the timetable function to work, the LPQ-VTE flight arrived after the BKK departure. In all honesty, there was an evening departure on the TG codeshare, but this would have meant over 8 hours at the VTE airport. So I decided on an over-night both going and coming. There was also a $180 round-trip BKK-VTE offered which was half of TG's fare.

Now to book it. Hm, no on-line booking. So I emailed the Villa Santi as to the dates, special and flights. A return e-mail arrived stating that they had gotten my request but I had to contact Lao Airlines to determine if everything could be done. Here is part of the correspondence edited for brevity.

To: [email protected]
Cc: [email]opushomes
Sent: Friday, January 05, 2007 1:10 AM
Subject: FW: Special Package Air & Hotel VTE-LPQ-VTE



-----Original Message-----

Sent: Thursday, January 04, 2007 10:01 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Special Package Air & Hotel VTE-LPQ-VTE

January 4, 2007 (January 5, 2007 - Laos Time)
Gentlemen:
Please reserve round-trip airfare and room per the response from Villa Santi below. Reservation must be at the hotel, not the resort for a deluxe single room. My preference for air is QV101 from VTE and QV102 for the return. Please confirm booking and provide me with information as to method of payment and ticket pick-up.

Sincerely,
opushomes

Dear opushomes

Warm greeting from Villa Santi Hotel and Santi Resort & Spa, Luang Prabang.
Thank for your interested. I am pleased to inform you that we have room available on Mar 22-24,07 please contact to Lao Airlines for issue this package as below:

Tel: 856 -21 212 054
Fax: 856 -21 212 056
E-mail: [email protected]
Best regards
Khemkham SOMSAMONE
Local Sales Manager

Sales & Marketing Department
Villa Santi Hotel and Santi Resort & Spa

Website: www.villasantihotel.com

----- Original Message -----
From: opushomes
To: [email protected]

Sent: Wednesday, January 03, 2007 9:55 AM
Subject: Special Package VTE-LPQ-VTE
January 3, 2007 1400 PST
I am interested in booking the special $US215 rate including round-trip airfare from Vientiane. Planned Arrival is March 22, 2007; departure March 24, 2007. I previously stayed at the hotel in October, 2004. Is Naga Design still in Luang Prabang?

opushomes

I then continued the research as to the best way to do the RT to VTE and settled on 2 flights, one the day before and one the day after the Luang Prabang excursion. Again I contacted Lao Airlines via the e-mail link. They confirmed the flights and the package as shown below.

Dear Sir,
Here is your booking reference BKK-VTE-LPQ-VTE-BKK
1. opushomes RMKPK
2. QV 424 Y WE21MAR BKKVTE HK1 1510 1630
3. QV 101 B TH22MAR VTELPQ HK1 1120 1200
4. QV 102 B SA24MAR LPQVTE HK1 1230 1310
5. QV 414 Y SU25MAR VTEBKK HK1 1250 1410
6.EMAIL EASY PACKAGE
7.TL/1200/20MAR/VTE001
8.RMK CFM VILLSANTI HOTEL BY MS MEE

Regards/QV ticketing

I realized, that no one had mentioned how to pay for the tickets. I searched the web-site and came up with an e-mail address in France to send 50% of the deposit. Oh yeah, e-mail my credit card info. to an address in France for a company based in Laos. Not a chance. So I whipped off yet another e-mail to Lao Airlines asking how to pay. The came back and told me I could pay at their office in Bangkok

opushomes

When I booked the flights for this trip, I included a one day recovery in Bangkok before departing for Vietnam. This was fortuitous because I had to pick up the Lao Airlines tickets on a weekday and had only one possible day to do it, the recovery day. Lao Airlines informed me that their office is in the Silom Plaza Building (If you need to find it, it is the same building as the Thai Airways ticket office on Silom). I grabbed a taxi from our Priceline hotel, the infamous Holiday Inn Silom (Marsha likes it), to the Thai Airways office and searched out the Lao office. I presented my confirmation and the following conversation ensued.

Me Question (Q): "Do you take Mastercard?"
Agent Answer (A) "No, only Thai baht"
Q: "Don't you take U.S. dollars since the fare is priced in dollars?"
A: "No, only Thai baht, you can go to the bank to exchange."
Q: "Do I have to buy the complete itinerary now, or can I buy only 1/2 of the BKK-VTE RT?"
A: "Yes, I can sell you only BKK-VTE." "You can pay for the rest at our office in Vientiane; it will be cheaper and they will issue the return."
Q: "How much will that be for just BKK-VTE?"
A: "3750 baht + 700 baht departure tax + 300 baht insurance charge"
Q: "Is this ticket fully refundable?"
A: "Yes."
Q: "Is the hotel booking at the hotel, not the resort?" She actually called the hotel in Luang Prabang and confirmed that they expected me to stay at the hotel. The reason for not staying at the resort is that it is quite a distance from town and the allure of Luang Prabang is the town itself.
A: "Yes, you are confirmed in the hotel."

BTW,The web-site says that a RT on this routing is $180, half obviously would be $90. That is what I thought I booked, but of course QV never confirmed any prices as I realized later. You can do the math.

So I went to the currency exchange around the corner and got sufficient baht to pay for the half RT. She issued the ticket, put it in a nice Lao Airlines folder along with a copy of the intinerary and the address of Lao Airlines in Vientiane. I immediately went to the Thai Airlines office hoping that I could exchange the QV ticket for a TG ticket. Unfortunately Thai wanted considerably more to fly them. So, I flew QV to VTE .

Next at short report on BKK-VTE and paying for picking up the tickets.

opushomes

I arrived at BKK about 3 hours before my QV flight. Check in was easy, the bag was tagged to VTE-no comment about it being overweight or about weighing my carry-on and I proceeded through immigration. The Louis Tavern lounge allowed me in with my NW World Clubs membership and I spent the time eating tuna sandwiches, drinking Coke Lights and reading the Bangkok papers. When boarding time approached, I walked to the bus gate serving the flight. Nothing unusual in the boarding process except for a dead-heading QV pilot who seemed to know a number of the passengers. We wound around a bunch of wide-bodies of various airlines and arrived at the ATR-72. Boarding was thru the door in the rear. The Flight Attendant allowed the stowage of my carry-on in the space at the rear of the aircraft. In fact, the bag was stowed there on all 4 flights. My seat was in the rear which allowed me to be the first at immigration.

Take off was smooth. The crew were professional and neatly attired. Announcements were in Thai, Lao and English. A snack was served on this slightly more than one hour flight; it was exactly the same as those I have had on PG and AF out of Bangkok. The only was difference was the colorful Lao Airlines plane on the top of the box. A mini-sandwich, weird desert and cup of water. Two beverage passes were made offering orange juice, soft drinks (no diet) and Beer Lao. The plane was clean and looked fairly new. It did not crash. What else could one ask for??

Arrival at VTE required retracing the landing route down the runway. Deplaning was from the rear. Note that VTE has jetways, but ATRs are too small to use them. We marched across the tarmac, no bus here, up the steps of a jetway and all the way across the rear of the terminal to arrival. Visa issuance was to the right and no one was expecting us despite an on-time arrival. Eventually someone showed up. I was expecting 5-7 people to process us in, but only two seemed to be required that day in VTE. The cost of a visa has risen and is now $35 for a U.S. Citizen, interestingly for Canadians it is $42, payable in US dollars, of course. Laos now has a very attractive one page sticky visa which replaced the old stamped one. Maybe the visa fee increase covers the cost of the sticker.

Once I had my Visa, I proceed to immigration and my passport and arrival card were stamped. The departure card was stuck in the passport and I proceeded downstairs to baggage claim. No hassles at all clearing immigration or customs. At baggage claim, my suitcase with flyertalk priority tag was waiting.

The hotel booked for the evening was the Lao Plaza, for Vientiane a pretty fancy business class hotel in the tourist area. It was booked via www.asiarooms.com for $80 inclusive of tax, service and breakfast. There was an individual from Lao Plaza with a sign without my name. I could have ridden with them, but it was easier and faster to just go to the taxi stand and pay my $6 for a taxi to the hotel. This is not Europe, no Mercedes cabs, this one had no AC and it had a few hundred thousand kilometers on the speedo, but it go me downtown in about 15 minutes. Check-in was easy, they expected me, the room was OK ($80 was too much IMHO). I did much better on the return at the Tai Pan Hotel ([email protected]) www.vientiane-hotel-link.com for $60 all in. They neglected to charge me $7 for the transfers, but that might have been because of the Japanese couple who shared the van with me.

opushomes

QV424 arrived in VTE at 1630. The Lao Airlines office closed at 1600. Since I had little time the following morning, I wanted to find the Lao Airlines office that evening. An inquiry at the Lao Plaza conceirge yielded the information that the office was about 2.5 blocks away on the other side of Vientiane's famous (but, not functional) fountain. I walked the route specified and could not find the office. Finally, I asked someone and they smiled and pointed across the street at the guard sitting in front of a building set off the street-the Lao Airlines building.

At promptly 0830 the next morning I was in front of the building reading the sign that said they opened at 0800.

More coming

Fliar

Interesting read - looking forward to more.

You said:
"I immediately went to the Thai Airlines office hoping that I could exchange the QV ticket for a TG ticket."

Just out of curiosity - why had you thought you would have been able to do this? Do they codeshare on this route or something?

Kiwi Flyer

Nice report so far opushomes ^

opushomes

First, it was a fully refundable ticket. Even if not directly exchangable, I thought that I might buy a TG ticket if it was comparable in price. If it was, I would march around to the corner to QV and ask for the immediate return of my cash.

Second, TG indeed has a codeshare on this route. It is an evening out and back utilizing a jet aircraft (I believe an A320).

opushomes

I entered the Lao Airlines office. There were a number of employees inside including a young woman who was busily putting on her makeup. Others were on the telephone or shuffling papers. I sat in front of the makeup person who proceeded to ignore me. Eventually she achieved a satisfactory result. I handed her my confirmation and explained that I wanted to create a RT ticket with credit from the outbound segment. She did not seem to understand and a supervisor intervened. At this point the following ensued.

Me: Q: "Can you adjust the outbound portion of the booked RT to give me credit for the overcharge?"

She: A: "Yes, do you have the receipt portion of your ticket from BKK?" I searched all my pockets and did not find the BKK ticket. It obviously was still in the hotel room.

Q: "Can you look in the record and adjust based upon the ticket price that should be in the computer?"

A: "No that is not possible, we do not have that record." "You must go and get me the receipt."

Q: "How much is the fare from VTE-BKK?" "How much is half a RT?"

A: "$99 or $90". Now $90 was the expected answer for 1/2 a RT. It appeared that what I was asking was doable if only I had the receipt. It was now approaching 0915. The hotel is an 8-10 minute brisk stroll. I no longer am able to run-dr's orders.

Q: "What time do I need to leave for the airport to check-in?" "Do you take credit cards?"

A: "1000" "There is a 2.5% surcharge for Visa and a 3% surcharge for Mastercard." "We like US dollars as well."

I decided that by moving slightly faster than briskly, I could make it to the hotel and back. So off I went, retrieved the ticket receipt and boarding pass. I got back to Lao Airlines in 15 minutes. Sweat was now soaking my shirt and I realized that I might not be the best of seatmates on a small, cramped aircraft. But sometimes life deals one a bad hand or shall we say, a showerless body.

I handed the supervisor my documents, she looked at them and said:

"We cannot issue credit for this ticket, it was issued two weeks ago and we can issue credit only on tickets issued today"

Now, I have spent sufficient time in Asia to just smile, nod may head and hope that the tickets and voucher would soon be issued at $99 + 3%. They were finally done at about 0955. I departed with all 3 tickets and one voucher along with my Mastercard receipts.

The staff are probably still chuckling over making the American walk fast to the hotel so that they could spring the above-inscrutable answer.

Back at the hotel, there was obviously no time to shower. I grabbed the baggage and checked out. The conceirge got me a taxi to the airport quoting $6. During loading of the baggage, I overheard a conversation between him (he serves as bellman as well) and the driver. It was: "how much do I charge this guy" "$6". I understand just enough Lao to understand "6".

Check-in and the trip to LPQ comes next

opushomes

The taxi arrived at the domestic departure area (It is also the international departure area) of Wattay International Airport. I paid the $6 fare and took my baggage inside to QV check-in via the screening machine. Both checked and carry-on bags were stickered. Check-in was accomplished expeditiously, a boading pass was issued, my bag was tagged to LPQ and I went to pay the $1 domestic departure tax. Domestic passport check was closed and did not open for more than 1/2 an hour-so much for leaving for the airport at 1000.

Once passport check opened passengers went through the metal detector and carry-on was scanned. The previously applied security sticker was removed. We then waited in the gate area for boarding. Wattay does not have a lounge, but it has a small snack bar in the waiting area by the gates. I was able to obtain an icy cold guava juice (no Coke Light) and grab a seat at one of the tables. Near me was a big man in shorts who was eating a plate of food. I was to meet him later.

Boarding was per usual through the one rear stair. I noticed that the aircraft had "MA60" stenciled on the fuselage near the door. Open entering, it seemed like this ATR had been shortened. It was a shiny new aircraft, but a bunch of seats were not there. Maybe this was an ATR-42?

Next Luang Prabang

I found that my requested aisle in the rear had become a window near the front. My seatmate appeared, all 6'4, 250+ pounds of him, a Caucasian dressed in shorts and a Lao-emblazoned T-shirt. Sort of a scruffy looking individual that I had noticed in the waiting area. Ever wonder how airlines manage to seat the two largest individuals next to each other so often?

It turned out that he is a consular officer attached to the U.S. Embassy in Vientiane who was going up-country to help by parceling out money for the removal of unexploded ordinance that we managed to drop on Laos during the Vietnam War. He was meeting some NGO and Lao counterparts to drive North.

We had a fascinating conversation during the 40 minute flight about his job, the frustrations of creating a workable program with good benefit and having the funding cut off. We also discussed life as an expat. in Laos (his wife also works in a fairly high position at the Embassy) and dining in Laos. I had made an internet reservation at Le Elephant in Luang Prabang. He confirmed that it is the best French restaurant in Laos. He also suggested Na Dau in Vientiane for dinner my last night.

The flight itself was quite routine, similar to that from Bangkok. Same proficient crew, the plane appeared new and sparkling and it did not crash. The consular officer told me that the MA60 is a Chinese built aircraft, but it was OK because it had Pratt and Whitney engines.

We departed and arrived on time. Baggage arrived quickly and my van to the Villa Santi was waiting. They even had a sign with my name. Since I was the only guest staying at the hotel, we were out of the airport in record time. The remaining names on his sign all were staying at the resort.

The town had changed since my last visit. There was considerable traffic, but not enough to ever cause a traffic jam and the roads seemed to be in better shape.

The Villa Santi checked me in. We went to my non-smoking room which reeked of "you know what". I went back to reception and they assigned the room next door that did not smell of smoke. It was not yet cleaned so the baggage was left in the stinky room and I went to rediscover the town.

opushomes

Since the room was not ready, I had no chance to shower. Arrival was in the early afternoon and I found that despite the guava juice and a minimalist snack on the flight, I was hungry. The solution was a plate of spring rolls and a large Beer Lao. After wandering the main street looking at the changes since my last visit, I returned to the hotel. My room was ready. It was located in the annex. To reach it one proceeds down a back alleyway at the hotel, down the side street about 100 meters and off the street opposite one of the local laundries and motobike rentals. The annex is a two story structure that sits considerably back from the street. It backs directly on the playground of the elementary school. Despite this fact, it is only noisy during the day. The desk clerk and I moved my luggage, after I removed some valuables from the safe. The room was pretty much like the one I had during the previous visit. I do not recall it having a telephone. It definitely did not have a television. It was air conditioned. The bed was two singles pushed together to make a king witha mosquito net above. The size of the bath was something I had forgotten, one of the smallest baths since a stay in a cheap hotel in Rome a few years back. But it had a shower, soap, shampoo, body wash and towels. Shower completed, I took the requisite afternoon nap.

Something else that I did not remember was that the hotel does not have a pool. I thought it had one, but the area is now a patio, that is, if there ever was one. I guess one could go to the resort to swim.

During my wanderings, I had sought out Naga Creations http://www.frommers.com/destinations...412010031.html - 45k -(yes, I thought it was Naga Design) which is owned by a young Frenchman, Fabrice. He was out when I went by in the afternoon, but was expected later in the evening. Last visit he (actually, his mother) sold me some Murano glass beads for Marsha's jewelry-making hobby. She parted with them quite reluctantly and I had seen others in their inventory. Hoping that they still had some in stock, I wanted to visit. The other reason for a visit is that the family is fascinating. They have lived in Europe, Africa and Asia. Dad works in Africa. Mom is normally either in Laos or Paris. I believe that she may actually be the investor in the store and owns much of the stock.

On the way, I had a non-memorable light meal at one of the local pizza parlors, they serve Lao food and I had that. Fabrice was in, but he was busy helping some American women toting high limit credit cards. He was quite busy adding things to the growing pile of jewelry in front of them so I spent the time until he was free looking at his stock. When he was somewhat free, he looked over at me and said: "I remember you. How are you? May I get you something to drink?". We settled on a Coke Light. He was drinking G&Ts along with the 2 women customers. Finally one of them settled up. The other requested that he hold her large number of items until the next day so she could think about her choices.

Now it was my turn. Fabrice thanked me for waiting patiently and we proceeded to the crux of our business. Did he still have Murano glass beads and what other unique items might be hidden in the stock? He had some including one type that I regretted not buying on the previous trip. Marsha was quite pleased with what she has seen so far, a deep maroon tear drop shaped item. The rest are reserved for various special occasions such as anniversaries, birthdays and xmas.

When I left the hotel, the sky looked quite dark and threatening, but the umbrella remained in the outside pocket of the suitcase. While we were talking the sky opened, the wind blew severely and a solid sheet of rain fell on the shop roof. Soon torrents of water were coming through the ceiling as we placed buckets and glasses under some of the worst areas.

What ensued over the next two hours of unrelenting rain was an education on the local economy, rents, leasehold requirements, doing business in Laos and numerous other topics. Luang Prabang has a high season, a shoulder season and a "no visitor" season. March is shoulder and business is acceptable, not great. The two American ladies were an aberration as most sales are small. Naga Creations has expanded to a second store selling higher end jewelry produced by local people following Fabrice's designs. He has a number of direct employees in the two stores, although, IMO, the ones in the main store are much better than the "high-end" ones. YMMV. He stated that rents have increased significanctly with some over $1000 a month. None of the Western owners will pay more than $1000, but some locals are paying as much as $1300. Fabrice is in a good position as he prepaid 5 years of rent when he arrived in Luang Prabang. He stated that the locals paying such high rents cannot survive because they have to work 2-3 weeks of the month just to pay the rent. Most stores have similar souvenir products. There are lots of travel agents, many of whom are also internet cafes. There are also many restaurants catering to the tourist. Reality is that most Lao citizens cannot afford the prices.

We talked about the leaking roof. It is his responsibility to maintain the building. Most of the buildings on the main street have been added to over the years. The workmanship is normally shoddy. Thus roofs leak and there is no way to fix them economically since many of the buildings are attached to each other. This may be a World Heritage Site, but setbacks, building codes, planners and regulations have not yet arrived. He told me about his neighbor who decided the way to stop her roof leaks was to divert all the water to his. He came by in the middle of the night and cut off the top of the supports to lower her roof, problem sort of solved.

Luang Prabang has changed significantly IMHO for the worse since my last visit. There is a building and remodeling boom. One hears Skil Saws and hammers all day. Prosperity has brought traffic-new motorbikes, new sontaews, more cars, noise and pollution. Prices have essentially doubled in two years. The cup of Lao espresso that was $.60 is now $1.20. Restaurant prices have escalated. Shops have raised their prices, but not enough to keep up with increased cost because of competition. Bear in mind that prices are still cheap by our standards, but they are out of line with most of the country. Wages apparently have not risen.

The wonderful thing about Fabrice's businesses is that they are creating jobs for locals where none existed. He is a microcosm in a developing economy.

opushomes

When the plane arrived at VTE, we bought visas. Well all except one woman. This woman was near the rear of the line. She pushed her way in clutching her new U.S. Passport (nice and shiny compared to my beat up.) and asked the first officer if he had her visa. "My colleague arranged for me to pick it up". He leafed thru the waiting paper work and told her that there was nothing for her. She, with an accent straight out of Kings Highway and Flatbush Avenue insisted that it was there. He told her no, it was not. She then demanded that he let her use his telephone. There was no telephone in sight. He suggested she use her cell to call her colleague. She kept insisting that he let her use the non-existent telephone. She finally exclaimed: "Well, I've been here before and I know how difficult it is to change my visa type!" She then wandered off. Hopefully, she is still standing there waiting for her visa.

The guy in line behind me turned to me and said that he didn't understand why she didn't just pay the $35 and sort it out later. I had thought the same and had to mentally restrain myself from going over to her to tell her to shut up and buy a visa.

opushomes

My two day sojourn in Luang Prabang ended too soon. The hotel van delivered me to LPQ for the third Lao Airlines flight of this trip. LPQ was pretty quiet this morning, boarding passes were quickly issued and my bag was tagged to VTE. I had been looking forward to another flight on the MA60, but this flight was on an ATR-72. Service was the same. We arrived in VTE, I was able to claim my bag quite early. Waiting at the exit of baggage claim was the driver from Tai Pan Hotel and after a few minutes a young Japanese couple arrived and we left for the hotel. The Tai Pan was nearly as good as the more expensive Lao Plaza. Clean room and bathroom, an elevator that worked. The only major difference between the two is that Tai Pan cannot deal with fairly simple request. I wanted to book dinner at Na Dau, but did not have its phone number, so I asked the clerk to look up the number. He was completely stymied by this request. Finally, his associate arrived and sorted it out and a reservation was secured.

Na Dau. This restaurant is located by the local monument that looks like the Arc de Triomph. It was approximately a $2 songtao ride negotiated with the local songtao guy on the corner. Ten minutes later we pulled around the monument and arrived at the restaurant. My reservation was for 7:30, they were expecting me at the absolutely empty restaurant. Fortunately over the next hour three other parties showed up. Service was good considering the age of the servers. Prices were higher even than Le Elephant. Dinner for one of the most expensive tasting menu with a half liter of vin ordinaire with tip came to $30. This included an amuse bouche, salad, main, desert and cafe.
Everything was well prepared and tasty except the rather strange puff pastry, puried vegetable amuse bouche. After dinner, I wandered across the street to the plaza and finally found a songtao guy willing to take me back to the hotel for the same price. The plaza was packed with locals and I was the only strange face in sight. We took the scenic route back, near the hotel on the street fronting the Mekong, crowds were all over the place. It looked like every Lao in that part of Laos had come to town to have a good time. There actually was a traffic jam in not so sleepy Vientiane.

Note: You should change a small amount of $$ for kip since many locals do not take dollars.

The next morning, after breakfast (included in the rate), I walked around the area once again, but most of the stores were closed. Before I took the van back to the airport, accompanied by the same Japanese couple, I noticed a wooden box shaped like a Stupa on display in the lobby. It was quite unusual, and I inquired as to where to buy one, (of course, they told me the shop was closed, but would sell me one of the two in the display.) Turned out that it was a turned coconut, lacquered on the inside. It cost $15, not negotiable, and came with an official hotel receipt. I'm sure that I seriously overpaid, but it is a highly unusual piece.

At the airport, check-in for the flight to BKK was similar to that for LPQ. The exception was the departure tax rose to $10 for an international departure. Two amusing things occurred during the check-in process. Immediately in front of me were a couple with back packs and in the adjacent line were two Norwegian men with lots of poorly packed boxes.

The couple checked their packs. The male half left a large plastic bottle of what turned out to be Lao Lao (local rice wine liquor) in the pocket on the outside of the pack. After they left the counter, the agent noticed said bottle of fairly foul smelling stuff and removed it while trying to attract their attention so that they could carry it on board. You probably have noticed the disparity between our present liquids rule and how it is administered in Vientiane.

The second incident involved the two men, the agent and the many boxes. The boxes were so poorly packed that the china within was poking out the top. One had a large portion of what looked like a soup tureen top sticking at least six inches out of the box. Prudently, the agent refused to accept their boxes. She sent them out to get the boxes repacked. This is VTE and there is no packaging facility, but somehow, in ten minutes they found some string and wound it around some of the worst-offending boxes. Nothing had improved other than some flimsy string had been added. The assured the agent that the ceramics were very sturdy, that they were chairs and tables and very strong. She accepted the mess shortly before I left for departure.

Departure control required the purchase of the departure tax receipt, normal passport control and proceeding to the departure lounge.

Today's aircraft was an ATR-72. Boarding and flight was the same as all the others. Arrival at Suvanabhumi was on-time with a long bus ride to arrivals. I cleared immigration and went to the belt to await arrival of baggage from the flight. I waited and waited while all but the two ceramic-toting guys and I were the only ones left. The sign said "last bag", so I figured it was time to file a lost bag report. Thai Airlines has a baggage office that handles bag problems at BKK. We started filling out the paperwork, 15 minutes or so had elapsed, since the "last bag" was posted when a baggage handler arrived and stated, "late bags here.".

Sure enough there was mine going around. The ceramic boxes looked the worse for wear. I hope the two idiots enjoyed gluing all the shards together when they got to their apartment in Bangkok.

I exited the green line, grabbed a metered taxi to Rembrandt Hotel, Soi 20, Sukhamvit.

opushomes

QV is as good as Bangkok Air except for the lack of dedicated lounges

Aircraft are fairly new and appear well maintained. This may have something to do with QV's affiliation with PQ's Discovery Air Pass.

Service is fine and as expected from the smaller SE Asian airlines.

The web-site is problematic since one cannot book on-line. There are no e-tickets.

Booking is difficult, time-consuming and frustrating.

Do not believe the prices posted on the web-site. YMMV. Be sure to verify prices in writing which I failed to do. Totally my fault.

E-mail communication is fast and responsive, but not always accurate.

Be sure to check, recheck and check again as to local conditions in respect to ticketing because they vary widely.

I spent more time communicating about booking, booking, getting tickets, and not sorting out problems than I actually spent flying.

Would I fly QV again? Absolutely, especially if their segments are part of a Bangkok Air Discovery Airpass package issued by Bangkok Air.

Would I try to book directly with them? Yes, but only if I was originating in Laos because of the ticket payment problems outside of the Lao PDR.

Would I fly their older YAK aircraft on some of the lesser domestic routes? Yes, advisably, but what other choice does one have? The choice is bus or 4-wheel drive on poor roads. Since one can rent a self-drive car in Laos, I might drive on some of the safer routes.

violist

Enjoyable and informative. Thank you.

uncertaintraveler

Fascinating report. I toured around Laos several years ago and remember wondering at the time how tourism would end up changing the nation (and especially Luang Prabang), and thinking that it probably would not for the better. Its good, but somewhat disheartening, to read how things are there now.

Also, as an aside, the one thing I remember most from my limited experience with Lao Airlines is how they never turned on the air-con (or any sort of airflow) during the flight from Chiang-Mai to Luang Prabang, or from Vientiene to Siem Reap. The food was good, but it sure was sticky in the airplane!

In any event, thanks for the report!