On the move again, entering Laos. Was only, err, somewhat eventful. I’m sitting in the Don Muang Airport in Bangkok, about to board, and one of my front crowns (all four of my upper front teeth are crowns; my original teeth were all damaged when I was a kid) comes off with a bite of a granola bar. This thing has been reattached to the post several times and just doesn’t want to stay fixed. Great. I quickly clean it off in the bathroom (taking care to not drop it down the drain) and wedge it back into place. No chewing until I can get affixed back in place. Sorry. No pix of that. Would you want to really see that?
But then on the plane things get a bit odd. We are getting close to landing at the Udon Thani airport and get the ‘sit down and buckle up’ message. As I’m in row 7, I visit the restroom just to the rear of the cockpit. But when I’m done with my business and come out, I’m not greeted by a plane full of sitting down and buckling up passengers—I’m greeted by the back side of an media circus. Three people with pro still cameras, a guy with a video camera on a Steadi Cam-type rig, and three or four assistants. I couldn’t get to my seat. I couldn’t actually go anywhere but stand by the door of the restroom in a bemused state. Turns out that the guy in charge of the whole operation is standing right next to me and spoke English. He told me that this woman was proposing marriage to her sweetheart on the plane in her wedding dress. Now that’s a woman who knew exactly what she wanted. She came on board with her dress packed in a bag and went to the bathroom, quickly changed, and as the media crew lept up, pounced on her fiancee and proposed…
Mr. In-Charge takes the PA microphone and announces the whole thing and the entire plane starts to cheer. Much more interesting than the airline-provided in-air entertainment.
What the hell. So when I could get back to my seat and grab my camera from my backpack I got a snap of the mid-plane parade (Aww, they are making a heart!) and of the woman in her dress and the still-reeling man. Heh, poor guy was stunned. Nothing like being put on the spot, eh?
Next was a mostly uneventful ride from the Udon Thani Airport to Thai immigration on the Thai side of the Mekong. I did have an interesting conversation about North America with a Canadian women named Lynn. Is it just my prejudice, or are all Canadians nice? Then onto a shabby bus to cross the First Thai–Lao Friendship Bridge which is 1,170m (0.73 mi) long. The trip cost 15฿, or about 50¢ ‘merican.
Crossing the Mekong: Thai flag.
Crossing the Mekong: long and flat.
Crossing the Mekong: Laotian flag.
Can you tell that Laos was a French colony?
More later… Thanks for looking.