I woke early for my 0905 flight from Kuala Lumpur to Vientiane before taking the bus to the airport. The Air Asia hub at KL’s low-cost carrier terminal was abuzz with activity … the departures board overflowed with flights.
It is interesting to see that their brand is well-recognised amongst some Ozzies now with some of them saying … “we’re going to Vientiane (or wherever) because AirAsia had an amazing sale out of Gold Coast and also out of KL”.
I arrived in Vientiane at 1040 and met my Couchsurfing host Patrick at the international school where he teaches. We walked back to his place during his break in the midday heat. I had chosen to bring a wheelie bag this trip rather than a backpack. With a varied mix of destinations including New York, Cuba and Yemen, either choice would have been wrong at some point in time. Today, a backpack would have been better on the muddy puddly road to his place.
After freshening up at his place I hit town briefly to check out a few temples. We had quite an evening with Patrick’s other house-guests and his colleagues. It started with dinner at a Serbian restaurant (yummy stuffed vine-leaves, kebabs, breads, goulash) accompanied by the obligatory drinking games. Then more beer at a bar; we had two large dispensers of beer (giving nine of us 2-3 mugs per person) for about USD1 per person! Oh I feel young again.
Initial sightseeing included some temples.