Nothing interrupted my airport bus, checked in smooth after waiting for 15 minutes in front of the counter.
Still I hadn't been given my boarding pass from Hanoi to Luang Phabang, which made me nervous a little as I would be needed transfer procedure at Noi Bai.
Unfortunately now in 2012 there's no direct flight from Japan to Laos.
Breakfast set at the Japanese coffee chain shop Doutour near the boarding gate.
Boarding smooth, no delay happened. VN311 started its long way bound for Hanoi.
Headphone and menu. Beautiful lotus as the trademark of Vietnam Airlines.
Monitor and controller. TV program about the Vietnamese tradition of tea.
Pillow. They provided a blanket too.
Japanese rice snack.
Lunch, Western/Asian style. Nice.
As it was the morning flight after enough sleep, my health condition was quite okay despite 6 hours sitting in the plane.
My plane landed at Noi Bai at around 2:30p.m., then that's the time for my tiny challenge, I mean, the transfer procedure.
For me the self-transfer beginner, it was a little confusing.
First we needed to go to the "connecting flight" counter seen below and show the e-ticket printout to issue my boarding pass to Luang Phabang.
Then this "transfer" counter on the right of the connecting flight counter with my passport and boarding pass(my stub to Noi Bai needed too if not mistaken)...
And go upstair by the elevator on the right...
For the departure floor through the security gate.
Had a seat at Sky cafe to kill my time.
Penne tomato sauce(its taste was enough okay but the appearance was totally different from the picture on the menu) and Vietnamese traditional coffee(I expected them to bring with a filter to feel the Vietnamese atmosphere, but they didn't), US$10.50 with tax(airport!). They provided free Wifi service and you will find its password on the table.
Then went upstairs as I still had plenty of time until my next flight.
Looks they are still under the construction.
It's getting dark outside... and finally my boarding started.
Inside the bus I found most of the passengers are the middle age Westerns.
Are they interested in Buddhism and temples?
Lovely tiny plane of Lao Airlines. Loves plumeria!
Inside the plane.
It was just a short flight for 1 hour, but they gave us this in-flight meal. Okay as my supper.
There was a trouble with me.
My ballpoint pen didn't work while I had to fill in their immigration card.
By seeing the conversation with the passenger in front of her, I found the old woman next to me was kind of short-tempered, then I tried to ask their flight attendant for the pen, however, finally she never came back to me.
Arrival at the new country must have been much more exciting to me, however, all what I was thinking about was "ballpoint pen... my blank immigration card...".
I begged at the counter and yay they were too nice to borrow me a pen without yelling at this stupid woman of the ballpoint-pen-lessness, I could fill in the card and give them successfully.
Never forget spare ballpoint pens(excuse me, I had another ballpoint pen in fact but it was in my suitcase).
Okay, now I'm finally in Laos!
It was dark outside the airport.
A cute Lao lady was waiting for me, who was from Happy Smile Tour, the tourist bureau contracted with the Japanese travel agency ST World.
On the itinerary I had been informed that there would be the English-speaking guide who can't speak Japanese, but she was quite fluent in Japanese.
I rode on their coach with 2 travelers, a Japanese woman and her son who were going to stay at the same hotel with me.
It was too dark outside and there was no modern building around the airport.
I was quite nervous at that time as the town looked too inconvenient, but anyway 15 minutes drive took us to our hotel.
At the lobby while checking in she gave us a paper bag which tea and handcrafts were in, and gave us some info about Luang Phabang with handouts and a map.
The mother and son said they were going to see the night market, but as I was too tired I decided to rest in my room to be ready for the next morning.
My room was lovely and huge.
Even had a balcony.
Bath room with a hot shower. Clean.
As a Japanese conservative woman, I wanted to have a bath tub as we Japanese have a habit to sink in the hot water to relax.
But I'm okay.
They had an air-con in my room, but I never turned it on as it was cool there in the morning and evening. Opening windows was enough to make my guestroom comfortable.
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