Sao Lao

It was one of those days that anything that could go wrong went wrong on the day of my flight to Laos. I didn’t get any sleep the night before since I was finishing up my assignment and went to turn it in a few hours before leaving NL. On the way back Johan called me to tell me that he needed the spare keys to get into his apartment because he locked himself out on his way to pick me up and couldn’t drive his car since he has no key. We met up at a train station and walked to a grocery store to pick up what is left on my shopping list for Laos. Then something unexpected happened. My bank card didn’t go through for some reason. Just to make sure I tried to take out some cash at the ATM machine at the grocery store but the card was useless. The ATM was not able to read the card.

What was I going to do? I had only a couple of hours left before leaving for Schiphol airport. I only had a few Euros on me because the plan was to take out cash at the ATM in Vientiane when needed. My uncle was already in Laos a few weeks and told my mother to not take much cash with her since she can easily withdrawl money in Vientiane and so my mother passed on the info to me. Johan was kind enough to give me some Euros so I can survive in Vientiane, while waiting for my parents to arrive a week later.

Before leaving for the airport I asked Johan to call the airline to make sure that I’ve met the weight limit on the suitcases since the information on the website was not quite clear. I was told that I could take two suitcases with 20kg limit on each of them. However when I went to check in I was told that I could only take 20kg, based on the limit on the tickets I’ve purchased online. Anything over the weight limit would mean 30 Euros for each kg over the free allowance. I had to re-pack everything into one suitcase. My suitcase was at 23.2kg but a different girl at the counter (Indian) didn’t make a fuss and let me get away with the extra weight.

After the rough start, the rest went rather well. I arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport safe and sound and had four hours to spare. After doing some walking around I spent the rest of my spare time surfing the net.

After getting my vaccinations and reserving the round trip airfare to Laos, the next step was to gather what I need to pack. My first thought was going through my closet and take out what I don’t want to wear or can’t wear anymore. Some of my relatives should be able to wear these old clothes but will be new to them. My priority was to pack all my old clothes first and then the essentials (first aid kit, medications, bodywash, lotion, shampoo, toothpaste, etc..) and my clothes last.

If I didn’t need to pack for my relatives, then I would only have a carryon suitcase and a tote. I like to pack light and can get by with a few outfits for a week’s vacation or two. That way I can just get on the plane and get off, without having to go wait for my suitcases.

In preparation for my trips to Laos I had to go to Reis Doctor (Travel Doctor) in Rotterdam for three vaccinations. I braved the cold, windy, and rainy day and walked to Joho Travel Doctor for a consultation appointment. Well it turned out that I didn’t have to go back for a second visit for my shots. The doctor was ready to inject me with three needles on both arms right away. An hour later, I walked out with 119 Euros less in my pockets with funny feelings, wonderding if I am going to get sick from the vaccination shots.

Being vaccinated was just a start. I still have to take malaria medication. The doctor gave me two prescriptions, one for a weekly dose, the other for the daily dose. She told me I can choose either one, depending on what kind of side effects I want to deal with.

The weekly dose is Lariam, which costs around 30 Euros. I would have to take only 10 tablets but the possible side effects put me off. I was told that 10% of the people taking Lariam will have psychological problem or halluciantions. You start three weeks before your trip so you would know if you will have any side effects after your second tablets.

The daily dose is Malarone, which costs at least three times more than Lariam. You start 1 day before your trip and each day while you are in the red zone (Malaria infected area) and one week after your return. There is very little side effect to this medication and very mild so the doctor didn’t even list it for me.

I chose to take the daily medication since the potential side effects sounded less scary.

When my parents told me about their plan of going to Laos in late January or early February of 2007, I said to them that I want to go along. I have always wanted to go back to visit my great grandmother and my grandmother. I made plan to go back to Laos in the year 2000 but sadly my great grandmother passed away in 1998 and a year later my grandmother passed away the day before Thanksgiving in 1999.

Since the passing of both grandmothers I no longer felt the urgency to go to Laos. I am the only one in my family that is still fond of Laos because I was born there and spent the early years of my life there as well. I even thought about doing some volunteer there for at least a year after my graduation, if possible.

When I found out about the passing of my Grand-Papa, I wanted to attend his funeral but there was not enough time for me to just pick up and go to Laos since the funeral was the day I flew back to the Netherlands.

The good news was that my Grand-Mama is still alive. She is 87 years old and I have no idea of what she looks like. I can only recall having met her once at my sister’s funeral. She took me to a house by the Mekong river and I spent the night there with her. The sad news was that she fell down and injured her knees a couple of months before my Grand-Papa passed away. She was not able to attend his funeral.

Grand-Mama wanted to do Boun Loy Vanh (100th days of the passing memorial service) for Grand-Papa. When she heard that I might be coming to Laos, she told everyone that she will wait for me to do the event when I get there.

I thought it would be the best time to go to Laos to meet all the relatives and help Grand-Mama with Boun Loy Vanh. At the same time I would be able to meet a few of my aunts from the west coast. They wanted to show support for my cousin who will be graduating from the university in Thailand in January of 2007.

Making the decision was the easy part. Preparing for the trip is going to take some time. At least I got a good start on some reading on Laos Travel Guide at LP.