MontanaRon

An English teacher's blog about his travels and his digital art.

Month: June 2009

Vang Vieng

June 22, 2009 /

I’m enjoying a few days in Vang Vieng, a lovely, but usually tourist-packed town north of Vientiane. Being that it’s low season now, the number of visitors here is quite a few less than in December, the last time I was here. There hasn’t been any rain, but it’s been mostly cloudy and humid. Nai and I might go tubing on the Nam Song tomorrow or perhaps take a hike up to the Buddha cave.

There’s not really too much happening here, and I was planning on going to Bangkok near the end of the week. However, I read today that the trains have all been stopped due to a nationwide strike of railway workers, and it seems like it’s another nail in the coffin of the Thailand tourism sector. Visitor numbers are down drastically and the industry is begging the government to do something. Chief causes for the huge dropoff are the takeover of the airport last year by protestors and continuing political turmoil, high prices, bad economy, and the perception that tourists are being treated less than cordially by many Thais working in the service sector. So it goes. More later.

Into Vientiane

June 15, 2009 /

Just outside the Inter City Hotel in Vientiane, along the Mekong, I noticed that there was a lot of new construction, with dirt piled up along the river bank. I asked Nai what it was all about, but he wasn’t sure. We asked a cashier in one of the markets and he told us it was a new levee to protect the city from the type of flooding that occurred last summer. Good idea. Nai blames the flooding on the upstream dams that China has built, which some claim has altered the seasonal flow of the river. I certainly hope they don’t get the high water they had last year. Nai’s family farm doesn’t need another incident like that.

Out of Korea

June 15, 2009 /

Written June 13th.

I saw on CNN a few days before I made my flight to Bangkok that Incheon Airport, outside of Seoul, was rated the overall best airport in the world, beating out perennial front runner Singapore. It’s certainly a huge, spacious, orderly and clean facility, and the personnel are mostly friendly. However, I didn’t do much to improve one security guard’s demeanor.

Earlier, I prepared to go through the security checkpoint. I took my paper money out of my bag and put it into my pants pocket (for whatever reason), and put my loose change and other metal items into my bag. Then I walked into the security area and put my bag onto the x-ray conveyor. The security guard told me to take the coins out of my pocket. I said that I didn’t have any coins. Again he repeated his order. Again I told him I didn’t have any. He was starting to get irritated. ‘Check your pocket and take out the coins,’ he ordered. Just to humor him (and not get into trouble) I reached into my pocket and, much to my great embarrassment, I found a handful of loose change. Wow, did I get red in the face and start apologizing profusely!

Apparently, I had forgotten to check my left pants pocket earlier and the security guy had seen the outline of the coins therein. Even with my apologies he was not happy with me, but he let me through without further incident. Geez, talk about getting old and senile. 😛

My excuse has to be that I had been awake for more than 24 hours. The 11 p.m. bus from Yeosu to the airport takes about 5 1/2 hours, and I find it impossible to sleep on a bus or plane or at an airport waiting for the check-in counter to open. Moral: Double check your pockets.

Friday night was a great time to leave Yeosu, though. All day it was as hazy as could be. You could barely make out the not-so-distant hills and downtown buildings. It wasn’t the dreaded Yellow Dust, but more likely a combination of pollution and fog with an inversion layer thrown in for good measure. Anyway, Incheon was very clear, and as I sit in Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok writing this, it is mostly sunny.

I’ve got a 6 hour layover, but I don’t know what I’m going to do to pass the time waiting for the flight to Vientiane. Just walk around the terminal, I guess, and wait for something to happen. Maybe I can find a security guard to pick on. 😀

More later.

Trip Postings

June 15, 2009 /

I’ll keep updating on my trip to Laos and Thailand, probably at least once or twice weekly, and this notice will stay at the top of the blog until I return to Korea. Just scroll down to read the rest of the story.

Vacation Time

June 12, 2009 /

So, our spring semester ends today and the teachers have 3 weeks off, until July 6th. Hmmmm, I wonder what I should do, where I might go . . . ? I know, how about a trip to Laos and Thailand? Great idea!

Yeah, I’m leaving tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. from Seoul, flying to Bangkok, where I have a 6-hour layover at the airport there. Then, it’s on to Laos, the flight arriving in Vientiane around 9 p.m. tomorrow night.

It’s rainy season there right now, so I probably won’t get a lot of sun, but there’s usually still enough that I won’t get waterlogged. Should be fun despite the wet weather. I’ll try to keep you posted. At any rate, I won’t be obsessed with watching baseball for a while. I’ll also be leaving behind my disappointment that the Yanks lost 3 more games to the Red Sox, making the team 0-8 this season against the Boston guys. 🙁 Sheeeeesh! More later.

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