Got bags packed, headed down to catch my uber and away we go! A short talk to the uber driver, as usual, turned into a conversation about their life stories and how they are using uber to make money. Heard it all before.. But only this time this driver had the most peculiar sour body and oral odour which resembled a mix between someone with bad gum disease and bad showering habits. I could see by the look of his hair that he had not washed it the last few days at least. Dirty finger nails and a tidal wave of odourous stench everytime he talked really woke me up. At least he was making money and working hard.

Glad to be out of the car, I walked towards the check in for business class. The massive line up in economy queue was something Im gladly not missing. As I approached the queue for business class, I could see the attendant manning the entrance looking at me as if I was lost and got in the wrong queue. Before she said anything I asked her if this was the line for business class, woops! Her face changed immediately and led me to the queue direction which was only about 3 people including myself. I probably waited a full 5 minutes, instead of the 30 mins I would have endured in the economy line up next to us.

As I approached the counter there was a very pretty tanned lady greeting me with a beautiful smile and engaging me in some small chat. She seemed extremely friendly, but also extremely married judging by he ring on her finger. She asked for my passport whilst I was still in my sleepy haze. She jokingly mentioned that its important to have this piece of document otherwise we would end up just staring at each other. I would not have minded that though. Regardless she was very interested in my travel to Japan and to ‘tell her all about it’ when I get back. (?)

Anyways down I went to try and exchange the 3 million Laotian Kip I had hoped to exchange for Japanese Yen. Nope, Kip is not international tender, nor can it be exchanged anywhere but Laos and parts of Thailand that borders it. The little usd, euro and Turkish Lira I have is not even worth exchanging as there is a 4 dollar flat fee to exchange those currencies. But not only that, it needed to be exchanged to AUD first then into JPY, incurring two fees. Total cbf and realised it is better just to exchange in Japan.

So off I went meandering into the Qantas business lounge and resting my feet to get ready for some rest and food. Poured a champagne, ordered a egg and bacon muffin and helped myself to a fruit platter. Wonderful start to the trip. Ill see you on the otherside.