For what I knew would likely be my last real vacation during the construction of Super Nintendo World, I decided to try and finally knock Laos off of my list: my final ASEAN country and one of three remaining in East Asia. We quickly decided to do Chiang Mai, Thailand to Luang Prabang, Laos overland but then debated whether to go overland from Laos into China or just fly. We eventually settled on flying through China, spending a few days in Lijiang, Yunnan and making a few short stopovers in Kunming and Chengdu.
Overnight Rush to Chiang Mai
Two days before I was supposed to leave for this long-planned vacation, I had an urgent request to fly to Singapore to review some scenery being manufactured in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. At ~14:00 April 16, I grabbed a taxi from my office to home and back to Kansai Airport (KIX). By 18:45 I was on a Scoot flight to Singapore with a late night arrival. I went on a few shop visits in Johor Bahru and the following morning (my birthday), I met an old friend for a drink before going back to Changi to fly back to Kansai. At the airport, my whole family (including my dad who had arrived only the day before in Japan) met me for a quick birthday dinner before take-off. I was in Japan for all of 3.5 hours before leaving once again for Chiang Mai, Thailand via Taipei. After a short hotel stay near Taipei Taoyuan airport, we were on a second EVA Air flight to Chiang Mai. From the evening of April 16 to the morning of April 19, I went Osaka (Kansai)-Singapore-Johor Bahru-Singapore-Osaka (Kansai)-Taipei-Chiang Mai and wasn’t in a single country longer than 12 hours.
