Cowboys in Laos

Yesterday I left Vientienne Laos to fly to Luang Prabang for the final part of a not so exciting tour of Laos. Half way into the 45 minute trip I looked out the window to see the view had changed to a forest of lush green mountains with craggy peaks. A few minutes later the pilot announced "prepare to land." I could see nowhere to land until we banked almost 45 degrees to squeeze through some mountains into a spectacular valley fed by the Mekong River. Still no place to land, but we kept descending until I saw the smallest runway in history.
In flight school the one thing that you practice endlessly is the short field landing, in case you have to make an emergency landing somewhere. The Lao Airways pilot must have paid attention during these lessons because he planted the plane.
Waiting for my luggage in the tiny airport, I was grinning like a fool when the 2 pilots walked past me. They gave me the "what's wrong with you, Lady ?"look. I couldn't stop grinning. They had just planted 300 people on a postage stamp and were walking away like it was nothing.
Later I was talking about the landing with my new guide. He said that if it is cloudy or if it is the rainy season, none of the other airlines will fly into Luang Prabang. Laos Airlines flies here no matter what.
The wild west is still alive in the far east!