Grand Opening: Peep has been spending a good portion of her time at work preparing for the grand opening of the Savan Vegas Hotel and Casino for several months. Finally, on the weekend of 10 April 2009, all her hard work came to fruition. The grand opening ceremonies took place over two evenings, Friday the 10th and Sunday the 12th. On Friday, they had a cocktail party followed by dinner, a show, candle balloons and fireworks. On Sunday, they added a rock concert featuring several popular Lao and Thai singers. The ceremonies went real well on Friday and everyone was looking forward to Sunday evening. However, about mid-day on Sunday they learned that the Thai government protesters were planning on blocking the Mekong River bridges leading into Laos, both in Vientiane and in Savannakhet. These protests were in response to the arrest of a protest leading in the Thai capital of Bangkok. After several phone calls to contacts in Thailand, Peep was eventually able to get on the phone with the leader of the protest group threatening to close the bridge. He assured her that they would not block the bridge, but rather the only road leading to the bridge! That was no consolation. The plan was to only keep it closed for about an hour, but many Thai planning on attending the grand opening turned back due to the uncertainty of the situation. This was particularly bad because Savan Vegas' main clientele is Thai.
The opening ceremonies went on as scheduled and the turnout was good due to the popularity of the performers, but instead of Thai it was mostly Lao, who are not permitted by their government to gamble in the casino. They did receive the media attention they were hoping for as the reporters returned from the protests across the bridge to cover the opening ceremonies.
The cocktail party was held out by the swimming pool before the VIP guests were ushered to the concert. The concert started about 45 minutes late due to the activities on the other side of the border. After a couple of performers sang, the GM of the hotel said a few words and struck the gong denoting the official grand opening of the hotel and casino. Peep's older brother, Paap, joined the GM on stage to translate the speech. There was a small amount of drizzle while the singers performed. Following the performance, 250 candle-lit balloons were released as the VIP guests made their way to the catered dinner. Fireworks soon added to the festivities. Unlike on Friday, the fireworks were sporadic due to the rainfall we had received during the concert. All guests were able to get a view of the fireworks as they exploded over the silhouette of the hotel.
