[img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img] just read between the lines and u may find something useful in this post
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Thanks for the links. What are some of your favorite restaurants and places to go outside of the Chinatown and the city center? Do you know a bar called "Art TeeTong's Jai Dee Restaurant" on the street between Mu
:smirksic House and TexMex? If you could eliminate either annoying tuk-tuk drivers or "Hotel California," which would you pick?
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Heard the name of that Art place before, but havent been there - what kind of place is it?
Since I love to gamble I often go to play pool or snooker in the Lao Bowling Center, they have excellent tables and imo its comfortable and friendly there. Loads of girls go there to bowl also, and you can just sit and drink too if you want. Another place I play pool sometimes is Bor Pen Nyang but the tables there are really not good for anything but messing around with while getting drunk and pimpin hoes.
Last time I was here I used to go to the lao discos all the time, like Future, Dtac(Novotel), Meena, Marina, Tops... They are fun if you go with a group of people.
Not really sure what u mean by neither chinatown or city center, hehe. But in my head the morning market is the center. Theyve finished a shopping mall there now, its kind of half-empty still though. The MM is still a great place for shopping for almost anything. The last week Ive kinda been hanging in my apartment mostly, nice to have a home after 6months of hotels and guesthouses. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] like to go to the vietnamese area of town too, just chilling with vietnamese coffee in some backyard cafe. that is north around that luang.
Tuk Tuks suck, they are noisy and uncomfortable, and they always rip you - but I hate more the increasing number of big cars that are filling up the city some with maniac drive, probably finishing off their share of motorbike riders. I was in Cambodia a few months ago, where around 500 people are killed in traffic every month, only in the capital city of Phnom Penh. Lao people drive generally easier, but as the traffic increases its gonna get worse here cause the roads are really small.
Ive witnessed about 3-4 accidents here the last few weeks alone.. and riding home last night i saw 2 roadkilled cats, about 500m apart.. One of them had his head scompletely ground into the asphalt. Hmm wait I think that one was on the sidewalk too, ([censored] getting deeper[img]/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]) . Anyway tuktuks are mostly annoying if you actually use them, I drive everywhere anyway.
So my answer to question C must be the "Hotel California" karaoke singing, that and "take me 2 your heart". [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]
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do they have ATMs there now? what currency are they in? what is the exchange rate for Thai baht and USD against the Kip? please describe how you handle your finances. thanks.
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ATMs are on every corner of Vientiane now. When I first visited in 2001 there were none. But in 2005 they had a few.
So I just use kip from my VISA card at the ATMs. Some of them (among others the one on the mekong from BCEL) charge u 20 000 kip per transaction, and the maximum withdrawal amount is just 700 000.
The new ones from Lao development bank and others, are without this extra and dispense 1m illion kip ($100) at a time.
In 2001 the largest denomination banknote here was 5000kip, and I had huge wads of cash after changing alot at the border. But now they have got up to 50.000kip, (yay! $5) Its rare though. But you dont really need hundreds of dollars in cash here either, unless your rental honda gets stolen and u have to pay $1000 cash for it to get your passport back, and in that case u just go to a bank..
Neteller is closed here, I found that out as the [censored] closed my account and froze all my money like 4 months ago. THe idiots demand that I travel to a country where its not banned before they can open it. Now thats good service.
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The exchange rate for the baht is terrible at something like 27baht=10k kip. Once I finally get settled (after this next visa run) I'm going to open an account in USD at one of the banks here. I think you only need $500 or so to open an account. I'm going to check with the Thai banks here to see if I could access my money in Thailand in case there's a natural disaster or bloody coup or something here. Right now I'm just using my epassporte card to withdraw cash.
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Yeah the thai bath has been strengthened alot the last few months, but its not certain thats gonna last. As you also know the USD has weakened considerably. The Lao kip hasnt diverted alot from its rate to the dollar though. As a result many goods here that are imported from thailand have become more expensive.
There is a branch of Bangkok Bank here, Ive been there a few times to get cash advances from my VISA card. Its near the morning market, on the other side of lane xang avenue, and next to the immigration office. Maybe they can help you with something.
Link Time
http://www.vientiane4fun.com/
Nice little page with info about hotels, nightclubs, bars, entertainment etc.
http://www.travelfish.org/country/laos
Looks like a good travelguide with maps.
http://www.saycocie.1colony.com/
A lao man is telling the very detailed story of his life of growing up in vientiane.
http://www.yellowpages-lao.com/
Good for finding businesses, telephone numbers, etc