Ask WhoIam anything about living in Vientiane, Laos

[WhoIam]

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So did you move over with friends? Or have you since made friends with people you've met whilst being there? How easy is it to get to know people and settle in mantaining a reasonable social life?

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I came here by myself, originally for a visa run. I would guess that the average person stays in the city for 2-3 days so other expats are always eager to meet long-term residents. The Lao people are incredibly welcoming and friendly so once you meet one, you'll instantly know a lot of people. My friends range from bargirls to doctors to embassy officials.

[roamer590]

Generally its easy to get to know people as they are easy-going and unless they hate you they will nearly always include you in their circle.

Also many Lao people love gambling, many different cardgames are played all the time. I play (small stakes) variations of chinese poker and Big 2 almost everyday with local people.. The money is always kept in the pockets or under the table though, in case any wandering officials should feel like claiming their share.

Anyway, I was just gonna give u guys some links since it can be a pain to find good internet resources on Lao.

Also. maybe I can answer some things. ive spent altogether maybe 6-8 months here. But im a heavy weedsmoker so details may be hazy.

Btw, about internet, right now im in my new apartment and surfing through GPRS,EDGE on my mobile phone, with a prepaid sim card. Im soon gonna get a wireless connection, they have a huge antenna on top of a big hotel here, that transmits wireless broadband in vientiane. its like 50 bucks a month.

http://www.retire-asia.com/ - Alot of nice info, i like these especially>
http://www.retire-asia.com/laovientiane.shtml
http://www.retire-asia.com/lao-heart-culture.shtml
http://www.retire-asia.com/culturechange.shtml

www.laohub.com , www.laosmile.com - communities for lao youth, mainly in english language. also laoconnection.com.

http://www.seasite.niu.edu/lao/LaoLa...anguage_fp.htm
//excellent and comprehensive free lao language course. check it.

[WhoIam]

Roamer, it's $50/month for 1gb total upload and download. Unlimited plans are ridiculously expensive. I've heard that it's very fast and very reliable so I'm going to use it for poker and a separate DSL connection for everything else. If you see someone 8-tabling on a 17" Dell somewhere stop in and say hi.

[WhoIam]

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 Music House and TexMex? If you could eliminate either annoying tuk-tuk drivers or "Hotel California," which would you pick?

[xxThe_Lebowskixx]

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.

[WhoIam]

There are plenty of ATMs in the major cities now. As I understand it, this is a change from even a year ago. The dollar bounces between 9500 and 9900 kip but most places accept 10k to the dollar for simplicity. You see a lot of prices in dollars because it's much easier to write $35 than 3500000 (they hardly use commas for some reason) kip. 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.

[WhoIam]

Forgot to mention that you can use kip, baht or dollars just about anywhere. I'm increasingly seeing places that take euros, but these are major tourist places.

[roamer590]

[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

[xxThe_Lebowskixx]

roamer,

what are you doing in laos? what visa do you have? you get kip out of the atm or usd?

[WhoIam]

Art's is kind of a semi-dive-friendly-neighborhood-bar-type place. The owner and one guy who's always there are fellow Americans and also interesting to talk to. It usually isn't very busy so if you go on an off night you might find yourself drinking alone. The food sucks, so don't go on an empty stomach.

By city center I mean the area from Lane Xang Ave to maybe around Bor Pen Nyang. Basically where 99% of the white people are. China town is right next to it. The Swedish Baking House is in this area. When you see a bunch of Chinese restaurants and signs in Chinese, you'll know you've found it.

The third floor of Bor Pen Nyang seems to have good tables, but I really, really suck at pool (and have no idea how to even play snooker) so I might not be the best judge of this.

I wasn't aware of Neteller not working. I guess I'll just get a moneybookers account or something now. What do you use?

KKF, the ATMs dispense kip. From my understanding if you have an account in USD, you have to into the bank and withdraw dollars. Roamer, correct me if I'm wrong about this.