For me, red wine, Baileys, cigs (duty free) and a 23yo Laos girl.

saint wrote:if you venture further than vienteine , and you manage to bring yourself and vehicle back in one piece i would consider that a result !!!!!! ive just aborted a trip to laing prabang , got as far as vien viang and gave up. the roads look like the americans have been using them for B 52 bombing practice again !!! absolutely aweful . could not get back to thailand fast enough . anyone thinking of living in loas , get yourself some psychiatric help .

Yes, I hear it's a mess across the border in many many ways.

Vientiane is a nice, quiet capital city, a little too quiet for me when even compared to Udon. And it is probably as expensive than Udon for food & drink.
The road from the Bridge to Vientiane is/has been greatly improved over the last couple of years. When it is finished it will be as good as anything Thailand has to offer. Other than that the roads are the same as village roads in Issan - if you drive in the wet season you need a decent 4 wheel drive & can only drive as if you were "off road".
As for what you can bring back... if it is for you personally then I would say be VERY careful.
The cigarettes (for example) range between illegal copies made in China to official produced product made under licence elsewhere in South East Asia.
Electrical goods (cameras, phones, mp4s etc.) are the same. Some are (illegal) copies some are not.

The Jekyll and Hyde watches are not bad. (Snide).

Chinese fakes.

So what do most expat ( you ) bring back if anything
when going for visa runns.

Welcome back Yorkman

Flashman wrote:Welcome back Yorkman

Hey? What? Where is he?

Don't panick Mr. Mannering, we have a fifth columnist in our midst.

Is Astrid really Yorkman?

Astrid's a Troll for sure. Back under the bridge where you belong.

Just dont bring back any Diseases, although i suppose there easy to get through Customs

WBU ALUM wrote:

saint wrote:if you venture further than vienteine , and you manage to bring yourself and vehicle back in one piece i would consider that a result !!!!!! ive just aborted a trip to laing prabang , got as far as vien viang and gave up. the roads look like the americans have been using them for B 52 bombing practice again !!! absolutely aweful . could not get back to thailand fast enough . anyone thinking of living in loas , get yourself some psychiatric help .

Yes, I hear it's a mess across the border in many many ways.

Interesting comments Saint and WBU ALUM. I live in Vientiane and I would suggest that anyone who wants to live in Udon needs psychiatric help. Western food in Udon is crap compared to food here and the women are far uglier. By the way, its called Laos, the town you got to is Vang Vieng and the destination you were hoping for is Luang Prabang. (Please at least get the spelling right.) I have driven there many times with no problem at all.

How is it a mess across the border? At least we don't have a change of government everytime someone changes their underwear.

LOl rufus stick it to em....but you are meant to not talk it up too much as all the udonites might want to move there...but just to clarify do you mean the women are uglier in Laos or Thailand..thanks

Nah, Udon women are far uglier than Laos women.

Arrrr ok.

rufus wrote:Nah, Udon women are far uglier than Laos women.

Yeah, that's what I said to my wife last year, she was well impressed.