Return to Vientiane by ratchada
Posted by ratchada | Blog, Laos, Reader Submissions, Trip Report | Posted on February 8th, 2010
I had the opportunity to visit Vientiane for two nights on my recent six-week Thailand vacation extravaganza; here’s a brief trip report.
It had been a while since I had visited Vientiane…a year, in fact. Used to go 2-3 times a year when I lived in Bangkok; visa runs, work-related, to visit a close Lao friend I have there. And actually when you consider the nature of two of my 2008 visits (I brought “sand to the beach” for two of them), I hadn’t been there alone and on the town since waaaay back in Jan. 2008, so until last week it had been a good two years since I hit the bars.
First, a disclaimer: I speak quite good Lao, so YMMV…I have no idea what the English abilities are of any of the people I interacted with there.
Vientiane has definitely changed, even in just the one year since I visited with a companion. The economy is looking up; it’s bustling, lots of tourists, lots of artsy little cafes, restaurants, galleries, and, dare I say it, “hip” little theme bars have opened recently. It doesn’t seem to be development at the expense of the good things we all love about Vientiane (and Laos in general), though: that laid-back feeling is still there, as are the trees, and the cars still do not outnumber the motorcycles (as opposed to, say, the unchecked, smog-choked “progress” of Phnom Penh).
What really jumped out at me, though, is how the freelance Pussy For Pay (P4P) scene seems to have taken off.
Now, Communist Laos has always had a decidedly puritanical streak to it, even since it “opened to tourism” in the mid-late 1990s. It’s still illegal for a Lao national to sleep in the same room as a foreigner, and the bars still close early (midnight, up from 11-11:30 just a few years ago). You’ll find nothing resembling the bar beers and gogos of Thailand, which, of course, is part of the charm of its place.
But one thing I really noticed on this trip is the growing presence of P4P freelancers and “grey area girls” alike. And the way this has been able to happen in the Lao social and political context is, it’s not “in your face”. You generally don’t see Lao freelancers dressed extremely provocatively, nor do you seem them walking arm-in-arm or hand-in-hand down the street with foreign men. If that started, the ruling powers’ fears of Laos turning into “another Thailand” would surely kick in and the moral watchdogs would clamp down. No, this growth in P4P has a definitely laid-back, true “Lao-ness” to it, and again, it’s kind of refreshing.
From the reports of others, I know there are brothel-type places that the tuk-tuk drivers will be happy to take you to…not my thing. For one thing, such an enterprise violates one of my number one nightlife principles in Southeast Asia: I do not need a Lao (or Thai) MAN to find me a woman, I can do that on my own, thank you. I’ve also done the quaint, throw-back-to-the-1950s “dance halls” mostly patronized by Lao men…a fun experience if you’ve never done it, but it gets old, and you can never be 100% sure until the end of the night if your girl actually goes with customers (one of the prime venues of this type, the nightclub attached to the Lane Xang Hotel, is no more, it’s now become a Thai-style “Tawan Daeng” music spot). So what I’m going to talk about here are the freelancer spots. Remember, this is Laos, not Bangkok, so you won’t find anything as blatant as the Soi 7 Biergarden…but what is there represents a marked change from what you would have found a couple years ago.
First, there’s the very unassuming and wholesome (backpacker-ish) Kop Chae Der, a part-outdoor restaurant bar (with pool tables inside). Very good farang and Lao food to be had, and ubiquitous Beer Lao at the usual reasonable prices. I’d seen freelancers plant themselves at the bar before, but their numbers have definitely increased since my last visit. They’re very low key, but I did witness one of them get chatted up and taken by a customer, just like that, at about 8pm at night. Usually they sit in pairs or threes, but not a few could be found alone, nursing their cokes or wines at the bar, as well.
As the night goes on, it’s time to move to Bor Pen Yang, a fourth-floor sprawling restaurant/bar (mostly bar), again with pool tables, on the riverfront. Here the freelancing is a bit more out in the open; on any given night after 9pm you can easily count 15 or more freelancers around the bar. By the way, this is also a spot for groups of young middle-class Lao to hang out, including the aforementioned “grey area girls”. I had several beers there and a good time chatting with a group of 4-5 freelancers hanging out together, though they were much too young/small bodied for my tastes.
Bor Pen Yang closes up at midnight, and then it’s time to head to the premiere freelancer P4P joint, the Don Chan Palace hotel’s (sometimes called the “houng haem haa dao” or “5 star hotel”) 3rd floor outdoor beer terrace and small, packed disco, which is open until 3 am. If you can’t pull there, well, you’re not trying. You can’t miss the Don Chan; it’s about a kilometer south/southeast of the main cluster of restaurants, shops and hotels that line the river (it’s also on the river), by far the tallest building in Vientiane (meaning in all of Laos).
Myself, I ended up with a grey area girl: 26 year old beauty parlor worker (no kids) with large real tits who owns her own house and her own flashy yellow motorcycle. Upon spotting me without a beer at about 2:30 (the girl I had been chatting up for a couple hours had just blown me off, and I was ready to call it a night alone), she and her friend called me over to their table to share their beer (a warning to those of you who, unlike me, prefer women under 30: the friend was all of 17, and looked younger….!). After about 15 minutes of conversation, she offered “Do you wanna come home with me?” Done deal, and off we went on her bike to the outskirts of town (btw, this is not the first time I’ve been picked up by a Lao girl and whisked off on her motorcycle from the Don Chan), after stopping for noodles on the way with her friend. She even took me back to my hotel at 11am the next morning! Cost to me? 1,000 baht in “gas money,” discreetly placed into the loop of her keychain while she was showering, so as to keep with the “grey area” tradition. A good time was had by all.
24 Responses to “Return to Vientiane by ratchada”
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Translator
… and a fine pair of handlebars she has too…
View all comments by doctorbond
How about the hotels in Vientiane? Are they guest friendly?
View all comments by SukPsycho
Guest friendly…that can be tricky in Vientiane. Many are not, but there certainly are some that are…perhaps someone else can answer this, because I haven’t sought out a guest friendly hotel there for a while. On this visit–as I usually do–I stayed at Mali Namphu, a nice little Thai-run place north of the fountain, around $30 US a night, but definitely NOT guest friendly. Which isn’t a problem when you meet girls on motorcycles who take you home, heheh. There’s also a decent short-time place on the road to the airport, all the girls know it…even the “good” ones…
View all comments by ratchada
interesting read and yet depressing at the same time, she looks a bit depressing too. somehow the poverty feels kinda in your face in that pic. still she is now 1000 baht better off. so at least you have done your bit to improve things.
View all comments by bassyfarang
@bassyfarang: Depressing? Well yeah, I guess you might feel better if you’re taking a girl from an air-conditioned gogo bar in Bangkok with lots of neon, and she’s in a spiffy little outfit, even though she gets paid shit and gets docked for not getting fucked enough or begging for enough drinks within a given month, to the point where she’s bringing home only a couple thousand a month for gyrating next to a chrome pole most of the night…at which point she goes home to the shack of an apartment she shares with 3-4 other girls, most likely situated over a sewer somewhere way out a soi off of upper Sukhumvit. Nah, that wouldn’t be depressing at all. Get real, the woman owns her own HOUSE…*I* don’t own my own house, haha.
View all comments by ratchada
What about the Lao police catching you with a prostitute?
View all comments by Politicsx
@Politicsx: I’ve thought about that before…and while I could count on one hand the number of Lao girls I’ve gone with in Vientiane over the years, I have worried about it from time to time. Never heard of such a thing happening, but if they wanted to shake you down, it could be quite unpleasant.
My girl (described in this post) was mildly concerned about it at one point while taking me to her house, and briefly considered going to a nearby guesthouse instead…but she ended up shrugging it off in the end. In fact, while we were both standing outside her house, a marked cop car (many are unmarked in Laos) did go by, and clearly saw us, and I asked if we should be concerned; she said “no”.
View all comments by ratchada
I’ve looked at the picture a few times and just don’t see the poverty. Maybe I’ve been in Mexico to long but I see a house with window guards and neatly trimmed shrubbery. While I’m no bike lover it does appear to be a nice, clean late model ride.
View all comments by Gringo N Mex
Your points are good ones in that she has a much freer existence than a girl tied to a particular go go bar. But, better off than the go go girl or not, I look at this pic and I see poverty. The dirt road, the grimy house with rusty gates and bars. The cheap hair doo that needs re-dying. Coupled with the average per capita per head being so much lower in Laos that LOS, I find it depressing.
I don’t doubt that she is well off by local standards and your contribution in hiring her is a positive one. I have no moral objection to mongering and do so a lot myself. Just sometimes the economics are ugly. And this picture touched a nerve. Can’t quite put my finger on it. Great write up though, and enjoyable tale.
It seems, from what you say, more girls in Laos are taking to whoring. This will improve their economic position. I therefore will make a more concerted effort to seek out ladies in Laos to shag for cash. Just wanna do my civic duty and make the world a better place.
View all comments by bassyfarang
bassy, you are thinking too much, maybe she reminds you of an old flame? Did someone say they need a rack on their bike?
Don’t be deceived by the dirt path either..maybe it encompasses 3 acres of perfectly manicured beds and shrubbery, together with an olympic size swimming pool and a hot dog van. Possibly, tits the epitome of good laotian living.
View all comments by rope-a-dope
Ratchada: Nice story that matched my experiences in Vientiane last month, though sadly I was not whisked away by a hottie on a motorbike.
Suk Psycho: I stayed at the Riverside Hotel on Nokeo Koummane Road (Tel: 021 244 390), which was definitely guest-friendly. The freelancer I met at Bor Pen Yang told me that the Riverside Hotel was the only guest-friendly hotel in the city centre.
A farang told me that the Nita Guesthouse also allows female visitors.
More details on the Riverside Hotel here:
http://www.travelfish.org/accommodation_profile/laos/vientiane_and_surrounds/vientiane/vientiane/all/2935
View all comments by On Nutter
@rope-a-dope: haha, well, no swimming pool or manicured shrubs, it’s a modest little house. and yes, the dirt road is not far off a paved (if potholed) one, off the national route out of Vientiane running toward the Friendship Bridge (maybe about a third of the way to the bridge out of town). but as I implied, I’ve seen much worse digs in Bangkok during my [many] visits to lower Sukhumvit bar girl apartments (which, again, tend to be located way out the higher-numbered sois).
@On Nutter: there are definitely more guest-friendly hotels in the central area besides the Riverside, I have friends who regularly stay at them…the names escape me at the moment, however, and they don’t read the Big Mango blog AFAIK.
in general, Vientiane is much more a social (visiting my close Lao restaurant-owner friend there) and work destination than a P4P one, but as I said, I’m glad for the Lao economy that they seem to be adapting to the inevitable in their own laid-back, understated way.
View all comments by ratchada
Of course, since the Lao Government made it much easier for Lao nationals to obtain a passport and travel out of the country, about three years ago, more and more of the good looking young girls are heading to Thailand. I reckon you’ll find the best looking Lao girls in Bangkok!
View all comments by Upcountry Man
I am currently in vientiane. Last night i stopped by the Don Chan last night but it was pretty dead. they charge a 30,000 Kip entrance fee to get in.
After walking around the riverside i asked a trishaw driver where all the Lao peeps go for kicks. He ended up taking me to the Future Disco pub next to the novotel. When i arrived there weren’t many people inside. a few tables of girls and guys singing karaoke. i stayed patient and just hung around asking questions and flirting with the tiger beer girl for about an hour until things started picking up. the place filled up pretty fast and pretty soon they started playing the standard hip hop mix interspersed with some electronic music. the layout is just one big room so it’s easy to make eyes with girls that catch your fancy. i ended up going back to my hotel with one girl while her friends went to the Don Chan. at about 2am the girl got a call from her friend asking where she was. since my hotel is a stones though from the Don Chan she came over and joined us. since all the staff at the hotel where i was staying was either asleep or drunk they didn’t care.
View all comments by UnCochinoWetback
Don Chan doesn’t get pumping until about 1 am. They don’t always charge the cover…can’t figure out what the rules are with that. But you do get beer with the ticket they give you.
View all comments by ratchada
I take back what i said about the future pub place. I had a really really really bad ladyboy experience there last night. but the level 8 club under the novotel was nice. Mostly young lao peeps dancing and drinking to electronic music. groups of girls at tables trying to make eye contact with guys.
There is also another club sandwiched between them but didn’t go inside because that’s where the ladyboy gang was waiting to ambush me.
View all comments by UnCochinoWetback
I think it would be quite ‘on topic’ to elaborate on why the ladyboy gang was waiting to ambush you.
View all comments by pmmp
The Inter City on the river is guest friendly. Had a terrific room filled with antiques for $35USD. The whole hotel is like a museum with cool old Buddhas and antiques. Room rate includes a large, serious buffet breakfast with omlette station and good Lao coffee. I pulled a very pretty FL from Bor Pen Yang, just a couple of doors down. I paid @ $40 BWTH; she grinded me for more; if service had been better I would have tipped.
Cool place to drink a further walk up the river is Spirit House.
View all comments by soi4rulz
OMG – ha ha ha ha ha ha
I afraid to say, that the girl pictured in the above photo is in fact, actually a man.
I have lived in Vientiane for 5 years. She had the snip about 18 months ago, we still laugh when we see falang chatting her up. It happens all the time. She is well known among the young expats (as to be avoided) and the local gays.
View all comments by David of Vientiane
@David: very funny. trust me, that is no snipped man…technology hasn’t come quite that far yet. you’re either confusing her with someone or you’re just being a smart-ass…
View all comments by ratchada
While flirting with pixelization, I see no evidence of an Adam’s Apple. And would an 18 month-old tit job look that droopy already? Still, one must remain vigilant.
View all comments by soi4rulz
l think that guy is just a troll, you’ll notice that’s his only comment on the entire blog, haha. Believe, I, um, thoroughly examined every inch of her…there ain’t no Y chromosomes in that one!
View all comments by ratchada
Hey Hey,
I commend you rachada for filling us in on some good tips on mongering while visiting Vientiane. All you other guys getting hung up on a photo are missing the point: Go out and get one YOU like. There’s great opportunities in VT.
I’ve been to Bor Pen and Don Chan and have pulled at both spots. One recommendation I have is: If you go to Don Chan, try to pull them while they’re outside and before things get going. Pickings can get slim real fast.
View all comments by Alex