John Bingham wrote: ↑Tue May 10, 2022 12:59 pm

CSS wrote: ↑Tue May 10, 2022 12:53 pm

Alex wrote: ↑Tue May 10, 2022 11:17 am

CSS wrote: ↑Tue May 10, 2022 2:19 am Luang Prabang is quite nice and it has quite a lot of nature and quiet atmosphere. It is also convenient for visa runs, as far as I can tell.

Assuming that you mean a visa run from China, using a Chinese high-speed train, yes.

Perhaps mentioning laos for visa runs in a way that one would presume related to Cambodia is confusing, I'd known people who live in north vietnam and north thailand to use laos for visa runs because access to myanmar and China is more difficult.

The point is that Luang Prabang is far from the border.

phuketrichard wrote: ↑Tue May 10, 2022 1:07 pm

CSS wrote: ↑Tue May 10, 2022 12:53 pm

Alex wrote: ↑Tue May 10, 2022 11:17 am

CSS wrote: ↑Tue May 10, 2022 2:19 am Luang Prabang is quite nice and it has quite a lot of nature and quiet atmosphere. It is also convenient for visa runs, as far as I can tell.

Assuming that you mean a visa run from China, using a Chinese high-speed train, yes.

Perhaps mentioning laos for visa runs in a way that one would presume related to Cambodia is confusing, I'd known people who live in north vietnam and north thailand to use laos for visa runs because access to myanmar and China is more difficult.

as John said, LP is nearly 5-6 hours by bus from the Thai/laos border, Where as Vientiane is a 10 minute tuk tuk ride .
and PRE covid,
Burma was a great place to do turn around ( 1 hour or less) visa runs if ur in the south, middle or north of Thailand

Importers have been hit by a drop in the kip currency since September, combined with low foreign exchange reserves and the soaring price of oil, driven by the war in Ukraine.

Dara Khiosompon, the manager of Settah Travel, told AFP on Tuesday that the company was struggling to fill up its tour buses.

Laos needs 120 million litres of fuel a month but importers are only able to source 20 million litres, the paper reported.

...the country is trying to source cheap fuel from Russia, according to local media.

..................................................................................................................................

Government officials are also urging residents to carpool and use public transport, while British ambassador John Pearson tweeted it was "a good time to have an electric car".

Australian National University associate professor Keith Barney said the Laos economy has been under growing pressure for some time.

"It's not out of the blue ... All the red signals were flashing," he told AFP.

The inflation rate reached 9.9 per cent in April, up from 2 per cent in January 2021, according to the statistics bureau.

Laos is up to its eyeballs in Chinese loans for mega infrastructure projects including hydro-electricity dams and its first railway link that opened last year.

Debt has climbed to a dizzying US$13.3 billion - almost three quarters of gross domestic product.

In August 2020, global credit agency Moody's downgraded the nation's credit rating to junk status, soon followed by Fitch, making it harder for the government to secure loans.

Vang Vieng has faced criticism for raising prices as individual tourists and group tours, many from neighboring Thailand, flock to the town. The boom in tourism has provided much-needed income for the economy, but has also become an opportunity for price gouging among unscrupulous tourism businesses.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Vendors have been accused of taking advantage of the fluctuating exchange rate between the Lao kip and the Thai baht, overcharging unwitting visitors.

Local residents have taken to social media to raise the issue, with some saying that room rates in the town have tripled, while the cost of food and drink in some eateries increasing by 400 percent.