Off to Vientiane for 4 nights as of tomorrow, never been before and have no idea what ratio of THB:USD:KIP I should be carrying and if I should buy it here in Thailand or wait until in Vientiane.

The embarrassing part of this first time trip to Laos is that I have lived in Chiang Mai for quite a few years now and have only made brief visits into Burma/Myanmar and Malaysia with the other bordering countries still to be seen ! Anyway, point being that my base/starting currency is Thai Baht.

Thanks in advance,

JxP

Baht is pretty popular in all the bordering countries, but I made a point to use US dollars. A wad of One dollar notes which equates to around 10 000 kip each, was readily accepted everywhere, and made it easy to instantly value each service or item.

So my vote is take a couple of hundred $US in small notes, and have some baht up your sleeve.

If ya getting a VISA, they only accept baht.. Other than that, any thing more than $1 should be kept as USD notes & small change as kip

I was amused and then annoyed. I changed 1,000 THB on a street corner, then to find the rate in the Bank was about 25% better

So the "official" is far better than the "Unofficial" There is a bank opposite the big Market.

Dunno about that Khutan, the money changers always gave me bank rate. There were a few in the Talart Sao and one down on Setthathirath Road that always gave a fair exchange.

When I was living there the most popular topic of conversation amongst expats was where to get the best rate.

IME, Guest houses etc., give a better rate for $ than THB. Exchanges easy to find down by the river, central As mentioned above, kip (geep [ph]) are 10k to the buck, so you can be a millionaire for a C note!

Baht is pretty popular in all the bordering countries, but I made a point to use US dollars. A wad of One dollar notes which equates to around 10 000 kip each, was readily accepted everywhere, and made it easy to instantly value each service or item.

So my vote is take a couple of hundred $US in small notes, and have some baht up your sleeve.

Sounds like a good plan - thanks, I will go with your vote and see how I get on.

JxP

If ya getting a VISA, they only accept baht.. Other than that, any thing more than $1 should be kept as USD notes & small change as kip

Good point, thanks for the reminder - I will make sure that I have baht for the embassy.

JxP

Thanks very much for all the advice.

I'm going to take a couple of hundred US with me along with a few thousand baht and will then also experiment on how far my northern Thai will get me local currency discounts!

Wish me luck! - and thanks again.

JxP

im in the Vibhavardi Rangsit area of Bangkok ( nearest BTS- Mo chit). Ive just got back from a Visa run to Laos with a pocket full of Laos Kip. Im finding it hard to find a bank in Bangkok that will change my kip to Baht. Does anyone know where i can do this??

im in the Vibhavardi Rangsit area of Bangkok ( nearest BTS- Mo chit). Ive just got back from a Visa run to Laos with a pocket full of Laos Kip. Im finding it hard to find a bank in Bangkok that will change my kip to Baht. Does anyone know where i can do this??

im in the Vibhavardi Rangsit area of Bangkok ( nearest BTS- Mo chit). Ive just got back from a Visa run to Laos with a pocket full of Laos Kip. Im finding it hard to find a bank in Bangkok that will change my kip to Baht. Does anyone know where i can do this??

You're stuck with the kip. It's virtually useless outside Laos and I've never found anyone to change it. Even airport currency exchanges won't do it.