I hope you enjoyed your trip, and nice to see you back on the forum after all these years. Maybe you should have planned to stay for a few days longer to celebrate the Lao New Year.

I don't usually go out in the sun, probably 10 minutes a day at best.

We call the Lao New Year "songkhan" in Laos. They celebrate the same way in Thailand so it's good that you had the opportunity to take part in it.

The "poo sao's" are in every corner of Laos. Why didn't you find one during your trip?

Last time I was there was in 2007.  I plan on going every year now. Relocating for work has prevented me from going every year in the past. Even though they pave the roads constantly and I see road construction everywhere I go which causes traffic, the roads just end up being destroyed after a few months cause of poor quality and cheaping out on materials and costs. The construction companies probably want to stay in business so they make roads that only last a few months so they can continue getting money to redo the roads and pretend to make new ones. I don't really know why they spend time planning and "engineering" the roads when in the end, the guy that comes and dumps the gravel and paves the road does whatever he thinks. The roads are not flat so even if it's paved, you have to go slow to watch out for all the bumps and dips and eventually pot holes. They keep saying the vietnamese keep steeling the metal sewer lids that are in the middle of the road. They sell them to metal shops for a quick buck. People put sticks and things in the sewer hole afterwards to warn drivers that it's missing. If your car ends up in that hole, good luck to you.
All of the downtown areas in Vientiane are paved, just like my last visit, but when you start going away from downtown, the roads get worse. Half the time you ar driving on dirt roads. When it rains, I see people falling off their motorcycles and mud is just everywhere. The funny thing is, when it's not raining, these people pour water on the dirt roads to prevent dust but along comes mr. speedy on his motorcycle and wipe out. The reason they don't pour water on the roads at night is so that the drunk drivers don't slip and crash. Oh no, we don't want that to happen. So the roads are still bad, what else is new, just go buy a Vigo.
The poo sao's are everywhere all right, just not the type that I'm looking for. I've heard the stories, they treat you so well while you're their but once you go back to your home country, they will play with other guys and request that you send money back every month to support their habits. That's just normal there though, out of sight, out of mind. Sure there may be some good girls, I've never met them before though.

steal sewer lids? hmmm never thought of that idea before lolz in america theres millions of them.

Speaking of corruption,it's not just the construction company,all companies and government and not just Laos...but that is the reality weather we like it or not there is nothing we can do about it. 
Admin Saovaluck wrote on 16^th Apr, 2012 at 2:49pm:

In any system, look for 'loopholes' !

Anyone want some True Coffee? Well I had to go and visit the infamous Joma Bakery cause I keep hearing everyone talk about it. To people in Laos, I guess it's wow but to me, it's just another cafe and over priced for being in Vientiane. I paid about 20,000 kips for an ice cappucino and 18,000 kips for a chocolate croissante in the picture. Not very expensive for me in terms of american dollars ~ $4.69 so I ended up buying a second cup of ice cappucino since all you get is mostly ice and not much to drink, I noticed that a lot wherever I went. I guess it's catered to the foreigners that stop there on their travels, didn't see any locals there at all.