A few months in Laos

You can only get a single entry tourist visa good for 30 days. This can be renewed in country at the Immigration office in Vientiane 5 days before the visa expires. You can only renew the visa twice before you have to leave the country and re enter.  If you overstay there is a daily fine for each day over the 30 days. Visas take up a whole page in your passport too.

You need to book a guesthouse in Vientiane for a few days or more so that you can get a feel for the place. A Google search will give you plenty to choose from. There are shops where expats do their shopping and these places have all sorts of advertisements from cars for sale to share accommodation etc.

I suggest you get a Lao phrase book and try to learn a few simple phrases. The Lao people will appreciate this.

As far as subject matter for painting perhaps you should consider going north to Luang Prabang, the old capital city which has many old heritage listed buildings. Plenty of subject matter in and around the countryside there. Also not too hard to get a cheap room in a guesthouse there either.

Thank you for these use full  informations. Do you know if there is an office in Luang Prabang as well to renew the visa or is this only possible in Vientiane? I wish also to make a trip to Vietnam to see the Žbaie d'HalongŽ (Sorry, don t know the name in english) . Do you know if the visa can be bought at the border? Thanks again.

There is no office in Luang Prabang  to renew visas.
You mean Halong Bay in Vietnam.
I suggest you get a visa for Vietnam whilst you are in Vientiane from their embassy here. That should ensure minimum hold ups at the border crossing. Visas can be had at border crossings but they are time consuming to get and the officials tend to slow the process down unless you offer them 'tea money' 

Go online to check out the visas as I am sure there is an online service for this. Check on the forum Vietnam site for better info regarding the visas.

Hello Caroline - best you do some research as well - sorry Stumpy but there is an immigration office in Luang Prabang (I used it in 2011 and went there way back in 1998 - same address) - they charge the same as Vientiane (same day service) but I am not sure about the number of days you can extend. Hotels will do it for you but some charge 10 times the price and take longer.

Some borders have visa on arrival - eg the Friendship Bridge between Thailand and Vientiane (15 ks away) and some do not (between Cambodia and Laos)   so you need to know which do and dont - if someone tells you - check on a gov web site before you arrive - i saw an Aus couple refused entry into Vietnam at a mountain border crossing because their 'e visa ' ( a paper print out like a letter) was so creased that the writing was illegible on the crease and the print out was very poor quality - they were sent back to Vientiane.

Finally, you do need to know some things - eg visas as above but most other things you can discover when you arrive - ATMs are good in Vientiane - Pakse, Luang Prabang and I think other large towns .... 

bon chance

Hi all,

After reading through the posts I can't help to jump in due to some inaccurate info here.
Sorry peterjohn but the visa on arrival at Lao/Cambodia border has been available for years.

Sorry Stumpy, the last sentence of this "I suggest you get a visa for Vietnam whilst you are in Vientiane from their embassy here. That should ensure minimum hold ups at the border crossing." implies that Vietnam visa on arrival is available at border crossing which is not true.
Vietnam visa on arrival is only available for air travel. There is no visa on arrival for land/sea travel, so you certainly can't get Vietnam visa on arrival at border crossing.

Not sure if posting URL is allowed so...I won't post it here, but if you want to check the info, do a search for "Vietnam visa on arrival at border" and spot "5 common mistakes when apply for a visa to Vietnam on arrival" or go to "myvietnamvisa dot com". And it is also mentioned on laos-guide-999 dot com under laos-vietnam bus page. Do a google search for "bus for laos-vietnam" and you will get it (the third item from bottom at the google search result page).

D999

I did not imply that visas were available at border crossings at all, that is how you interpreted it. By getting a visa at Embassy this then means minimum hold ups at border crossings as you have the correct paperwork.

The onus is still on the traveler to make him/herself aware of these things before heading off.

Hello,
Thanks to all of you for these informations and corrections. I hope to find my way through the paperwork. It is not my cup of tea. I do not know how long I will stay in Vientiane but probably not very long since I am more interesting in the country than the big city. If anyone can recommend me a place in Vientiane with kind people to help me get on my way, that would be great.
Thanks again