Vientiane is a great city to visit, and full of mongering opportunities. There are piles of nice hotels to stay in for under $20 US (never pay asking price).
Many of the bigger hotels have that odd form of entertainment geared towards the Chinese and Thai businessmen, where smartly dressed girls take turns singing songs and line dancing. This is going on at Lane Xang Hotel, and Anou Hotel, and I'm sure several others. I don't like this scene very much, as it's not terribly farang friendly, and it's too dark to really get a good look at the girls. But there are a lot to choose from, and sometimes just hanging around outside the club is good enough to meet a nice girl to take home.
There is a healthy freelancer scene at some of the Western expat-tourist oriented bars, but of course there is no guarantee you'll hook up. The Lao ladies frequenting these establishments are often knockouts.
I met up with a tuk-tuk driver who speaks decent English, and owns a van. He took me from the bar I was flailing about in, over to Hotel Anou. It's a good idea to go to Anou around closing time (11:00-11:30), as the girls are coming out and you can get a good look at them...afterwards they hang around in the lobby to see if there are any takers.
Then he took me to Future Music, around the corner from Novotel Hotel. This was a Lao disco that doubles as a brothel. There appeared to be short time rooms in back. Just because a girl is here with a guy doesnt mean she's unavailable. The girl I liked was there with a Lao guy, and my tuk tuk friend organized a short time for me for 1200 baht. She was a poor performer, and wanted to leave right away, so I only gave her 1000 baht, and she seemed to accept this as fair.
At Future there were probably upwards of 30 girls to choose from, some work at other hooker bars in other parts of town and come here at the end of the night. There was another 'nightclub' further down this same road, but I didn't catch the name.
There are also beer bars along the Mekong, north-west of the center of town, with very friendly and varyingly attractive girls trolling for passersby. They generally go for 1300 baht I understand, but one who liked me said she would go for 500 baht. The bar fine was 200 baht. Still, I passed, but may go back later.
Some of these girls speak a little English, most speak none. Speaking Thai, or some French, is more useful than speaking English.
The Chess Cafe appears to still be in business, and I will try to go there one of these nights.

Zup...

Any idea what LT goes for?

Thanks for the report!