I placed this under Vientienne earlier but thought I'd paste some of this together to make it easier...
Vientienne is the largest city in Laos but seems more like a small colonial town when you arrive. There is a strong french influence in the architecture and local cuisine. The roads are dilapidated and the hotels are a little older but the place has a charm all it's own.

I would not recommend Vientienne solely as a mongering destination but you might want to take one of your Isaan honey's here to show her where her family probably came from. There are many nice Wats here and it is very cheap to stay here so it is worth it to come here at least once to see some of the Architecture and try some of the local cuisine (girls and food).

If you bring your girl here, you will get a lot of stares from the locals because they rarely see farang with Thai or Lao girls. The girls here are very conservative and will stare at you and shyfully look away with giggles. I went with Jaul of Happy a go go and we received a lot of stares because she looks like she is from Southern Laos. We also received a lot of snide comments from local men and they were angry to see a falang with such a beauty. Luckily, she speaks Lao..so she understood what they were saying and snapped back at them with remarks about how small they were..etc.
Just like in Thailand, prostitution is not technically legal but the police acknowledge the zones of tolerance...just like Tijuana. The difference in Laos is that it is a communist state that is extremely xenophobic and ethnocentric. As a result, you have to be much more discrete about meeting ladies and the places of ill repute change several times per year once crackdowns occur.

I will focus on Vientienne because it is the only place to find available Lao girls in Laos...that I know of. Some of the Lao women are stunningly beautiful and many of the girls we fawn over in Thailand come from Laotian roots.

HOW TO GET THERE: By Air: You can fly from Bangkok to Udon Thani and then take a bus or train to Nong Khai and cross the friendhsip bridge into Laos and get your visa on the spot. You can also fly directly into Vientienne from Bangkok on several airlines but the flight is usually around 6-7000 baht roundtrip ($140 each person).

By Train: I rode the overnight train from Bangkok to Nong Khai and it was a blast. Your train leaves at about 8 p.m. and arrives in Nong Khai about 7 a.m. The only way to go is by first class sleeper. It costs 1,071 baht per person and includes your own private room with beds and a sink. After the first hour of eating and setting yourself up, a guy comes around to make your bunkbeds. For those of you who like fucking but not sleeping with your girl, this comes in handy. The train is extremely smooth and it is very easy to sleep there. The food is shitty so I advise you to bring some beer and something to snack on before you start fuckin' and sleeping. After a couple hours of fucking, you can sleep easily and wake up in Nong Khai.

Once there, you can take a tuk tuk(no taxi's) to the Thai exit immigration checkpoint. From there, they will stamp your passport and you take a bus accross the friendship bridge into Laos. Once you get your visa, you take a taxi to Vientienne which is about 40 minutes away.

MONEY:Vientienne accepts baht, U.S. dollar and the local currency is Lao Kip. I would bring baht to pay for your hotel but use Lao kip for restaurants and other stuff. When I was there, it was at 10,000 kip for $1. Most of your kip come in denominations of 5,000 kip (50 cents)Very hard to spend more than $20 a day here and note that 500,000 kip will give you enough bills to stuff all of your pockets. Give some of your lower denomination bills to the local kids. The kids are polite and will thank you with a wai (unlike the savage kids in Cambodia) . Remember that no other country accepts kip, so exchange nay leftover money before you go or it will be a new souvenier. Money exchange places are all over the city and the rates are comparable to the banks.

RESTAURANTS:
VIP Restaurant..good number of restaurants are placed alongside the Mehkong River. Some are rustic and some are nice but they all have great views and cheap beer. This place is one of the nicer restaurants in Vientienne and has a variety of Lao and Thai dishes. Mostly locals here but the place is excellent.
Khoup Chai Deau Restaurant: This place is in Central Vientienne and is placed in a colonial house with an outside patio garden. The best is the Lao Barbeque/Suki. They place a charcoal pale at the center of your table and a metal plate goes on top with a trench around the outside of the metal plate. You are given meat, vegetables and egg to grill your meat and make a soup in the trench. Pitchers of Lao Beer are about 6,000 kip (60 cents) and a meal for two is about 24,000 kip ($2,50) The place is very nice and Beer Lao is one of the most exceptional beers in all of Asia. I rank it as high as Saporro, Singha and Kirin. A large bottle of beer can also be ordered for about 5,000 kip.

At night many freelancers come to the attached bar to look for potential punters. Looks strange to see a bunch of hot Lao girls sitting at a bar but they are there to meet falang.

HOTELS: Lani Gues House I-Normally I wouldn't consider staying at a guesthouse but this place was recommended to me by a Laotian friend of mine. The place is a colonial style hotel with antique furniture in the room. It has a mammoth garden and a private balcony with tables to overlook the garden and a large temple next door. It reminds me of some of the beautiful bed and breakfast places in Napa Valley, only it costs about $35. The place has a safety deposit box but no t.v. Very romantic and right in the middle of Central Vienienne.

NIGHTLIFE:
Anou Hotel:The Anou hotel has a lobby bar that has some hostesses around 9 pm. The girls will approach your table and ask if you can buy them a drink. The clubs are not that open about prostitution but you get the vibe from the girl. Jaul was sleeping while I was checking out the bars but I could not bring the girl I met back to my hotel...obviously. She knew of a hotel that I could use for $10 a night and I told her that she could stay there if she wanted...she liked the idea. She quoted me 1000 baht for short time and we were off. She had no clue how to give a hummer but sex was great...very tight panocha. She wanted to stay with me while I was in Vientienne and gave me her e-mail but I had other plans...
Chess Pub: Poked my head into this place and noticed a lot of beautiful girls here. Most of these girls are very low mileage as there are very, very few mongers that frequent these places. I ordered a beer and had about 8 girls sit at my table talking to me in a hodge podge of English, Thai and minimal Lao (I just started learning). I bought drinks for the girls as the drinks were cheap and left after an hour to go to other clubs. You could stay at this place and you'd be fine. There is another place called the Samlo Club that is supposed to be equally as good.
Lane Xiang Hotel Bar:Place is right next to the Mehkong river. The hotel is guest-friendly as well and their is a small club/bar with about 20 girls. All of them quoted about 1000 baht but there were no punters around so I took another girl to the attached hotel for $15 for the night.

If your keeping track, I am now on my second girl and have paid for a third hotel and have a girl I brought waiting for me at my hotel (she was a little mad when I returned at midnight but I told her that I met some Australians and they made me drink too much and I lost time....she believed me.) The session was great and the girl wanted to snuggle up and I took some time to try to speak some Lao with a naked Lao girl (more fun this way).

considering going to laos in january, hopefully it is still a good place to go. Any additional advice or commentary?

I believe I am Sancho has been there since I was there oh so long ago. Not a particularly good mongering destination and if you want tourism or culture, just bring a Lao bargirl(plenty of them) to Luang Prabang which is on my to do list.

I concur, not so good a mongering destination. I like it there and Laos hold a special place in my heart but if you mainly want to bang Lao ladies, find them in Thailand.

yes, the scene is not out in the open, mostly discreetly in the lobbies of certain hotels. other underground venues as well.