Talat Sao Morning Market — Attraction in Vientiane Capital

a bit misleading as it is not really a morning market except for the produce which i believe is so because of the heat and sun can damage it. it is basically an indoor market that stays open all day and mostly opens about 8ish, though you can find some open earlier slowly opening. it is more of a bazaar than a market, as it is a sort of chaotic array of indoor stores in a maze. there are some outdoor stands the extend around the perimeter and up to the Khua Din market by the bus station a block away. if you are looking for unique items, you may find some here, but this is mainly a local Lao market so you may not get very good deal and the clothing will be mostly contemporary Laotian style. if you go here, i would recommend you go after it to the Khua Din market that is a block away and starts at the bus station, so it caters as well to travelers, for a complete shopping experience, between the two markets, you should be able to find what you are looking for. my review reflects going to both markets as in a sense, they are so close, the mall and the bus station, you could consider them both part of the...

Nice that its indoors! There are 2 clean elevators to make getting around easier. We parked on the roof and paid 5K or 10K kip (cant recall). Took elevator down to 3rd floor to eat. The dining hall had decent air conditioning so it was a nice change from the hot street food with hovering flies. One odd thing about eating here is that you need to change your kips to coupons. Vendors can only accept coupons for some reason. If you have left over coupons, you can change them back to kips. I wandered and decided what I wanted to eat. Added up my bill then only converted exactly what i needed. Regarding shopping for goods, there are numerous places to buy clothing, handbags, jewelry, moneygram services. Beware, there are lots of counterfeit goods here. Buy at your own risk and remember: ya get what you pay for! My wife did buy traditional lao silk dresses for both her and our daughter. She got a small discount on her purchase which is common here. One of the shops I stopped at started high pressure tactics as I decided I was not going to buy the items I looked at (these things may get u in trouble...

Disappointingly expensive and not worth the bother. I was so excited to go to this place as it came highly recommended. There are an assortment of gorgeous stalls etc offering amazing products. However I went there with the express purpose of picking up a few light dresses (kinda forgot to pack clothes haha!). I'm not a haggling kind of girl (I know, I know it makes life easier, but what can I say?), so having to constantly negotiate is not only exhausting but but ruins a good shopping trip. Every stall for the simple day dresses I found asked exorbitant prices (a few as high as $32 usd) a dress! I don't pay that for a dress in NYC (I'm a budget and sales shopper), I'm definitely not paying that here. The layout is rather chaotic and vendors were either much too eager to sell or not interested in making a sale 🤣. Maybe another trip is in order, perhaps with my haggling hat on. Needless to say I am very disappointed in this place. Even the mall itself was pricey. Definitely had a better shopping...