Coming back from Laos, one of the most annoying thing I found is their money.

The smallest bill was 500 KIP. My favorite money in Laos was 500 and 1000 Kip. The rest of money was like RMB with the local dead leader on all the money 2000 Kip and up. 2000 kip is 1.5 RMB. Mostly, they do not use the 500 KIP and start prices per one thousand. A can of soda in 6,000 Kip. A room is 100,000 kip a night. Everything was something thousand. If nothing else it made the money seem more expensive. Dinner, 128,000 kip. Drop the zeros.

Same when I was there in 2004. Thousand this and thousand that.

Why doesn't Laos just drop the thousands and just have 1000 Kip be 1 New Kip. Just drop the zeroes. The money is somewhat stable and it will never increase in value. Just drop the thousands.

I tried to tell them "Ok 52, right." them "Yes, 52 thousand."

I am and will e-mail the Laotian embassy to drop the stupid zeros. The 1 kip is not coming back. Devaluate and move forward. Like Chinese money, the Kip has increased in price against the dollar the last eight years.