Getting ahold of the local currency was a bit of a challenge unfortunately. Normally, I go to an ATM as soon as cross the border withdraw local currency, but in Laos, ATMs are only in the bigger cities. The guard at the border offered to change money for us, but at an unfair exchange rate. I had gotten change in Kip, the Laotian currency, when I paid for the Laos visa in dollars and that change ended up being just enough to pay for the ferry, but then I had none to pay for the bus to Udomxai. We found a Western Union, but found that they wouldn't change Vietnamese Dong and our U.S. bills were "too old". Finally, we found a bank that would exchange Dong, but my Swiss friend had to fill out more paperwork than when buying a house to change his weathered U.S. dollars. In Udomxai, we found an ATM that didn't work and then one that told us we had a balance of zero before spitting out our money. Since then I have talked to a guy who was in the process of making an eight hour round trip bus ride to get to a town with an ATM.