A "secret" Lao law says that foreigners cannot have sexual relations with Lao women other than their spouses. The penalty, if caught, is US$500 for first time, though as the text of the law is not available, may be much more (the US embassy says $5000); the foreigner may be jailed or deported and the Lao woman may find herself in jail - and that is really the last place anyone would want to be here. If you take a girl to your room and she robs you this law makes it almost impossible to obtain assistance from the police. Bar tenders are happy to provide stories of angry tourists confronting girls in the same bars they picked them up the night before! Anyway, many hotels do not allow foreigners to take girls to their rooms, as it is officially prohibited. Those that do allow it must have some financial arrangement with the local police - this is Laos where the only thing more powerful than the Law is money.