he didn't have it printed out from how I understand his comments so I say it's more likely that it hasn't been used yet.
But it was only valid until 13th June or something so in his case it wouldn't really help him anyway, he should get back to immigration at the airport to have it corrected there.
I have a house pretty close to the friendship bridge Nong khai - Vientiane so sometimes I arrive on a touristvisa and then just border jump 2 times in a row after my visa runs out (only eligible to do it twice in a calendar year though)
If you want you can first stay 30 days, get a visa extension at immigration for another 30 and after that leave the country and come back with your visa printed out and stay another 60 and extend that for 30 days at immigration.
I've been visiting both on multiple occasions, I lived on Koh Phangan before and now outside Udon Thani so before it was better for me to go to Malaysia.
Vientiane is faster and kinda more easy for the Visa but the city is IMO boring and very dirty and just quite terrible in general, sure the night market could be worth a visit but nothing special about it.
Penang is much cleaner with friendlier people, better food and more enjoyable things to do, just stroll around, maybe visiting the Penang Hill viewpoint, Snake Temple or Penang National park.