Laos to Thailand border crossing

This has got to be one of the easiest ways to cross two countries. We started in Laos and made our way to Thailand via the Mekong. We were told that going the opposite way, Thailand to Laos, is much busier. During our two day travel, the boats coming from Thailand were very full so we're glad that we went the way we did.

We started in Luang Prabang. There are two options to get to Huay Xia, the town at the border of Laos and Thailand:

- Slowboat
To take the slowboat, it will take 2 days. Your first trip is to Pak Beng and then onwards to Huay Xia. There are travel agencies that will sell slow boat tickets, however, they will charge a commission and it is much cheaper to buy when you get to the port. As you are going against the strong current of the Mekong, each journey does take 8 - 10 hours. It is a comfortably ride, though, with some beautiful scenery. The newer boats they use now have car seats added in, rather than just wooden benches. There are four seats around a table. First in, first served.

- Luang Prabang to Pak Beng: 110,000 KIP (14USD / 16NZD)
- Pak Beng to Huay Xia: 110,000 KIP


- Fastboat
There is an option to take the fastboat from Luang Prabang straight to Huay Xia. This will take roughly 7 to 8 hours. The prices here are slightly more expensive. Will this will save you a day, please note that the speedboats are not as comfortable as the slowboat. There is no roof, which means you will be sitting in the sun for those hours. As the boat cuts through the water there is a lot of spray so you will want to waterproof your bags if you are worried about them getting wet. Also, in the dry season the water levels of the river are much lower so you will have to trust your driver to navigate very safely and quickly through all the rocky parts as they speed through. From what I saw, only the driver has a helmet and there were no life jackets.

- Luang Prabang to Huay Xia: 320,000 KIP (40USD / 47NZD)
- Luang Prabang to Pak Beng: 190,000 KIP (24USD / 28NZD)

You will need to stay one night at each stop as you get in around 5pm - 6pm. You can just walk around and find the best guesthouse for you. No need to prebook. You can also request to see the room first before paying. A couple of great guesthouse recommendations are Mansavanh Guesthouse in Pak Beng and Sabaydee Guesthouse in Huay Xia.


Originally, you would take a ferry across to the Thailand border. However, in December 2013 they opened a new Friendship Bridge between Laos and Thailand. This is Friendship Bridge 4. As of January 2014, the ferry option was no longer available to foreigners and you know cross the border via this bridge.

Here are the simple steps:
1) Take a tuk tuk in Huay Xia to the Laos immigration. Generally this should cost around 15, 000 - 25, 000 KIP pp in a shared tuk tuk.
2) Go through immigration and get stamped out of Laos.
3) On the other side, there is a shuttle bus waiting to take people across to the Thailand immigration. There will be a guy selling tickets, which will cost 25 baht or 7,000 KIP.
4) On the Thailand side, on arrival you will get given your arrival form to fill in. Go through immigration. There was no customs so you just go on through.
5) There are tuk tuks waiting to take people into Chiang Khong, the closest town to the border. This costed us 50,000 baht per person for a 10 - 15 minute ride. They asked us where we were going and we said to the bus station for Chiang Rai, which is where they dropped us off.

Easy as pie! A lot more simple than I expected. Also, as the bridge is new, the immigration areas of both countries are very clean and easy to navigate.

For those carrying on, there are regular buses both to Chiang Mai (3 to 4 hours away) and to Chiang Rai (about 2 to 3 hours away). A bus to Chiang Rai costs only 65 baht and takes you to the Chiang Rai terminal.

I hope this helps any one planning on making the same journey. If you have the time, I would definitely recommend traveling to Thailand from Laos (or vice versa) as this was a lot less hectic than flying. I have a couple of photos to put up, but when I have better internet service I'll put them up then.

Happy travels!

All the slow boats 

Wild elephants on the Mekong

The fast boat

Crossing the Cambodian/Vietnamese border

OVERLAND VS FLYING

*Crossing the border by bus

My journey went from Phnom Penh, Cambodia to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam. There are about five or so buses that depart a day between these two cities and to make the most of our time in Phnom Penh we decided to take the 2pm bus. The cost of this bus was only USD$11.

This ride was supposedly only 6 hours however from our experience we knew that we should give or take one or two hours, just in case. As part of the bus company we rode with the price of the ticket also included a shuttle van pick up from our hostel (88 Backpackers) to take us to the bus station. On board we were also given each a free bottle of water. This is  a good little drive through the countryside and it was interesting to see the varying styles of housing built, which were between brick two-story complexes to just raised bamboo huts. You also experience being on a five minute ferry ride crossing a river before having a short stop at a roadside restaurant before the border.

Before this stop the driver will explain in both English and Vietnamese the procedures. You are also expected to hand over your passport to the driver’s assistant at this point as well. The bus will stop at the Cambodian side where you then exit the bus as the driver’s assistant calls out your name. You receive your passport, stand in line at a booth where an immigration officer will then stamp in your exit date and you make your way onto the bus again. Again you hand over your passport to the driver’s assistant and it’s about a 5 to 10 minute ride to the Vietnamese border. In-between these two borders the area is lined with casino after casino and locals employed as promoters handing out discount cards to those trying to cross the boundary.
The process is the same again. You wait for your name to be called out to receive your passport. This time you must take your entire luggage with you before you head into the customs building. No matter how much the driver explains what the procedure is at the border it did not prepare us for what to expect here. The best I could describe it was more so of an organised chaos, using the word organised very loosely. There were no lines as such, a lot of people cramped in the building and a lot of waiting around. It is up to the driver to get your passports to a custom official to get all the documents needed before being able to go through security and over to the other side. It also didn’t help that there seemed to be only two custom officials working for the amount of people that were trying to enter the country. There were two lines or booths, one for Vietnamese passport holders and one for foreigners although I don’t think those rules were being followed. I never timed it exactly but I’m pretty sure we waited about an hour or so before my bus’ passports were done. It also seemed like if the driver had slipped over some extra money then our passports would have been pushed closer to the front of the queue, but either way we got through in the end. It was definitely an experience.

Once you received your passport and your bags went through security you boarded the bus once more and it was roughly another hour to two ride to the drop off point in Ho Chi Minh.  With the bus ride and the waiting time at the border I’d say the overall time took about eight hours.

*Crossing the border by plane

If you are limited on time this may be the fastest and hassle-free option. However, having a quick look at flight tickets today from Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh you are looking at paying approximately USD$145 for a flight opposed to only USD$11 for a bus. Although, the journey does only take 45 minutes so this is definitely the more time-efficient way of travel. Also, you would expect the normal procedures at immigration like any other airport rather than just a waiting game/who is down to give a little bribe!