Mukdahan To Suvannakhet Via The Bridge

[ttl]

Be spending some time with our families in Isaan, during July/August..

Family want to take us across to Laos, but unsure about proceedures to include Kiwi Falang.

Is it best to hire a Van of use own vehicle.? What is my cost and proceedure to follow.

Seem to be some grim stories about Immigration at Mukdahan.

Thanks ttl Vince

[SantiSuk]

Be spending some time with our families in Isaan, during July/August..

Family want to take us across to Laos, but unsure about proceedures to include Kiwi Falang.

Is it best to hire a Van of use own vehicle.? What is my cost and proceedure to follow.

Seem to be some grim stories about Immigration at Mukdahan.

Thanks ttl Vince

It would be nice to take your own vehicle into Laos but unless the family has experience of doing it then you will need to do a fair bit of research or hope that someone gives you a detailed answer. You need various bits of paper and I seem to recall reading it could cost $100 - $200 for temporary import. If it's only a few days and you are not planning any mega-long trips in Laos then just hire a songthaew (pick-up truck with bench seats in the back - don't know how familiar you are) on the Laos side of the border or in your first Laos town - Thakhaek, Savannakhet or Pakse. Negotiate the rate (don't accept the first deal until you have tried another - in my experience most Thais are not good negotiators with your money btw!) and it should be no more than $30-$40 a day and maybe much cheaper. If your Thai family is Isaan speaking they will have no difficulty communicating in Laos (though they will laugh uncontrollably about it from time to time) The only downside to songthaew is they are not comfy for long journeys and you will get rather warm and dusty. A hired car and driver in Laos (hired cars alone are not easy to come by) might be as much as $100+ a day so a van might be quite expensive. I seem to recall thinking that a lot of tourist things that locals do not buy are Western prices in Laos - but perhaps I was a poor negotiator the one time I had to get back speedily to the border from See Pan Don).

Have not crossed the Friendship Bridge at Mukdahan but have been across at Nakhon Phanom-ThaKaek (foot passenger and vehicle ferry) and Chong Mek (land crossing with songthaews or taxis to Pakse) with absolutely no problems at all several times in the last 2 years and was surprised at your hearsay report. You just need your passport and (last time I looked about US$40 visa fee for 1st world country guests) take a couple of spare photos (Laos immigration did not demand photo of me to my relief as I had forgotten to bring spares, but always safer to have spare photos). Thais just need their ID cards but will need to have photos taken, which is usually possible at the borders but if you are a control freak get them organised before.

Laos is a great place to visit. Much less comfy than travel in Thailand but it makes a change to go back to your backpacker days if you are an old git like me. Your Isaan family will be intrigued to go if they have not been before but may not enjoy it as much as you will (based on the experience of taking two different Thai girls and one Thai family in my time). They think backward = dirty and bad.

Oh and one other hugely important thing. It's so easy to pop across from this part of Thailand that it's easy to forget that you are leaving Thailand. Your visa may expire if it's not multiple entry and you may only be given another 15 days in Thailand on re-entry. It very much depends on what Thai visa (or are you on visa exempt status) you have. I do not have the knowledge to advise with confidence, but if you were planning on staying more than 15 days on return and this posting rings alarm bells, then open a new posting in the Visa section of Thai visa.com using a title like 'Visiting Laos; want to return to Thailand > 15 days; help needed. Ubon Joe will almost sure to pick up on it and is authoritative. Your posting should describe the Thai visa status you will have and rough travel dates.

Edited June 27, 2009 by SantiSuk

[TBWG]

Be spending some time with our families in Isaan, during July/August..

Family want to take us across to Laos, but unsure about proceedures to include Kiwi Falang.

Is it best to hire a Van of use own vehicle.? What is my cost and proceedure to follow.

Seem to be some grim stories about Immigration at Mukdahan.

Thanks ttl Vince

Hi

Have never been across the bridge into Laos from Mukdahan but have a couple of times from Nong Khai.

First of all you can only take your own vehicle across the border not possible to take a hire car. I am not sure but this may also apply to cars on hire purchase. You will also need a car passport which allows you to temporarily export the vehicle. In the case of Nong Khai this is available from the local vehicle tax office for a few hundred baht. ( Beware these offices are not open at weekends & you will also need the Tabien Ban Rot ie log book)

I have never had to pay any money to import/export my vehicle, but you will have to arrange insurance as soon as you enter Laos, my experience is that the insurance office is immediately after the immigration area. For me it cost about 300 baht for 5 days.

Yes It can be a bit daunting the first time you do it but really not to much of a problem.

So procedure

Get your own passport stamped at Thai immig get car passport stamped at Thai immig.

Get car passport stamped again at customs & excise to temp export car.

Laos

Get you visa and stamp to enter Laos , get car passport stamped at immig to enter.

Get car passport stamped by Laos customs to temp import car.

Get insurance.

So quite time consuming!!

Good Luck

TBWG

edit PS need a passport photo for your visa applic.

Edited June 27, 2009 by TBWG

[toptuan]

Another hint:

Coming back to Thailand, don't pay the 50-100 baht Lao immigration will try to charge you for simply stamping your visa with an exit stamp. It's just the corrupt officials' way of making money off unsuspecting tourists. Since a government worker's wages is normally under 200 baht a day, you can imagine the sweet little windfall they make in a day's time.

There is NO OFFICIAL fee for being stamped out of Laos!

After they stamp your passport, and demand ___ Baht, just grab your passport back, and say "No have. No pay," and walk/drive through. They can't do anything about it because they know it's under-the-table money. Worked for me.

Don't encourage corruption.

[ubonjoe]

Be spending some time with our families in Isaan, during July/August..

Family want to take us across to Laos, but unsure about proceedures to include Kiwi Falang.

Is it best to hire a Van of use own vehicle.? What is my cost and proceedure to follow.

Seem to be some grim stories about Immigration at Mukdahan.

Thanks ttl Vince

Taking your own vehicle into Laos is a lot of paperwork. Also you need it's book and etc. to do it.

You can park at the bridge and take the bus into Savannakhet. You can buy the ticket on the left side just before immigration. You can also get the bus in Mukdahan and park at the bus station. Once you get into Savannakhet you can get buses and tuktuk's to whereever you want to go from there at the bus station when you arrive.

You will get a visa on arrival on the Lao side of the bridge. You will need a photo, fill out the application and pay 1500 baht. The Thai's going with you will get a 30 day entry for free if they have a passport. Otherwise they will need to get a border pass which can be gotten on the left just before you go through the gate at the bridge.

What is your visa status?: If you are don't have a visa you will only get 15 days when you come back from Laos.

No problem with immigration at the bridge just at the office in town.

[BloodyBan]

Be spending some time with our families in Isaan, during July/August..

Family want to take us across to Laos, but unsure about proceedures to include Kiwi Falang.

Is it best to hire a Van of use own vehicle.? What is my cost and proceedure to follow.

Seem to be some grim stories about Immigration at Mukdahan.

Thanks ttl Vince

Tour operators are located on the left-hand side of the bridge(Thai side,besides the in-door car park entrance)they will arrange a one-day tour,mini-van,tour guide/driver for between 1000-1500b.They are the same people that provide border passes for Thai nationals,they also arrange 2-3 day tours of Vietnam.

[kalasin]

Tried it with my swedish friend and our Isaan family.

As mentioned above, you drive to the bridge and just before hitting the bridge and border, there is a little shop on the left side, that will arrange everything for you.

Price for farlang: 1.500 bath. (sure) Gives 30 days visa.

Price for thai: aprox. 200 baht

Rent of car and driver: approx. 1.500 baht

Be aware that the border will close already at 4.30 pm!

On return you will get 15 days visa to Thailand, so be sure that is enough!

All-in-all I will say, that for us it was a totally waste of time and money. The tour include a wat and even a wat more, some clothing company and the casino.

Everything deadly boring.

One good point though: After the visit Isaan really do look like one million $.

Next time our trip will stop at the Mukdahan side.

[SantiSuk]

You really do have to get into the hills or down to See Don Pan (4,000 islands in the Mekong) to appreciate Southern Laos, which is much more beautiful than Isaan (love Isaan though I do). I agree that a one day trip to the immediate surrounds of the mostly boring towns on the Laos side of the border is not inspiring.