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Posted

Hi guys.

I'm thinking of doing a visa run to laos,off my own back.Going on the train etc.Dont fancey 12 hour bus journey!

Basically can i obtain a double or triple entry visa from there off my own back?

Would it be better to go through a travel agent?

Do i just take myself,some cash and passport off to laos to get a double entry?:) easy as that?

Any info would be much appreciated.

Posted

You can obtain double entry tourist visa at consulate in Vientiane. They are currently free. You will need to take with you 3 passport sized photos - 2 for visa application and 1 for Laos visa (if you obtain at the border). Apply morning day 1 and collect afternoon day 2.

Posted

Thank you Thaiphoon.

Sorry if im being a bit...slow...

But,how long exactly do you get on a double entry? with extensions and alll that jazz?

Cheers.

Posted

You will get 60 day permission to stay on entry into Thailand. Before expiry you can extend your permission to stay for further 30 days at Thai immigration, fee 1,900 baht. At around day 88 (day before the VISA expires) you need to do border run and re-enter Thailand to activate your second 60 day stay. Then extend permission to stay again for further 30 days at Thai immigration. That would give you nearly 6 months stay.

  • 3 weeks later...
Posted

I'd just like to add to the Vientiene visa run stuff if I may...seeing as I'm typing this from my hotel on my visa run I'd say I have up to date info:

My costs so far -

HKT - Udon Thani AirAsia 4500 (should have booked it before 24/12/09 and it would have been 1400 but reasons beyond my control stopped that)

Guest house with wireless 400bt per night

Airport bus to Friendship bridge 200bt! (or 80bt to Udon town thus making any other bus a waste of time)

You need 3 passport photos in total, one for the Laos rip off visa and two for the Thai free visa. I know it's mentioned in many other parts of the forum but the free visas end on 5th March 2010.

Before I left I could not find anywhere in Phuket which had USD to exchange, therefore my Laos visa ended up costing 1500bt instead of 1100 (at today's exchange rate and most possibly the reason USD nor Baht is being readily accepted here unless you give them way over the odds - so if the rate is crap then get Kip as soon as possible.

After "friendly/heated" bartering withthieves managed to get a taxi to the guest house (which is 3km from the Mehkong) for 200bt, it took around 35mins so it wasn't too over the top, but when I referred to my map he did take me the long way around, more fool him for his petrol cost.

Arrived at the hotel and found absolutely no where to eat apart from a little suki place which was 60bt for a shared meal so not too bad (I'm a cheapskate and I prefer it that way for a few veg/noodles and soup.

Got up this morning at 7am and walked (after asking how much a tuktuk was! 150bt for 1.5km) so f%&k him and the rest, I walked and it was pleasantly chilly compared to what Phuket has been lately. My advice would be to get a bicycle or moped and learn to drive on the wrong side of the road.

Got there at 730, with around 10 others waiting there. After reading the posts on here I did exactly the opposite of what a British person would do when there's a queue. Stood right at the front, American/European/Asian style. Worked a treat.

There are passport photo touts who also do photocopies and visa forms (for a fee - here again you need Kip if you don't want to be ripped off too badly) Although at that time in the morning and if you have forgotten anything they know they could charge you whatever they wanted. Today's prices were 1bt per page for copies, 120bt for 8 x photos.

Make sure you got to the two workers, once they open the gate, and collect a ticket number (unlike the aformentioned mainland Europeans who ran straight to the window like spasmo's and promptly got ushered to the back of the queue.

There is a table at the front which has pots of glue to stick your passport photos onto your visa form (which needs to be done or you hold the queue up). I was number 27 (and my gf 28) and we were all done and dusted from the gates opening in around 20 minutes. There was around 70 people there in total (Tuesday).

Walked down to the River and took some photos of the palace and a few temples, I think most of today we have seen the main parts (tourist parts at least) and back up to our hotel, so we have probably covered 6-7kms in total.....and seriously!!!! Where the hel_l are the "beautiful" parts? I cannot see what is appealing about this place. If I step aside from the fact all visa runs are just a money spinning exercise, I cannot see how Vientiene is a nice looking or nice to place to be.

The people are rude, they don't seem to eat/have restaurants (I like to eat cheap food and experiement with local stuff no matter where I am) the place is horrible, expensive even compared to Phuket (apart from cigarettes which are 11bt). Anyway I'm rambling, but it really does suck here.

I'll edit this as I am here until Thursday (unfortunately there were no flights available on Wednesday).

ps.. Sorry I cannot seem to find the post on here with a great breakdown of prices, but it was from 2007 and things have changed a little bit.

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