Cheapest Way To Do The Lao Border Run

[dantilley]

Even the train is a far safer and better option

Agree with this, train ahead of bus every time. I quite enjoy the occasional overnight train journey, as long as I'm not in a rush to reach my destination. If, for some reason, I was forced to go on an overnight bus journey though, I'd be dreading it. Not a good way to travel at all.

[mstribling]

That Nakhon bus out of mo chit is the bomb. I rode it once going to Surin. Similar to biz class on a low end airline. Rode the rural on the way back. It should be reserved for Gitmo returnees.

[jdinasia]

Even the train is a far safer and better option

Agree with this, train ahead of bus every time. I quite enjoy the occasional overnight train journey, as long as I'm not in a rush to reach my destination. If, for some reason, I was forced to go on an overnight bus journey though, I'd be dreading it. Not a good way to travel at all.

Actually --- the train can be nice. It gives all the advantages people have mentioned for busses, with none of the disadvantages. The point I was making earlier was that it can be as cheap to fly AND far less draining.

[thaibeachlovers]

If it is a border run for a non-imm-multi, that seems like an awful lot of pain to go through. Cheap ticket to Singapore and back. No cost for most people for Sg entry. No 16+ hours on busses. Public transport into town to do a bit of shopping OR just fly right back out. (Same idea for KL etc)

There really is a thing as being too cheap

I like travelling. I like the journey.

It means meeting the kind of people I don't normally meet. I could look out of the window and see the mountains and jungle in the moonlight. It inspired a pleasantly mysterious mood. I had fun speaking to the different people I met while waiting for the bus to to Nongkhai. I experienced the hillarity of a woman, her baby, and a beautifull schoolgirl with a wedding ring on her finger on the Udonthani-Nongkhai bus. I got lost walking to the embassy because I didn't take a taxi and discovered a huge market without a single foreigner and some lovely innocent and friendly Laotians (not at all like those in the city centre). On the way back I met a Swiss businessman who runs a farm in the Alps as a hobby. He had spent a few weeks in a tiny Isan village and he showed me some fascinating photos of how the Thais process rice using ancient equipment. How is it that the Swiss don't need visas to stay in Thailand?

My point is that I wouldn't have had those kinds of experiences while being hermetically sealed in an airliner. It's not a journey. It's a transfer.

I've tried both ways and I prefer the cheap. There's more life in it.

Oh well said Sir!

While to some, a long bus/ train trip is a waste of time better spent in the boozer or whatever, to you and I it's an opportunity to experience something different to the usual hum drum.

To me it's not just the destination, it's the journey that's important too.

[bermondburi]

If it is a border run for a non-imm-multi, that seems like an awful lot of pain to go through. Cheap ticket to Singapore and back. No cost for most people for Sg entry. No 16+ hours on busses. Public transport into town to do a bit of shopping OR just fly right back out. (Same idea for KL etc)

There really is a thing as being too cheap

I like travelling. I like the journey.

It means meeting the kind of people I don't normally meet. I could look out of the window and see the mountains and jungle in the moonlight. It inspired a pleasantly mysterious mood. I had fun speaking to the different people I met while waiting for the bus to to Nongkhai. I experienced the hillarity of a woman, her baby, and a beautifull schoolgirl with a wedding ring on her finger on the Udonthani-Nongkhai bus. I got lost walking to the embassy because I didn't take a taxi and discovered a huge market without a single foreigner and some lovely innocent and friendly Laotians (not at all like those in the city centre). On the way back I met a Swiss businessman who runs a farm in the Alps as a hobby. He had spent a few weeks in a tiny Isan village and he showed me some fascinating photos of how the Thais process rice using ancient equipment. How is it that the Swiss don't need visas to stay in Thailand?

My point is that I wouldn't have had those kinds of experiences while being hermetically sealed in an airliner. It's not a journey. It's a transfer.

I've tried both ways and I prefer the cheap. There's more life in it.

Oh well said Sir!

While to some, a long bus/ train trip is a waste of time better spent in the boozer or whatever, to you and I it's an opportunity to experience something different to the usual hum drum.

To me it's not just the destination, it's the journey that's important too.

I think it was Oscar Wilde who said " A man doesn't need to travel to know that the sky is blue everywhere "