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[vacationman]

Hey looking for a travel partner doing a Visa Run to Laos on July 24th or 25th.

Via the Bus from CM to Udon route.

Thanks.

[realthaideal]

You should investigate and choose to buy only from Suksa (Seuksa/ศึกษา)Tours as their buses are the best and most dependable. Because of other things I read about the competing company, I went up one day, stayed 2 nights, and then came back on Suksa again. (The two companies have it worked out that one goes one day and the other the next.) If you do just one night in VT, you'll be coming back with a diff company than who you went up with, so keep that in mind. It might be fun to hang out in VT just a little and chill anyway, though not much to see or do there other than a river, a giant pile of cement, and a couple temples. Oh, and drink the beer.

If you go to the Visa subforum and do a search for bus companies and where to stay, you'll find many people recommending the same co as I've just said. You'll also see several upset posts from others who took the wrong company.

Btw, I wanted to stay at Benacam on Rue Francois Ngin, but didn't know it's location at the time I arrived...and circumstances just didn't work in my favor for it. But I hear it's nice and only 600B/ nt. I did end up going to a place that was about 20 yrs old, and not fancy, but was clean, friendly, had free internet in the lobby and wi-fi, it's called Intha Hotel and is on Ban Watchan (ironcially like one street over or so from Benacam on RFN), and is just 500B/ night, and 'breakfast' included. The Vietnamese place 100m down from INtha has decent pho and other good stuff.

As for organizing your strategy to make it to the embassy on time - After crossing over the bridge, I had a Lao guy with an a/c van run me straight to the Thai Embassy. It was 300 B for about a 30 min ride, and I could've gone cheaper, but it worked right, so no worries. I'll dig n get his number for you later. He was friendly enough, and taking direct transport (plus having pix and money ready) got me processed somewhere between 11.20a-11.45a - you must get in the gates and preferably processed before noon. I know the lady was very much looking forward to lunch and didn't want to stay one minute past 12, so I'm glad I got there when I did. It was late enough that the morning crowds were gone, and early enough that I still got in the same day as I got to Udon - ie not having to wait till the next day to apply.

One last tip for ye - I did see one not-so-polite guy get turned down and hassled. He was not looking nice and neither was his unnecessary traveling companion. They asked for her supporting documents, which she didn't bring, as she wasn't his wife (but another lady who was back at home was....ho-ho-ho!) and so things went very not-smoothly with him being told it was unworkable. Things got worse from there. So my tip here is don't bring people that will complicate things, and just be friendly and well-dressed. I had a change of clothes - including pants n tucked-in shirt (not my style, unless necessary)that I had changed into at the bridge in Udon. You can never be too over-dressed in Thailand ! Fancy and uncomfortably hot = handsome !

Have fun.

[Ulysses G.]

You should investigate and choose to buy only from Suksa (Seuksa/ศึกษา)Tours as their buses are the best and most dependable.

I had two excellent experiences with this company and heard a lot of complaints about the other one. I purposely stayed in Laos an extra day in order to return using Suksa Tour.