Driving your own car to Laos – Nakhon Phanom to Thakhek and back from Savannakhet to Mukdahan

[manfredtillmann]

My German friend arrived last Friday and he and I took my car to Laos to view the limestone mountains east of Thakhek. (A future post)

 

Crossing the Thai / Laos border at Friendship Bridge 3, 16km north of Nakhon Phanom on Saturday morning.

 

Thinking myself well prepared due to recent experience from Bridge 2, I had all photo copies prepared, lots of small Bath notes horded etc.

 

Arriving at the bridge in pouring rain just after 08:00h the place appeared deserted. Not one person was visible. I parked the car under cover, walked up to the immigration both, found someone resting inside… and my friend and I had our exits processed in 90 seconds. All they wanted were our completed 'Departure cards' and our passports. Finished!

 

Customs – I had a whole folder full of documents ready. No, all they wanted was the 'Car passport', a quick glance at the 'Blue book', the officer filled in his form, stamped the 'Car passport', I signed the form, paid… Finished!

 

Back to the car and drove straight through onto the bridge without any further checks.

 

The Laos side was just as empty of life as the Thai.

My German friend struggled with the visa application and the arrival card, in the end there were more things crossed out and written over than clearly written – it didn't matter. No one was interested in anything. Also, bargain, the visa were THB 1200 each, not THB 1500 as in Savannakhet.

 

There are two small offices, selling Laos car insurance – both were closed. We lingered for a while, I knew we would get specifically asked for it in a police check, but after a while a Laos immigration officer shooed us away, waving his arms in the direction off the bridge. Ok – Finished.

From entering the bridge to leaving it again we had not seen one other moving vehicle!

 

We did not get police checked!

 

On the way home we crossed at Bridge 2 (Savannakhet - Mukdahan), Laos side as before but the Thai side offered some peculiarities.

 

There are some extensive construction works going on UNDER the roof on the bus / pedestrian side forcing passengers onto the bus lane after immigration, walk past the construction area which – surprisingly – is fully fenced, and than back onto the footpath.

 

Driving across the bridge we were behind 2 large red buses carrying Korean tourist and we were followed by 2 beaten up pick – ups with Thai rego, one of them blowing extensive blue oil smoke from it's exhaust.

 

The Koreans disembarked with their carry – on luggage and within minutes the pedestrian immigration section was packed, the processed passengers were getting herded along and had their baggage checked by the 'Boys in Black'.

 

The immigration booth on lane 1 now inside the construction zone, lane 2's booth, usually only doing Thai or Laos ID cards, had to deal with car driver's passports as well.

 

I installed my friend with both our passports in the immigration line - up, cleared the car at customs, were no one was waiting, it took seconds, and while walking back I noticed that there was no personnel guarding the car lane. All boom gates were up, a single traffic cone at a point were it could easily be driven past and no sooner had I joined my friend again when I saw the 'smooky' ute and his mate drive past and off.

 

There is absolutely no way they could have cleared either immigration or customs, they must have recognized the opportunity to save a few Bath and did a 'runner'.

 

And anyone else could have easily done the same that day.

 

Cheers

mft

[Briggsy]

Thank you for the report.

 

The Tha Khaek / Nakhon Phanom crossing is not popular as you say. The officials seem very relaxed and friendly. When I crossed there, the Laos officials in the visa office were feeding a chick that had fallen from the nest. No demands for extras like horrible Cambodian officials.

 

Tha Khaek, the town, is a dump (in my opinion) and much smaller than Savannakhet. So, there is likely to be far less cross-border traffic.

[manfredtillmann]

Prior to visiting Thakhek for the first time i read it has a large contingent of french colonial architecture - a blatant lie, in my view. i fully agree, it is a dump.

i'll write about the trip some time in the future as the natural features of the area are truly spectacular.

here just one youtube link to a cave visit we did in torrential rain...

 

https://youtu.be/EaDBgQMOFbA