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dirtydog

Right so you have got to Nong Khai, the odds are you will either be at the bus station or the train station, if your at the train station you can walk to friendship bridge, just go to the main road, maybe 100meters, turn left over the tracks and walk another 100meters to the real big road, then turn right and walk another couple of hundred meters, if you get a Tuk Tuk then 20baht is a normal price.

If you are at Nong Khai coach station you got a bit further to go and will be ripped off by the lovely tuk tuk drivers, 60baht would be a good and fair price to pay to get to Friendship Bridge but I doubt you will get it from these thieves, if you already have a visa for getting into Laos then you can get the bus from Nong Khai direct to Vientiane for 55baht, more info on that here.

Nong Khai Bus Station.



Pretty dreary but has plenty of restaurants and food places around the bus station, although why the only crisps they sell are Nori seaweed flavour I have no idea, I mean does anybody actually eat them through choice?



If you have just come back from Laos and want to go to Pattaya or Rayong then this is the office you need to go to to buy your ticket, 506 baht to Pattaya.



Get your visa to go into Laos here, 35$ for English people, when they issue your visa they will also stamp you into Lao so no need to queue up for your entry stamp.



Cross the bridge on the 10baht bus.



Now time to visit the duty free and buy cheap wines, cheeses and cigarettes.



They charge i think 20baht to go into and out of Laos, could be 10baht, I have to admit I never bothered paying this before, just never noticed it before, assumed it was for Asians only, the Laos immigration don't seem to worried if you don't bother paying it.

Now you got to get to Vientiane, the prices are all listed at the Laos immigration or you can walk to the end of the road and get a cheaper tuk tuk that is passing by.

If you take a tuk tuk from Friendship Bridge they will take you to the Thai embassy in Vientiane and wait for you, a tourist visa costs 1,000baht and non immigrant 2,000baht, passport, application, fees, and photo have to be at the embassy before 12am, you can then pick your passport up with your new visa after 1pm the next working day.

In Nong Khai itself and near Friendship Bridge you will find agents that will do just about everything for you, they charge from 1,800baht depending on nationality, Lao visa prices vary for different nationalities, drive you to he bridge, get you through immigration and take you to where ever you want to go in Vientiane.

If you are on over stay in Thailand when you get to the Thai immigration either climb over the barrier or walk down the road to get to the offices beyond the immigration booths, this is where you have to pay your overstay fine, it is 500baht perday up to a maximum of 20,000baht.

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