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from my last thread about my visa which im sure no one cares to remember, i am wondering if i get the train from bangkok to nong khai, get off tuk tuk to border control pass through go to the other side (rather then going into vientiene) skip back through (already have mutiple visa 0) and get the same tuktuk and the train that dropped me off...................huh ...mission impossible or what???????????
cheers for your ..urm ....well your help!
No problem visa wise, the train station is only a few hundred meters from Friendship Bridge.
Trains from Bangkok heading up to Nong Khai and other destinations in North East Thailand, normally known as Issarn
so the train that i come off should still be there if i can get a quick turn around? say about 20 mins
1. off train
2.tuktuk 200 metres down the road
3.hopefully no queue visa already for laos
4. pass into laos pay fee
5. look at some nice cheese's through window (5 secs max)
6. approach queue for thailand entry go through
7. tuk tuk back to train
8 buy a singa and packet of crips
9.chochoo to bangkok
Mission impossible?
i have been to laos and nong khai before but always ventured onto vientienne on the cheap bus.
thanks for any info
Why don't you just get the bus to the Cambo border?
Much quicker, easier and cheaper for you from Bangkok.
You got around 9 hours wait for the train to leave Nong Khai.
Ben: Let's have some clarification, please.
Whether or not you find any yummy cheeses, your post *3 sounds as though you're on top of it and your crossings should be problem free. The fee you refer to in item 4 would be for your entry visa ($35/$36) into Laos.
But from your OP:
This is ambiguous. Does go to the other side mean cross the bridge and physically enter Laos, or go to the other side of the road to skip back through into Thailand?Quote:
...get off tuk tuk to border control pass through go to the other side (rather then going into vientiene) skip back through...
Clarification from here, though I hope it's unnecessary. Passing through Thai border control and being stamped out of Thailand does not place you in Laos. There's a no man's land between the two countries in the form of a bridge, with Laos immigration to be negotiated before you are actually in Laos.
Also, once you are stamped out of Thailand they won't let you back into the country without an exit stamp from Laos, and the only way you can get that is when you leave Laos, which means you must first enter.
There are exceptions, as I posted a few days ago, but the rules are not easy to circumvent because even if the reentry immigration officer is sympathetic and wants to cooperate, your departure card was stamped as you left Thailand and will be in a box at the exit booth. This means you would need the cooperation of two humourless immigration officers on opposite sides of the road, with at least one other to mediate between them. Even if you get that far, if the box your departure card is in has been filled and removed from the exit booth, forget it.
Good luck, have a safe and pleasant trip.;)
sorry for not being so clear.......
thanks for all your help, maybe im a snob but id rather go on train then bus i found cambodia too much to deal with but thanks for the suggestion!
When you pass from the kingdom through the thai checkpoint and when you continue by bus over the bridge(no mans land) you reach the laos checkpoint, i presume?
once through this can i double back on myself as im in laos and go straight back or do i have to wait some time( because of arrival/departure cards)?
The reason for this is to catch the same train i came in on rather then having to wait for the later one!
but if this is not feasible i will just wait.
thanks once again
The trains don't leave till early evening.
Ok no plobrem once you touch Lao soil, which I guess you could do in most of Isaan anyway but I didn't say that.
I did the round trip in an 1 hr 20 mins last week, bit lucky because there was no one at the Lao visa point. But as it was Sunday you get a lot of Lao going back into Thailand after their weekend home.Quote:
Originally Posted by benlovesnuk
Could have done it in 15 Mins less if I didn't spend so much time chatting up the lovely Lao gals at the DF shop in the vain hope of parking my knob in one of them at some future date.
Pete's got a way with the lasses. ;)
No not at all, you can enter Laos, walk around the immigration building and exit Laos immedialtey providing you have all those bloody immigration cards filled out.Quote:
Originally Posted by benlovesnuk
A tip would be to get a few of the thai and the lao cards so you can fill those suckers out on the train on the way there next time. this will save you a few places in the queues and speed up the process. That border seems to get busier and busier these day. First time i went about 4 years ago there was hardly anybody there, these days its like Mumbai bus station:(
thanks chaps...........
i myself like a bit of cheese from the shops, and i know what you mean about the crowds - that is why i get a laos visa in bangkok slightly more but less hassle when you get there.
Well it all sounds good now i just wonder whether the train stays long enough to get back on the same one??????????????????????
Quote:
Originally Posted by dirtydog
Quote:
You got around 9 hours wait for the train to leave Nong Khai.
errrm
are you saying that the same train doesnt leave until 6 hours after or its another train???????????????
YesQuote:
Originally Posted by benlovesnuk
Check the timetable on this
State Railway of Thailand
check the timetable,........check the timet......are you serious? Actually make an effort to be in some way practical about finding out about something to do with visa trips like looking at the direct source of information for help!!!!!
brph brph i think your'e clearly in the wrong country, in thailand no-one i mean noone looks at the actual desired and specific website otherwise what would be the point of thaivisa....................:kma:
and of course without the nonsense above thank you for your direct answer!
a very reasonable response. did your mother bring you to Thialand and drop you off? grow up.Quote:
Originally Posted by benlovesnuk
i suppose its just as valid as your insult, so now we can actually see who actually needs to grow to their own maturity!
you moid, of non distinct relevance to this topic please dont post unless it has added something of relevance.
a joke is a joke, maybe you need to stop being so serious and remove that stick up your
:kma:
i thinks thats a perfectly good response, bayeech titts
uhhhhhhhuhhhhhhhhh uhuhuh
^ Grouchy old git aint you
An effort was made to help you, even to the point of supplying you with a link to the timetable, which you only had to click on. This would then have given you a roughh idea as to when the train actually should leave. Was this too hard to do?Quote:
Originally Posted by benlovesnuk
When you ask for info follow some of the links at it usually means that someone has gone out of their way to find the info for you :)
im confused now, i thought at the end of my post to you i said
" and forget the nonsense............thankyou for your help......"
as in i looked at the timetable, and it helped and so i thanked you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i was joking about that fact that most people dont do this for themselves, generally and was making llight hearted fun at their expense, not yours......
thaks for the help once again, it did indeed help!:)
Good luck on your run, i had to do that a few times and i think 1hr 20 mins was a pretty quick turn around.
By the time you have got there, waited to be checked out, then waited for the bus across, then waited for someone to take your passport for what seems like an eternity, then walked round, checked out, waited for a bus, then got stuck behind 100 american students on there bus, 1hr 20 is quick!
Also dont go a dinner time they shut the booth, so your wait to get into laos will be even longer!
thanks i appreciate it, i wont go at lunch time no, no that would be a mistake!
ill be getting their at just before 9 say 8.45 and will cross over the bridge have something to eat and drink, have a look around the exciting town of vientienne for about all of 45 mins which is 40 mins longer then there is actually anything to look at! Then ill go get a massage, for 2 hours and eat drink come back over go to tesco in nong khai, wait for train buy some beer...............fall asleep miss my train and cry a little!
thanks once again!