Thailand forum

hey fariphar,

if you are travelling through northern thailand after you arrive in bangkok, you might consider just heading from there directly over into laos and not back through bangkok. you can go by land and cross into northern laos and then down to luang prabang, for example, or even fly directly from chiang mai to luang prabang.

from there, you can work your way down to vientiane for the flight to hanoi. i'd guess that you'd want to catch cambodia on the way back to bangers for the flight to sydney. does that make sense?

i guess the one issue is the visa for vietnam. from what i understand they start counting down from the time you receive them rather than from the time you arrive in country, so i don't know how that timing would fit in with the rest of your plans.

in any case, to answer your first question, there is a pretty good overnight train from bangkok to nong khai, the main border crossing point for folks heading by land from thailand to vientiane. once the train arrives in nong khai, its maybe two more hours total to get through immigration at the friendship bridge and then by road into vientiane.

alternatively, you can fly from bangkok to udorn thani in northeastern thailand and then its about three hours from there to vientiane. in short, possible in one day. cheers.