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Asia travel forum / Visas and border crossings / Trip Report: Siem Reap to Vientiane

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cheeco
motodop
Posts: 28

 #1 Posted: 15/12/2009 - 15:19


Hi everyone,

My husband and I just made the trip from Siem Reap to Vientiane through Thailand.

We did this because we did not get our Laos Visas when we were in Phnom Penh, and didn't want to go back to get them. Therefore, we would not be allowed to cross the land border between Laos and Cambodia.

We also did this because flying was really out of our budget.

It may seem like a long post, but I tried to be as detailed as possible. It was so simple to do, I would recommend it to anyone.

Here we go:

Day#1:

1)6:00am Hired a private taxi (day before) to take us to the Thailand border from Siem Reap (Poipet). Cost: $25 Time: 2 hours

2)8:00am Arrived at the Poipet border crossing. The taxi dropped us off by a large round-about. To your left there is the Departure Office for the Cambodian side. Make sure to fill out your departure card. You will get a departure stamp in your passport. Took us about 5 minutes to get through- the line was not long.

3) Walked through to the Thai side- we just followed the crowd. The Thai immigration is on the left hand side of the road. Make sure to enter the very left door of the building- where foreigner must go. The right side is for Thais.

4) Filled out a Thai arrival and departure card (available at desk 6). Waited in line for about 10 minutes. The Thai immigration officers were very polite and there were no questions asked.

5)We walked out of the Thai immigration building and continued to follow the crowd. We then saw a sign that read "Tourists and Foreigners Turn Here", so we did. We were able to withdraw money from a Thai ATM, and hired a tuk-tuk to take us to the Aranya Prathet bus station (the tuk-tuk drivers will assume that's where you are heading. Price of tuktuk: 80baht without bargaining

6)8:50am we arrived at the Aranya Prathet bus station. We just told people where we wanted to go (Korat), and they pointed us in the right direction. We were able to buy tickets to Korat for 9:10am for 190baht each.

7) 9:10am we borded a very nice bus- big seats, very clean, and even included crackers and water!

8) Arrived in Korat at 1:30pm- at a very big bus station. Got off and asked the driver where to go to get to Nong Kai- again everyone was very helpful. A guy inside the terminal helped us buy our tickets and took us to the bus. One ticket to Nong Kai- 210baht.

9) Departed from Korat at 1:40. This bus was definitely not as nice as the last one- more of a local bus, a little dirty, seats a little uncomfortable, but certainly bearable.

10) Arrived in Nong Kai just after 8pm. We could have gone through to the border (closes at 10pm), but we decided to stay the night and face the border in the morning. We took a tuk-tuk to Mut Nee Guesthouse for 80baht (I should have bargained!). However, the guesthouse was unfortunately full, but they helped us find another place.

** Advice: If you know that you will stop in Nong Kai for the night, definitely book a room/dorm bed at the Mut Nee Guesthouse!! It is a beautiful place located right on the Mekong River. All nice places we looked at were full, so we had to settle for an awful room across from the Ruan Thai guesthouse. This room was not sealed at all= mosquitoes everywhere! And we had to pay 200b for it! Do yourself a favor and book a room first!

DAY #2:

1) Hired a tuk-tuk to take us to the bridge. Price: 60baht. He stopped us at a travel agency and told us this was the way to go. The travel agency wanted to charge us the correct price of $42pp for the Laos Visa (we are Canadian), but then there was a 400baht charge each for transportation from the travel agency right to Vientiane. If you are in a really big hurry, and don't mind paying extra, then this will be ok for you. However, there was no way we were going to pay that much, so we politely said no and asked the driver to take through to Laos immigration.

2)We hopped on a nice charter-style bus over the friendship bridge for 15baht each.

3) Laos Visa: Ask for the papers at the ticket window- don't just stand in line and wait to get the papers, because you will end up standing in line 2 times. We filled out the paper and had to give one photo. Then we had to wait close to 1 1/2 hours for our visas to be ready.

4) Walked through immigration, scanned our bags. On the other side we were approached by way too many people asking us if we wanted taxis into Vientiane. Skip these guys completely. Instead walk to the right of the round-about and you will see a bus stop. We never did see the bus, but instead hopped into the back of a pick-up truck with other locals for 20baht each! They dropped us off at the market in Vientiane (sorry, I don't know which one). From here it was easy to find out way to the river- using our LP guide-book map.

We did it! And for a great price. In total, we spent about $30 each to get from Siem Reap to Vientiane (including one night in a guesthouse)! In Siem Reap the tour agencies sell bus tickets that go to Bangkok first on one bus, then you have to transfer to a night bus to Nong Kai- for $55!! Plus, you would have to spend the night on the bus! This was a significant savings for us.

Despite the length of this post, this route was very straight forward and painless!

Thanks to everyone who helped me with information to make this happen!
Robyn
ljm52
newbie
Posts: 1

 #2 Posted: 11/3/2010 - 22:19

Hi,
Just wanted to update this post as we just followed the advice and took a similar journey. We used this guide as a basis for our trip so thought that others might appreciate knowing that it's a really easy journey!

Day 1

Took a Capitol Tours bus to Poipet which left Siem Reap at 8.30am (meant to leave at 8am, cost $3.75 each). Arrived at the border at Poipet at 11.00 and crossed through the Cambodian border in a few minutes, avoiding the touts trying to sell us over-priced tickets to Khorat. Walked through the border, past the casinos, and entered Thai immigration which also took only a few minutes.

Once through, walked over to the ATM, withdraw Thai baht, and hopped into a tuk-tuk from just outside the ATM to Aranya Prathet bus station for 80 baht.

Told the tuk-tuk driver that we were heading to Korat and so he took us to that section of the bus station where we bought 2 tickets at 190 baht each onwards. The person who sold us the tickets said that the bus would leave at 12.00, but actually arrived at 12.15 and left at 12.20 and was as good as the previous commentator noted - first time we've had free crackers on a public bus!

As we were arriving into Korat at 4.30pm we decided to stop there for the evening. The bus comes into the town around the centre of the city (very easy to recognise as you travel around a moat which is marked on the LP map of the city) so we jumped off before the bus station and had a 5 minute walk to the Sakhol Korat Hotel. Pleasant if slightly nondescript hotel with very friendly staff and we organised a fan room on the top floor for 150 baht (in hindsight would have upgraded to the aircon room at 400 baht as it was incredibly hot in the room).

Korat itself is a really pleasant town and very cheap - we paid just 20 baht each for a delicious chicken and rice dinner from a stall by the market.

As we hadn't been to the bus station, we spoke to the friendly staff at the hotel about the best way to get onto Nong Khai , and he suggested the train as a more convenient and cheaper option, and as it took the same time as the bus we decided to follow his advice. He checked the times with the train station (we think!) and the first train the next day was at 6.20am, so we also organised a tuk-tuk at 50 baht to collect us from the hotel at 5.30am at his suggestion (although we probably could have walked).

Day 2

Picked up from the hotel at 5.30am and arrived at the train station at 5.45am. Bought tickets at 63 baht each for the next train to Nong Khai which was meant to leave at 6.26am. In the end the train was about 30 minutes late arriving so we left at nearly 7am.

The train itself was fine with fairly comfortable seats although no aircon or amenities. However vendors regularly pass up and down the carriages selling everything from water to fruit to roasted chicken on a stick! The other benefit over the bus is that you can get up and walk around which is needed for such a long period of time.

After many stops (and an incident where the train seemed to get stuck and the guards had to go outside and prod the underside of the train!) we arrived into Nong Khai station at about 1.30 - about an hour later than it should have been. Overall, the train is a fairly pleasant way to travel and is considerably cheaper than the bus, but it isn't the quickest and the constant stops can get a little frustrating!

On arrival into Nong Khai, we were greeted by a tuk-tuk driver who said he could take us to the border for 60 baht. Not having a map of Nong Khai, we thought that this sounded an ok price and agreed, but the journey itself was less than 5 minutes so if we were doing it again, would get a map and simply walk. The tuk-tuk driver also tried to take us to a travel agent and then introduced us to a tout who offered to take us to Vientiane for 600baht for 2 of us! We ignored him (as suggested in earlier post) and walked up to Thai immigration.

Easily crossed through Thai immigration and then paid 15 baht each for the shuttle bus across the bridge to Laos immigration. Laos immigration went incredibly smoothly and we had our visas within 10 minutes of completing the form!

Walked through immigration to be greeted by many people offering tuk-tuks and pick-ups to Vientiane for 50-400 baht. Followed the original posters advice and walked round the corner to the bus stop. There were many pick-ups there, but they wanted 50 baht each for the journey so instead got onto the public minibus number 14 for 20 baht or 5,000 kip each which shuttles between the border and the Talat Sao bus station in Vientiane.

The Talat Sao bus station is right in the centre of Vientiane, and we were able to work out where we were immediately and simply walked into the centre to find a guesthouse.

Overall, this was a really easy - if long - journey to make and cheaper than the alternatives at around $20 each for the whole journey. Would definitely reccommend to others looking to travel from Siem Reap to Vientiane. Thanks to the originaly poster for the excellent advice!

Helpful? 0





Possibly related threads

The following thread(s) may also be of use.
 » Siem Reap and Angkor - Trip Report
 » Vientiane to Cambodia Dec '06 Trip Report
 » Luang Prabang to Vientiane Trip Report Dec '06
 » Vang Vieng, Vientiane and Nong Khai - July 2006 Trip Report
 » Vientiane to Siem Reap
 » Vientiane or Siem Reap
 » Vientiane to Siem Reap
 » Vientiane to Siem Reap
 » Overland - Vientiane to Siem Reap

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