Hi All,
I arrived last night at Luang Prabang. I left DBP for Meng Khuo on 20th June at 5.30am. Thought i was the only foreigner coz' i was the first one to fill my name. But to my surprise i had 10 others travellers in the same bus. We reached the Vietnam border at about 7.30am, no issue at all.. But they took a little bit of time.. so we crossed the border to Lao about 8.30am...
Reached Laos' border after 30 minutes.
Some of the travellers had their visas to enter Lao at this border. USD35 for a 30 days stay. As a Malaysian, i don't need a visa to enter Lao.
But for me and another 3 travellers who have their visas issued earlier, we had to pay 30,000Dong / 15,000Kip at the custom with a receipt issued. All of us have to pay an "unofficial" 2000 Dong / 1000kip to get back our passport at this border. We left the border smoothly again at about 10.30am.
We were delighted to have crossed the 2 borders with no issue at all. In fact the Laos' border have facilities to stay for those who are stranded there, while waiting for another transport to bring them into Laos.
Btw, i was the first Malaysian to cross these 2 borders.. The officials were quite curious about me being the neighbour country.
The terrain to Meng Khuo after that was not smooth.. we were stranded by a high tide of a river at a village which is 1 hour away from the Laos border. We were there about 5 hours. Good thing is that, we were just right in front of a restaurant ( probably the only one in this village). Had a good introduction to the Laosian food. ;)
Anyway, we reached Meng Khuo at 7.00pm. Have to take a boat to cross the river. 6000 kip for that. We had to put a night in Meng Khuo too.
Next day, we hired a boat to Luang Prabang. 9 hours journey with 1 hour break. The whole boat cost us 2,000,000 kip.
Another option to go to Luang Prabang from Meng Khuo is to take the bus to Udomxai (18,000kip), and from Udomxai to Luang Prabang (45,000kip). I'm not sure how long it takes though.
Hope this help to clear some of the doubts for those who want to cross this border.
koon
<blockquote>Quote
<hr>As a Malaysian, i don't need a visa to enter Lao...<hr></blockquote>
Is that right??? I remember Mermaid, who has an Indonesian passport, still needed one for Laos, although not for Vietnam. I thought Laos was going to be the very last of all the ASEAN countries to actually implement the regional visa-free agreement. Or maybe they have agreed, but word hasn't filtered down to most of immigration points yet.
But sorry to get side-tracked from your main point: thanks for your report.
ASEAN regional visa-free agreement still has some way to go...e.g. Myanmar nationals need visas for Thailand & Singapore, Singapore nationals need visas for Myanmar, etc. think there are concerns over stuff like illegal immigration & human trafficking. have a feeling that Myanmar will be the very last to implement it ;)
<blockquote>Quote
<hr>All of us have to pay an "unofficial" 2000 Dong / 1000kip to get back our passport at this border<hr></blockquote>
Ah, this would be the "border guard beer fund service fee"...
Dien Bien to Muang Khua by road, then Muang Khua to Luang Phrabang by boat. Terima kasi, koon!
Thanks/terima kasi for the excellent report, Koon!! Hope you enjoyed the boat trip to LP.
BTW, you mentioned that your group payed U$200+ for the boat-trip all the way to LP, but I was wondering how many of you 'farangs' shared the boat? And did you stop to pickup locals along the way? did you have your one hour break at Moung Ngoi or Nong Khiaw?
Once again, thanks for the excellent report! Selamat.
A real person who actually personally got through the border? Yay!! Thank you thank you.
Also, fast boat or slow boat, and i've the same q's as #16...
trusted partner
