We leave Luang Prabang after a week spent with family in the former imperial capital. We take a "sleeping bus" to Vientiane (negotiated 170,000 kips/person or 17 euros).
Lao night buses are somewhat different from Chinese night buses. There are double bunk beds on each side of the bus. If you are traveling alone, you may be required to sleep with a Laotian. In terms of local experience, you can't do better!!
For our part, we will each sleep with one of the girls. We had requested the lower berths when booking, in our opinion more practical with children than the upper berths. If the berth is comfortable, the 11 hour drive between Luang Prabang and Vientiane is grueling. The driver drives carefully but has to constantly drive around potholes, unpaved roads, cows... Fortunately, the girls will have a good night's sleep.
We decide to spend the night in Vientiane before crossing the border for Nong Khai. The little we saw of Vientiane did not encourage us to discover more, especially after this magical week in Luang Prabang. We then especially took advantage of it to do nothing at the edge of the swimming pool of our hotel.
After a good night's sleep we collect information from our hotel to reach the Friendship Bridge to cross the border . Either we take:
It is quickly seen, we negotiate a tuk-tuk in front of the hotel to drop us off at the central bus station (20,000 kips or 2 euros for 2 kilometers, very expensive paid but they ask for 60,000 kips before negotiation…). And in 45 minutes the local bus drops us off in front of the Laotian border post in Vientiane. Simple, quick and cheap !
We provide our Laos exit immigration card carefully kept from our China / Laos border crossing and have our passports stamped for the exit. The crossing of the Friendship Bridge which spans the Mekong must be done by bus (4000 kips / person, free for girls). At each border crossing, the question arises of the currency that we can use. We realized that it was always possible to pay in the local currencies present on both sides of the border but also in American dollars!
Crossing the Mekong is quite magical. On one side, the shores of Laos and on the other those of Thailand.
Crossing the Thai border post is as easy as its Laotian counterpart. Do not forget to fill in your Thai arrival/departure immigration card (available at the exit of the bus) before presenting yourself to the customs officer. As French, we have the right to travel 30 days in Thailand without a visa and free of charge.
And here we are, we arrived in Nong Khai in Thailand!
We spend the night there near the railway station before taking a day train to Ayutthaya, the former royal capital of Siam.
