Report of Successful ED Visa Run to Vientiane

[JohnLocke]

Flying in on Air Asia
Arrived at Wattay Airport via Air Asia from KL. I needed to pay US$35 (the rate for Americans), fill out a visa-on-arrival form and submit one passport photo. The queue for VOA was to the right, and was a bit faster than the other immigration queues. It took about 10 mins. A taxi from the airport (using the taxi desk inside) was a flat rate - $7 or $10? I can't recall, but it wasn't too egregious and there was no hassle.

Guesthouse
Stayed at Bayern Guesthouse - highly rated on TripAdvisor. We called them directly (+85621255046) and booked an AC room for $20 a night for six nights in advance, with just a verbal agreement. Thus, we skipped Agoda or other online booking fees.
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g293950-d7082905-Reviews-Bayern_Guesthouse-Vientiane_Vientiane_Province.html

Because we had already talked with them three times on the phone, they were expecting us and already very friendly. They let us check out a few rooms (facing the street or the back) first and pick the one we liked. They also said we could change rooms later when they became free, if we wanted to. They also let us check in at 10am, which was also nice of them. Speaking to them in Thai seemed to help matters as well, even though our Thai isn't exactly perfect.

We chose room 8 facing the street on the 4th floor. Very clean, spacious, with all the trimmings: lots of TP, clean white towels and sheets, free water every day, excellent AC and cable TV, a fridge, two side tables, a closet, and a large balcony. Only minor complaint was that it was a bit mosquito'y.

The family running this place has a toddler, so they are always downstairs taking care of her, and therefore always minding the hotel. When we thought we'd rent a moped, they said we should park it inside at night (on their clean floor), which was a very kind offer. We went with bicycles instead, as we couldn't leave a passport as a deposit with the bike rental place.


Visa run (ED visa)
We pedaled over to the Thai consular compound and arrived at 7:15am on Tuesday. We purposely waited a day, as Monday was the first day they were open after Songkran, and we figured Monday would be bad.

Please note that it is not the same location as the Embassy! The consular section is next to the Lao-Singapore Business College on Rue Bourichane, not off Ave. Lane Xang.

We were about 6th in line, but of course there are about three local facilitators holding a space open for their clients, so people will be allowed to cut in as you get closer to the 8:30am opening time. Altogether it wasn't that bad - only about 6-8 people were allowed in ahead of us. We got tickets 13 and 14. Not bad for being there only 1 1/4 hours before opening.

Things have definitely improved from prior visa runs to Vientiane. They keep you outside under a tent doing most of the paperwork before allowing you into the main hall with the immigration windows. It was pretty orderly, at least until the first group of visa runners (50 backpackers, in this case) showed up and things started to get noisy and hectic. Still, much improved over previous trips where it was utter bedlam inside the main immigration building with about 400 people waiting to get processed (3 years ago).

We made one mistake which added an extra 15 minutes for us, which was not gluing our passport photos to the application and fully filling out our forms before getting to the second window. We had to step out and do that, and then re-queue, causing the delay. The passport photos are small-ish also - 3.5cm x 4.5cm I believe. We had to trim ours down to fit them, and they still were too big.

Then, inside the main building, where it was just us two and one other guy - quiet as church, cool and nice. Forms passed in, 2,000 Baht paid each, and we were done in 30 seconds. Don't forget to keep some Baht for that, as they don't want Kip nor Dollars.

We were back outside and heading to a cafe by about 9:15am. Altogether far more easy than we anticipated.

Pickup the next day was effortless - we arrived about 2pm, after the initial queue must have been taken care of, and there wasn't a single non-staff person in sight. We immediately picked up our passports and then lingered in the main AC building for an extra ten mins. just to make the whole thing seem worthwhile. Done done done!

Nok Air (from Udon Thani to Chiang Mai)
We bought two tickets for about $160 a few days before our departure on Nok Air. Nok specifically directs you to a travel agency to await a nice van ride to the Friendship Bridge in town. They handle all the legs of the border crossing that they can, and they did an excellent job. The pickup place in Vientiane is only 3 short blocks from Bayern guesthouse. The part that was awful and cruddy was the bus crossing from either side of the bridge, handled by incompetent and scornful Lao immigration officials. Though in fact, nothing was handled, and no one was directing any of it. It was a just a bit like the evacuation of Saigon in '75. No orderly queue, just pandemonium and people crushing each other to get on the next overfull bus. Worst we've seen it in the past 8 years, and we've done it plenty of times. My only advice on that is try to pack very light so you can swash-buckle your way quickly onto the bus without the burden of luggage.

Otherwise, it was smooth sailing, and not too bad overall. Vientiane is pretty dull, and in April the weather was fiercely oppressive. They were still burning the week after Songkran, but it wasn't that bad.

[tonray]

Great report...I am heading there myself this very evening.

[JohnLocke]

Thanks Tonray!

Best cafe in town, after 8 years (!) is still Joma Cafe, imho. Refills on their large hot coffee, and discounts on afternoon breadstuffs if you bought some before noon.

http://www.joma.biz/#!vientiane/c1ziy

Safe travels,

JL