I just come back from a quick 1 night stay in Savannakhet, Laos to renew my Thai visa. As I’m currently located in Mukdahan where the Friendship bridge is located, it was just a 2 hour commute for me (Sweeeet!). Here is my mini “Visa run to Savannakhet” guide for those that are coming from Bangkok:

Getting to Mukdahan

Air Asia and Nok Air currently fly into Ubon Ratchathani, the nearest airport to Mukdahan, and takes just 55 minutes from Bangkok. Alternatively, you could get a train direct to Ubon, or get a bus direct to Mukdahan from Morchit bus station in Bangkok.

Once you have got your dates fixed, call the Ploy Palace Hotel in Mukdahan (042 631 111) and get their VIP transit mini van to Mukdahan. It costs ฿350 and takes 2 to 3 hours. Alternatively, you could get the local bus which costs around 100b I think, however it takes at least 4 hours.

Staying in Mukdahan

Having stayed in 5 or 6 hotels in Mukdahan, I think the Rabiangmuk hotel has the best rooms. The hotel is newly built, oozes quality and at ฿550 per night, the rooms are big and the internet is fast.

For things to do in Mukdahan, the night market is worth a look, and is only 10 minutes walk from the Rabiangmuk hotel. The Good Mook restaurant is my fav for great Thai food, and the Pool Bar located by the Esso garage is a cool place to have a beer where you can check out the great band who play every night of the week. A walk along the Indochine Market by the Mekong River is also a pleasant way to kill an hour or so.

Getting to the Friendship 2 Bridge and into Laos

The Friendship 2 bridge connecting Mukdhan with Savannakhet.

If you don’t speak Thai and have problems organising a tuk-tuk to pick you up in the morning, I’d ask the hotel staff to organise this for you. The fee should be around 100b, maybe a little more. An 8am pick up should work well.

When you arrive at the Friendship bridge, you’ll need to buy a bus ticket from the little office outside immigration (50b), get stamped through get the bus across the Friendship bridge into Laos. The bus can become very over crowded, but luckily only takes 5 minutes.

Rates for Laos Visas differ depending on your nationality. For a British national, the fee was equivalent to 1,500b (you can pay both in Thai baht and US dollars). You’ll need to attache 1 passport sized photo to your application.

After paying the stamp fee (40b), which some say you don’t need to pay, you’ll get bombarded with tuk tuk drivers and taxi drivers keen to take you to the Thai Embassy. The fee for a tuk tuk for a local or Thai is 60b, although you may end up paying around 100b

Thai Embassy in Savannakhet

The queues at the Thai Embassy in Savannakhet

When you arrive at the Thai Embassy in Savannakhet, you’ll need to buy, yes buy, the visa application form from the shop opposite the Embassy. They also offer you glue to attache 2 passport sized photos.

On my recent trip, the queues to submit my visa was around 50 people long, and took around 30 minutes to hand in my application and passport for 2pm pickup the next day. The visa fee right now is free, although you could check before you go.

Staying in Savannakhet

Excellent coffee at the Chez De Bourne

Time for breakfast! Hands down, the Chez De Bourne restaurant located on the same road as the Thai Embassy in Savannakhet offers not only the best Coffee in town (as seen in the picture above), but also superb food.

Beautiful architecture in and around Savannakhet

I love how shutter doors add a real rustic appearance to buildings. Stunning!

You have to wait 30 minutes for the lasagna at the Chez De Bourne, but so worth it!

I then went and looked for a hotel for the night, and ended up staying at the Savanbanhao Hotel, which at 250b for the night with aircon, with extremely friendly locals (the staff took me out to Oscars night club), was a good choice.

Getting back to Mukdahan

At 2pm you’ll need to head back to the Thai Embassy to collect your visa at 2pm, then get a tuk tuk back to the Friendship bridge (80b this time around). The fee for the bus is 50b, but takes you all the way to Mukdahan bus station.

My friend’s visa was just about to expire, which meant for a brief trip over to Svannakhet in Laos to get a new one. Here are some pics exploring Svannakhet, eating fine French Food and a little boat trip we organized with a local fisherman.

A local chap taking a break from working in the blazing heat.

This is the local fisherman we approached and asked him if he would take us up (or down) the Mekong River for an hour or so to kill some time. He happily agreed for a small fee.

Life along the Mekong River.

The friendship 2 bridge connecting Mukdahan in Thailand to Svannakhet in Laos.

This is one of my fav restaurants in Laos. It’s called Daosavan and serves up some excellent French fare at very affordable prices.

Playing around with reflections while waiting for my food.

In my opinion, the Vegetable soup, is the best thing on Daosavan’s menu.

Although the beef bourguignon wasn’t anything to complain about. It went down a treat :)

Yesterday I took the bus from Savannakhet (Laos) to Hue (Vietnam) – a 7 hour journey that takes you east across Laos, over the Vietnamse/Laos borader and down into Hue.

Any travel exceeding 4 hours really gets on my tits, but seeing as I’m heading down to HCMC, there are not a lot of other options available.

The bus departs Savannakhet at 10am – a good start. We had plenty of time to check out of our hotel, change some kip into dollars and make our way over to Savannakhet’s bus station. The fee is 90,000 kip from Savannakhet to Dong Ha and 120,000 kip from Savannakhet to Hue.

It pays to be cheeky

As I gave the bus attendant our ticket, I noticed that there were only 16 passengers on the list as he crossed of our names and allocated seat numbers. As I boarded the bus, I headed straight for the back row of seats. Sitting there with my head down praying the attendant would let us get away with it, I began sorting out a $10 note for a “tip” just in case he did have a problem. Luckily he didn’t, so as all the other passengers began to take advantage of the additional seats avaible while I laid down across 5 seats with my head firmly placed on my missus lap. This wasn’t going to be as bad as I first thought.

Around 1pm we stopped off at a restaurant that had some interesting foods layed out which you could pick and chose. After lunch, everyone started to huddle around the huge jars of whiskey that had weird looking animals and reptiles in them, like these jars with Gecko’s inside them:

A few hours later we arrived at the Lao immigration – which was very straight forward. A couple of minutes later we arrived at the Vietnamise immigration and were directed through to a small open building with a huge sign that read “QUARETINE”

The lady in front of me sat down and the official with a mask over his face put a small device on her temple which bleeped, which I later found down was a thermometer. She pulled a face like she was in pain, and as no one at this time knew what the device was, I could feel my heart beating faster thinking shit – I have to go through pain in order to get into the country. Of course, we all found out later she was playing a sick joke.

After passing quarantine and passport control, we were back on the bus going up and down lush mountains making our way east over Vietnam, and down into Hue.

All in all, Savannakhet to Hue by bus journey wasn’t as bad as I had expected.

I’ve just spent a couple of weeks exploring southern Laos on a motorbike, which has ended up being one of the most raw, exciting, rewarding and cultural trips I have made during 5 years of travel in South East Asia.

I wanted to share some tips, thoughts and ideas that will hopefully help people who are considering doing the same. I also wanted to keep this post open as a Q&A – so if you have any questions or need advice, please leave them in the comments below and I’ll respond as quickly as I can.

The Route

Savanakhet (2 days)
Driving down to Paske (8 hours due to heavy rain)
Paske & Waterfalls (3 days)
Khon Phapheng Falls and the 4,000 Islands (2 days)
Kiet Nong + Elephant Trecking (2 days)
Don Daeng (1 day)
Wat Phou & Champasak (1 day)
Paske (1 day)
Savanakhet

The route I recommend

The only reason I started the route in Savanakhet was due to needing to come back to get a Visa for Vietnam. If you’re onward travel includes either Vientiane, Thailand or Cambodia, I would recommend skipping the Savanakhet to Paske leg as there’s not much to see or do, and starting the tour in Paske.

After spending a few days exploring Paske, I would head out discovering the many waterfalls, rural life and coffee plantations around the Bolaven Plateau.

I would then head south to Don Daeng and base myself at the excellent La Fuli hotel for a couple of days while exploring Wat Phue and Champasak.

After the luxury of staying at the La Fuli Hotel on Don Daeng, I would make my way down to 4 thousand islands, stopping off at the Khon Phapheng Falls (it’s around an additional 20km from the turning you need to get the boat opver to 4,000 islands) and ruff it in a couple of dollars a night river side bungalow for a few days while chilling out in your hammock, checking out near by islands and canoing.

On the return trip back to Paske I would stop of at the KingFisher Eco-Lodge, live with nature for a day or two and take the one day Elephant safari.

Driving a motorbike in Laos

Most guest houses rent out motorbikes and are happy storing your belongings while you embark on your journey. Although, don’t expect any insurance or RAC cover. If you have an accident or the motorbike incurs a problem while it’s in your hands, you’ll have to folk the bill.

For the most part, driving a motorbike in Southern Lao was a piece of cake. Outside of the main towns, the conditions of the roads are excellent and are virtually empty, which make for a nice relaxing drive while you take in the views, bamboo huts and river streams.

The most changeling part of the whole trip, in terms of driving, was this little hill that lead down to the boats that would take us over to the 4,00 islands.

The down side to driving on a motorbike in Laos is the blazing sun, the animals (pigs, cows, goats and dogs) that run out into the middle of the road, and the way the Lao’s drive themselves. Lao drivers seem to only care about what is in front of them, and they expect you to do the same. This can prove a little tricky if you were taught to be aware of what’s going on all around you while you drive.

Luckily, every town, big or small, will have repair shops. I had to take my bike into 3 different repair shops spread out over the 14 days and luckily all 3 repairs cost less than $10 to fix.

What to bring

I strongly advise packing light. In fact, the lighter the better! We took 5 pair of shorts and 5 t-shirts each – along with some toilitaries. You’ll only need one pair of flip floops – I can’t speak highly of the North Face collection. Also, a good quality bag is highly recommended as we bought a bag here in Laos that fell apart on the first day… so a quality rucksack bought outside of Laos is recommended.

Sun cream is a must – Sun cream hadn’t touched my skin since my mum slapped it on my arse during our annual holidays to Spain when I was a kid. It works, and with the blazing sun beaming down on your forearms and back of the neck while driving, this can really save some sleepless nights.

Guide book – I bought a 2nd hand copy of the Lonely Planet Laos when I was on Don Khet for a couple of dollars, which was printed 2 years ago. Most of the hotel and restaurant info was incorrect, but obviously the sights are still in the same locations so it’s worth getting a guide book just in case you decide to venture of course.

How much did it cost?

The motorbike cost just under $10 a day, and the friendly owner gave us one day free when we returned the bike. – so try your luck! Food and accommodation in Laos is peanuts – very similar to anywhere other than Bangkok in Thailand.

Got any Q’s?

Fire away!