Well I did it,.! Nong khai border Vientiane , got there 10.30am and went to enter border post in car and security man on entrance directed us to a young Thai girl ( fixer ) just outside gate, “Don’t ask me why but gate man said we couldn’t go over in car, so in my mind one less problem to sort out,”my Thai g/f spoke to her as her English was poor, so we followed her on her m/bike to a small parking lot and parked car, she took me and g/fs passports and a passport photo I gave her and filled in a couple of forms, 10 mins later tuk tuk taxi bike arived and took us to border post, she filled in some more forms and directed us to immigration window, stamped out of thailand and then escorts us to big bus to ferry us over friendship bridge to Laos side, she comes over with us and tells us window to go to for Laos immigration, 1st windows for Laos visa, that’s what passport photo was for, 1300 bht for visa for 30 or 45 days, ( not sure how long ) as dates were difficult to read, any way go to main Laos immigration window and gets stamped into Laos,. She offers us a mini bus taxi tour of Vientiane ( which my Thai g/f accepted) I wasn’t keen on it but went with the flow, after my suspicions were realised ( taxi man took us to half a dozen shops ) but g/f only exchanged 1000 bht into Laos Kip so she couldn’t break the bank, after a few various tourist type shops we went to a couple of massive temples and stopped for food and drink on way back to border, so for 1200 bht we had escorted service through immigration both ways ,. went through Laos immigration and back on big bus over friendship bridge and back into thailand, there got stamped back into thailand for 30 days, no questions asked, back onto tuk tuk taxi back to car and all sorted,. So 1300 bht for Laos visa and 1200 bht for escort/fixer/2 hour taxi tour around Vientiane/ plus 30 bht for tuk tuk taxi,. Our lives were made easy with this service, yes I could have managed it myself, but it wouldn’t have been easy, plus the fact there seemed to be “ fixers” everywhere, Nong khai seems like a good border to me,. No big Qs and fast moving short lines, good logistics to with the bridge buses and local Thai and Laos taxis around the border posts both sides,. I must admit my 1st impressions of Laos were not good, give me thailand any day of the week,. anyway mission accomplished thailand 30 day stamp in passport,.
TLDR : Answer Summary
The post details a personal experience of a visa run from Thailand to Laos via the Nong Khai border. The author recounts the process of crossing the border with the help of a local fixer, the costs involved, and the overall logistics. Commenters discuss alternative methods, the ease of crossing without a fixer, and their own experiences with border runs. Insights about the costs of the Laos visa and the differences between travel in Thailand and Laos are also highlighted.
