For Laos, insurance is purchased at the border. For Cambodia, you buy it online before travel. It's very cheap.

@Nigel *****

What do you mean? We were discussing driving across the border to neighboring countries. The rules vary depending on the country you're going to. Regarding individual borders, they have the same rules although in the case of Laos entering via the 1st Friendship Bridge, they're once again limiting Thai cars to 15 days instead of 30, though this can be extended..thus you would first get 15 days then get it extended later. Or you enter at a quieter border and get 30 days straight off the bat (something I used to do, hence why I avoided entering at Vientiane until recently) but following Covid I started entering there again.

@Henrik ****

DTV holders can stay several months, but despite this, most banks aren't issuing accounts to DTV holders at least not at this time. Most banks prefer to deal only with foreigners holding work permits. Some exceptions apply, but if you show up with a visa that doesn't have a work permit attached, it can be difficult to find a bank who will deal with you. This was already the case years ago, but has been getting progressively more difficult in recent years.

@Martino ******

Dangerous advice, LOL. There is no tax law. You're panicking over a nothing Burger.

If you have a longer validity license from another Asean country that is valid for longer than 1 year (Thai ones are now 2 and 5 years, not 1 year anymore) then use that instead.

While I haven't heard of any issues with using a Thai temporary license in Laos, ideally it should be a 5 year one.

Laos is fine for sure with a Thai, 5-year license. In theory, all other Asean countries should accept a Thai driver's license too..mine has been accepted everywhere in Cambodia but downtown Phnom Penh, where corrupt police want to see an IDP (you can get one from the Land Transport Department if you already have a Thai DL).

It's valid for 5 years, so enter anytime within that validity. Should be obvious really.

@Dca ****

Also, don't trust Thai timelines. I am confident end of 2025 is more likely. Anyway, very few farang will be interested in this crossing unless you happen to live in Beung Kan.

@Charles *********

More and more countries have stopped stamping passports

@Andy ***********

They can't even enforce tax on their own citizens. They certainly don't have the capability of tracking down a farang who withdraws money from an ATM in Thailand and tries to steal part of it from them. Besides, they already take 220 Baht from every withdrawal.

Being Thailand, if they ever did enforce this, you'd simply need to bribe the person doing the enforcing and then it would be problem solved.