We crossed the border between Thailand and Laos in November 2022 at Nong Khai. There are a lot of steps involved and it can take a little while, but it's not too difficult to make the crossing on your own and get into Vientiane.

Read on to see your options for making the crossing, and things you should be aware of.

Get to Nong Khai

The first step is to make your way to the Thai border city of Nong Khai. If you're in Bangkok, the easiest and most comfortable way is to get a train. You have a few options here:

We chose to go for train 25. It's the more expensive of the two night trains, but it's air-conditioned and the coaches are the newer, Chinese-made ones, which makes for a more comfortable sleep. It also allows you to arrive at the border earlier in the morning.

The train itself was clean and comfortable, and a free bottle of water was provided.

Get to Lao-Thai Friendship Bridge I

The border between the south of Laos and Thailand follows the Mekong River, and so the border crossings are located at either ends of a bridge. The crossing at Nong Khai is located at the Lao-Thai Friendship Bridge I, some two kilometres from the train station, so you will first need to head there.

Outside of the train station, there are many tuk tuks waiting to take people there with shouts of "Lao". We paid 50 THB per person to get a shared tuk tuk to the border with our bags, without negotiating, so it may be possible to do better than that.

We hadn't properly realised quite how close the border was, and in fact it looked easily walkable, so worth bearing in mind if your bags aren't too heavy. It should be around a 20-minute walk according to Google Maps.

Once at the border, you join the queue to have your passport checked and fingerprints taken, and you are stamped out of Thailand. This part of the crossing isn't too difficult, and it was relatively quiet at 7:30am.

Get across the bridge

Once you exit Thailand, the next step is to make it across the Friendship Bridge to enter the Laos immigration area.

To do so, you must purchase a bus ticket, which was 35 THB. Allegedly 5 THB of this was an "overtime fee" due to our crossing being early in the morning, but the "35 baht" sign looked quite permanent.

It's important to note that you are not allowed to walk across the bridge. If you do not have your own vehicle, the bus is mandatory.

Get into Laos

When you arrive at Laos immigration, you can apply for a visa on arrival, or present your e-visa. You should see three numbered windows - number one and two for applying for visa on arrival, and number three for collecting your passport - which are clearly marked.

You will first need to obtain and complete an arrival/departure slip, which we got from a man sitting at a table nearby the windows. It's all slightly unclear, but there are plenty of people able to help you, and if you get in the wrong queue you'll soon be pointed in the right direction.

Fill out the arrival half of the slip. Once completed, approach window one with your printed e-visa approval letter, arrival/departure slip and passport. Pass these documents to the immigration officer and they will take them and place them in a pile ready to be processed. You'll then be told to go to window three to wait for your passports to be returned.

Do note there was reference to an extra 1 USD "overtime fee" for processing between 6am and 8am and 4pm onwards, although we weren't charged this at around 7:55am.

It only took around five minutes until we were called at window three to collect our stamped passports. We were given the 30 days we expected from our e-visa.

The departure half of the slip is tucked in your passport and you must keep this until you exit the country.

You are then free to leave the immigration area. An officer will be waiting at the exit gate and will expect to see proof of your valid visa stamp - after this, you have successfully entered Laos!

Get to Vientiane

You will immediately be approached by taxi drivers offering a trip to Vientiane, and there are stands for minibuses and taxis right in front of the exit. We asked at the minibus stand and were told we could go immediately for 400 THB, which was quickly dropped down to 300 THB. We said we would rather share a minibus, and were able to get the price down to 100 THB if we waited for two more people.

If you venture out into the car park, there is a bus stop on the right a little further down the road. We saw a bus and a songthaew pull in there, but we don't know any more details, so it may be possible to get cheaper ride into Vientiane.

After around 20 minutes of waiting for someone to share with, the taxi drivers eventually started offering 100 THB each for a private ride to the city, so we accepted.

All the taxi drivers seem to know Vientiane Center in English, which is a large shopping mall in... well, the centre of Vientiane. If your hotel is within walking distance, it may be easier just to get dropped off here.