Northern Thailand - Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Northern Thailand - page 942

GETTING TO LAOS: NORTHERN BORDERS
Chiang Khong to Huay Xai
Since the completion of the Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge 4 in late 2013, the former boat crossing
across the Mekong is only for locals.
Getting to the border The bridge is 11km south of Chiang Khong, a 200B túk-túk ride from town.
At the border The border is open from 6am to 10pm. After going through the usual formalities on the
Thai side, board the bus (20B to 30B) that crosses the bridge to Lao immigration, where visas are
available on arrival.
Moving on On the Lao side, túk-túk charge 80B per person to Huay Xai. Destinations from Huay
Xai's bus station include Luang Namtha (350B, 4½ hours, 9am and 12.30pm), Luang Prabang (700B
to 900B, 12 hours, 2pm and 5pm), Udomxai (500B to 700B, nine hours, 3pm) and Vientiane (1800B,
24 hours, 3pm).
If time is on your side, the daily slow boat (950B, 10.30am) to Luang Prabang takes two days, in-
cluding a night in the village of Pak Beng. Booking tickets through a Chiang Khong-based agent such
as Easy Trip ( 0 5365 5174, 08 6997 7246; www.discoverylaos.com ; 183 Th Sai Klang;
8.30am-6pm) costs slightly more, but they arrange tickets for you, and provide transport from your
guesthouse to the bridge and a boxed lunch for the boat ride. Avoid the noisy fast boats (1600B, six to
seven hours, frequent 9am to 11am) as there have been reports of bad accidents.
Lao Airlines ( local [phone], nationwide [phone]; www.laoairlines.com ) oper-
ates a flight from Huay Xai to Vientiane every Wednesday for US$100.
If you already hold a Chinese visa, it's also possible to go directly to China from Chiang Khong.
After obtaining a 30-day Laos visa on arrival in Huay Xai, simply board one of the buses bound for
Mengla (1900B, eight hours, 10am Monday to Saturday) or Kunming (2500B, 18 hours, 10am
Monday to Saturday), which are both in China's Yunnan Province.
Nan to Hongsa
The Ban Huay Kon/Muang Ngeun border crossing is 140km north of Nan.
Getting to the border To Ban Huay Kon, there are four daily minivans departing from Nan's bus sta-
tion at 5am, 6.50am, 8am and 9.30am (100B, three hours). If you miss one of these, the only other op-
tion is to hop on a bus from Nan to Pon (85B, 2½ hours, hourly from 6am to 6pm), at which point
you'll need to transfer to the infrequent sŏrngtă aou that go the remaining 30km to Ban Huay Kon
(100B, one hour, from 9am to 6pm).
At the border The border is open from 8am to 6pm. On the Lao side, foreigners can purchase a visa
on arrival.
Moving on You can then proceed 2.5km to the Lao village of Muang Ngeun, where you could stay at
the Phouxay Guesthouse ( 020 2214 2826; r 60,000K). Or, if you're heading onward, go to the
tiny Passenger Car Station ( 020 244 4130, 020 245 0145) beside the market, from where
so ̆ rngta ̆ aou leave for Hongsa (40,000K, 1½ hours) between 2pm and 4pm. Once the new bridge north
of Pak Beng is open, there will also be a bus service and ostensibly, more frequent transport links.