Really not sure on visas as have heard lots of different things. Help would be appreciated, thanks.
Really not sure on visas as have heard lots of different things. Help would be appreciated, thanks.
Basically we are flying to Bangkok from Australia and travelling around Thailand for 3 weeks. We'll then go to Laos for 2 weeks. No idea where to cross though. Will go from Laos to Cambodia for 1 week but looking at Laos as a country, we'll be mainly in the North and then we'd have to travel all the way down the country to get to Cambodia. Not sure whether we could look into flying from Vientiane to Siem Reap. Maybe some help here too please! No idea again how to get into Cambodia from Laos, no idea about border crossings.
Then from Cambodia to Vietnam, not sure where to cross too. From North Vietnam to China - not sure too and as we're not sure where we're going in China yet..
Argh haha basically I'm just wondering where you can get visas from, where you can cross etc. I'm confused about visas and border crossings. Thank you :D
Reply to this Cambodia and Laos issues visas on arrivale at most border crossings (for Laos the length of visa may differ at different crossings).
Vietnam and China do not do visa on arrival so you would need to get one in advance. We got Vietnam visas at the embassy in Bangkok which was very straightforward.
A nice way to get from Cambodia to Vietnam is to take a boat from Phnom Penh over the border into Vietnam leaving you in the Mekong Delta region. There are backpacker trips which tend to be fairly cheap and include the boat ride and a couple of days in the delta which are good.
Hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
Reply to this Oh thanks for that link.
If we were to get the Vietnamese visa, would it be too early? We'd be going there in 6 weeks if we got the visa as soon as we landed in Bangkok. Also, would we have to show some sort of arrangement, like hostel bookings?
With China, this is the hard one. Someone said we can get it on the Vietnamese border, but I don't want to risk anything! My friend's getting her plane back from China and I'm getting my boat to Japan from there. Though if we got them beforehand here in the UK, it's like £65 because of the service charge! A lot of money.
I mean we got an Australian visa free which we didn't expect but £65 is a lot for China.
Thanks for that journey recommendation too Ant and Allee. Where does it end up in Vietnam?
Reply to this Sorry but what about prices too? Stupid economic recession means the £ is weaker against the $ now so we need to save more - $30 used to be like £15 and now it's £20.
I guess £15 for Cambodia, £20 for Laos..Vietnam. Well I think we can get it in England but it all seems rather expensive with the whole Special Recorded Delivery etc which you have to send it by in the post. So I don't know how much Vietnam is..£25?
Reply to this You would be fine getting your Vietnamese visa 6 weeks in advance in Bangkok. That's about the same timescale as we were on. As long as you have a date you intend to be in Vietnam. You can enter after the date you put but obviously you then lose those days. I can't remember how much it cost but it wasn't cheap as we had to do gthe 24 hour option as we were about to leave Bangkok. You don't need hostel bookings or anthing.
The Cambodian visa cost us $30 at the border. I think some people have paid $25 but that's the nature of travelling through Asia.
The trip we took was 3 days and took us by boat from Phnom Penh across the border. We then had time in the Mekong Delta before being dropped off in Saigon. The operator from the Vietnamese side was Sinh Cafe, we booked it through our hostel in Phnom Penh. I don't remember the exact price but it was good value for money and the places we stayed for the 2 nights were nice.
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