Trip summary: Russia, Mongolia, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thialand, Laos, Malaysia = very confused about Visa's
Hi Guys,
Any help would be appreciated!
Trip summary: Russia, Mongolia, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thialand, Laos, Malaysia.
I am really confused about how to go about getting visa's, do I need to have them all before i leave the UK?
I am only travelling by rail/road, and therefore unsure if it is possible to get visas at the boarders. I know that it is fairly easy to travel between Thialand, Laos and Cambodia but how do you get Visa's? do you have to visit the UK embasssy in each place? or can you get them included in the coach tickets between each place? if so is this safe?
Thanks for any help! (sorry about so many questions!!)
Anna xx
Reply to this Hi Anna
Malaysia: you don't need a visa, you get a 90 day stamp on arrival.
Laos: you can get a 30 day visa at MOST borders for about $15.
Thailand: if you have a ticket out of the country again you can get a free 30 day stamp when you arrive by air and a 15 day stamp when you arrive by land. You can also buy a 60 day visa at Thai embassies all over the world.
Cambodia: you can get a 30 day visa at MOST borders for about $20
Vietnam: you need to buy the visa in advance. You can get a 30 day visa from most Vietnamese embassies all over the world. It take a couple of days.
China: similar to Vietnam as for as I know.
You don't get visas included in coach tickets, but around alot of the route you are talking about there are travel agents who can get visas for you.
As I said above, visas come from the embassy of the country you are going to, not the UK embassy.
I can't say I know about Russia and Mongolia, although some travellers told me that you need to get the Russian visa from within your own country and you need letters of invitation from a hotel.
Hope this helps.
Kate
Reply to this Thank-you so much that's put my mind at rest! :-) XX
Reply to this AnnaSum----May I suggest that you look at your countries government travel sight and review their comments on each of the countries you want to visit. I have only visited two of the countries you mentioned, Russia and China. I live in the United States. In both instances we have to purchase the visa in this country through a government authorized seller. In this case one was a Chinese agency in California and I don't recall, where the Russian Visa came from. Id di all of this on the internet. It takes some time so get started early. I would think the other countries have similar offices as do the Chinese and Russians in the US. There are some companies that specialize in Passports and Visa and they may be able to handled several countries. We dealt with only one Houston firm when we needed visas to places in South America and Australia. On a side note be sure and check to see if any of those countries require any immunizations or vaccinations. In our case we had to have before they would issue a Visa.
Reply to this Hi Anna. For Russia, China and Mongolia you definitely need a Letter of Introduction or an Letter of Invitation from someone in each country. Most travel agencies can get these for you if you are booking through them.
Depending on how you travel to Russia, you may also need visas for intervening countries - even if you don't plan to get off the train in thoses countries. I got around this by going via the Scandinavian countries but they can be a bit expensive.
You also will need an itinerary, with lists of the hotels you plan to stay at and approximate dates.
There are ways around this but it can be a hassle.
Don't be put off. It is really worth the effort. The experience in each country makes the hassle worthwhile.
John
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