We had planned for weeks where to enter Laos from Vietnam. We got our electronic visas for Vietnam well in advance and needed to mention the land border crossing we intended to enter and leave Vietnam through. Fortunately, we found out in Hanoi (before we booked a bus to Laos) that, as of recently, “on-arrival” visas are no longer possible at certain border crossings and the one we mentioned on our visas was one of them! This is crucial information.
We could have been turned away at the border after a 12 hour overnight bus and would have needed to hurry back to Hanoi to fly out of the country before our very strict 30-day visas expired ON THAT DAY! Do you understand how close we came to being totally screwed?!
So, in order to hopefully help anyone else who might intend on crossing the way we did, the following is the procedure we followed to successfully make it from Vietnam, through Dien Bien Phu and into Laos, landing in Muang Khua. You’re welcome. 😉
First, it must be mentioned that we were lucky to have found this information out while still in Hanoi. More details of what happened to those less fortunate is following. We took a grab to the Laos embassy in Hanoi at about 10am, went to the counter that says visa section, filled out a form, and were told to come back at 3pm. We paid an extra 5USD to get the visa in the same day. My total was 50USD (American) and Johannes paid something like 37USD (German). We came back at 3pm and they were ready to go! So we continued our travel plans from Hanoi to Sapa (highly recommend).
After a wonderful 2 days in Sapa, we booked our night bus from Sapa to Muang khua for 560,000 Vietnamese dong pp, left sapa 19:30 and arrived at 06:30 in the morning in Dien Bien Phu. We stood around waiting for instruction until about 07:30. We got picked up by a smaller bus that was to bring us all the way into our Laos destination stopping for baby chickens, bags of corn, more people and a box for shipment. The trunk door opened up on the twisty road and some of the bags fell out, including mine. 😦
A little after 9am, we made it to the Vietnam exit to see this sign hanging on the door.
Two Germans that were in our bus had no entrance visa, and hoped for a visa on arrival. They tried to ask at the counter to see if there was any chance to squeak by, but they just kept saying No and pointing at the sign. Poor guys had to go back to Hanoi and figure out what to do from there I guess. We continued in our chicken-topped van without them and drove another 20 minutes to Laos entry point. We were the only westerners in the van at this point.
At the counter, we paid three fees in total. We gave them our visas, were asked to pay 10k kip (30k dong) per person, shuffled to the next window, and before we were given our visas back, we were asked to pay 1 USD tourism fee and another 10k kip pp for an entry stamp. We are not sure how much of this was official. It was something like 60k kip total for two people. We only had Vietnamese dong on us, and gave them 200k dong and left with nothing. They definitely scammed us a tiny bit on that exchange rate but we were in no position to argue. My advice: get some Kip in advance and have exactly the amount needed so they can’t skip on your change.
Then, we all hopped back in our van and another 2 hours of twisty drive along mountainside cliffs to Muang Khua, where we stayed at the Monathan guest house for one night, and paid 17€ total including dinner & breakfast. (Highly recommend if you’re staying there.) The van continued from there without us, to its final destination: Luang Prabang. End of story.
Stories of Exploration and Travel 
Hallo,
This is a very exciting story, thank you Katie!
I am just reading it sitting in another Story with the Virus here in Germany.
I hope you will be Healthy and come back without any virus!
Best wishes
Karin
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Danke! We feel good! Stay safe and healthy. See you in a few months! 🙂
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Oh noooo! What a nightmare! Too many hours on a crowded bus. Could you have taken a flight instead?
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Coulda shoulda woulda
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