BORDER CROSSING: Laos-Vietnam via Nam Phao-Cau Treo Border 

3
Klook.com

Several bus lines connect Vientiane, Laos to international destinations like Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. As part of my 100-day Southeast Asia trip, I needed to travel overland from Vientiane to Ninh Binh, Vietnam. Checking the bus prices, a sleeper bus to Vinh and Hanoi have the same price and Ninh Binh is in the middle of these two Vietnam provinces. Going to Ninh Binh from Vientiane requires crossing the Nam Phao and Cau Treo border.

border crossing laos vietnam vientiane international bus station

What I did is to get a bus ticket to Hanoi and asked the bus crew to drop me in Ninh Binh. If I had the bus to Vinh, it will cost me an additional bus or train to Ninh Binh. The bus leaves at Vientiane South Bus Station around 5 PM. But you’re in Southeast Asia so wait for the bus to leave until 6:30 PM.

border crossing laos vietnam international bus to vietnam
International buses to Vietnam.

A bottled water, wet tissue, dental kit, and sandwich will be given to all passengers after the bus leaves the terminal. The bus has bunks with all seats already reclined. You can also ask for a blanket and a pillow. So far, it was comfortable compared to the bus from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang. Around 9 PM, the bus will stop for dinner. You can get a decent meal for LAK25,000 for a plateful of rice, three types of meat, and sautéed cabbage and carrots.

border crossing laos vietnam sleeper bus laos to vietnam
Sleeper bus from Vientiane to Hanoi, dropping in some provinces of Vietnam like Vinh and Ninh Binh.
border crossing laos vietnam bus stop meal
Decent meal for LAK25,000.

The trip will continue until you reach the Nam Phao International Checkpoint. We arrived at the area around 4 in the morning but the immigration and passport control opens at 7 AM. You can use the time to grab more sleep while the bus is at rest. Else, you can have your early breakfast in two stores near the border control. Noodles are LAK15,000 while chips and cup noodles start from LAK10,000. Toilet is not free for LAK5,000.

RELATED POST: Border Crossing Vietnam to Cambodia

Exiting Laos

If the immigration officers start to go inside their office, bus crews will also start to scramble inside the immigration hall. It was a chaotic scene with everyone dumping and grabbing their passports in front of the immigration officers. Passport of locals are processed by the bus attendants but for foreigners, you need to do it on your own. I consider the Vietnam to Cambodia border crossing more organized than this.

border crossing laos vietnam laos border
Laos border control in Nam Phao International Checkpoint.

An officer grabbed my passport and started looking at his monitor. He had a conversation with his superior first before putting my exit stamp. If the time you cross the border is beyond the office hours, you need to pay the overtime fee. I crossed on a Saturday and was required to pay LAK10,000. However, I had no Laos Kip left so I changed my US dollar to Vietnamese dong in a currency exchange at the border and paid VND30,000, as advised by the immigration officer.

border crossing laos vietnam
Private vehicles, international buses, and cargo trucks wait til 7 AM for the border control to open.

After the hullabaloos, exit the immigration hall and look for your bus. Sometimes, immigration police outside the hall will check your passport to verify if you already stamped out before they allow you to go to your bus.

border crossing laos vietnam walk to vietnam border
Walk to the Vietnam border, but you can wait for your bus.

Your bus will go next to the Vietnam passport control, which is around five hundred meters from the Laos border checkpoint. You can walk to the border or wait for your bus to complete all the passengers. For me, the bus driver suggested that Vietnam passport control is ahead. So I walked. On the way, our bus made its way to Vietnam border. What the heck?!?

RELATED POST: Border Crossing Thailand to Laos

Entering Vietnam

There’s a pre-entry area before the immigration booths of Vietnam. The officers will check your passport if you already had your exit stamp from Laos. Go straight to the Vietnamese immigration for them to check your passport and ask you to pay USD1 for the entry stamp. Ink is probably expensive in Vietnam because I paid VND20,000 for my entry stamp. The immigration officer said, USD1 for the stamp. When I asked why, he returned my passport. I said I had no dollars and asked how much in dong, they said VND20,000. I just complied than being denied entry to Vietnam. I’m not sure if the fee is for overtime or another scam that these authorities do. I didn’t see any information for overtime fees unlike at the Laos side.

border crossing laos vietnam
Vietnam side is currently building a better border checkpoint.

After the entry procedure, get your backpack or luggage from the bus for the x-ray scan and check. When everyone completed the procedure, the bus will enter Vietnam. Next step would be Vietnam immigration police again checking the vehicle for anything suspicious or undeclared items. After that, you can return your stuff into the bus compartment.

border crossing laos vietnam immigration border
Immigration hall of Vietnam is on the right, on the green ‘building’.

Everyone again needs to go to the post-entry area where the immigration police checking for your entry stamp. Finally, wait for your bus to reach that point and enjoy another few hours of sleep until you reach your destination. I arrived around 3:30 PM in Ninh Binh.

border crossing laos vietnam
Immigration police checks the bus one more time requiring all passengers to wait for the final procedure.

I was supposed to do Hanoi to Luang Prabang on my first Southeast Asian backpacking trip but the long hour bus ride was too overwhelming for a first-timer like me. On this trip, I needed to cross Laos to Vietnam to continue my itinerary and already prepared for the almost 24-hr bus ride. It was fine because the travel is an experience itself but the immigration processes between these countries, specifically at Nam Phao – Cau Treo border, just add burdens to the tiring trip.

Klook.com

3 COMMENTS

  1. Wow! The Vientiane bus station improved a lot. It was just an old building and a muddy lot in 2012 when I did this border crossing. Can’t say the same for the Vietnam Immigration though. It looks exactly the same. It was under construction at the time too. I guess it’s still not done or this a new project. The road between the borders was worse back then as well. It was unpaved, dusty and lots of construction and digging going on. The $1 stamp fee was around back then as well. It’s really just for their pockets. I remember 3 Brazilians arguing with the IO since they already paid $60 for a tourist visa. They got a lot of angry looks from other Western passengers since they were delaying everyone by arguing. They ended paying the fee anyway.

  2. Hello thank you very much for your blog!
    I’ve added to my list of what to follow. I’m doing this cross the other way around from Vinh to Vientiane. I’m wondering if you remember which bus is this as alot of the ones that I found does NOT look like that at all. Yours its almost luxury compared to the ones I’ve seen online. Thank you very much in advance.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.