We crossed this border a few weeks ago and thought our experience could be helpful for anyone who’s thinking of doing the same.
Chiang Rai to Chiang Khong
We crossed Friendship Bridge No. 4, which seems to be the most popular, but there are several border-crossing points in the north. After staying in Chiang Rai for a couple days, we took the bus from the Chiang Rai Bus Terminal 1 heading to Chiang Khong.
There are a lot of tourists traveling this route so everything is easy to follow and straightforward. In fact, about half the bus was filled with backpackers who were also crossing the border to Laos. You can buy tickets directly on the bus and it will actually stop directly at the border. The price is slightly higher than if you were to take the bus all the way into Chiang Khong but it’s very convenient.
The bus itself isn’t the most comfortable — we arrived at the last minute so they told us to just throw our stuff in the back with us. The back doors wouldn’t close but we trusted our bags not to fall out xD
Crossing the Thailand - Laos border
The bus will drop you off directly in front of the restrooms (very convenient) on the Thai side of the bridge. The process of exiting the country is very easy – apart from the other people on our bus, the immigration point was empty.
After the checkpoint, we had to buy tickets for the bus that would drive us across the bridge. YOU HAVE TO CROSS THE BORDER IN THIS BUS which is kind of unfortunate because the ticket was quite pricey and it would have been easily walkable.
There are flags along the bridge – Thai flags as you leave the country, then, after reaching the middle-point of the bridge, Lao flags.
Arriving in Laos
Upon arriving on the Laos side of the border, you begin the visa application process. They accept Thai Baht and USD but BE SURE TO PAY IN USD as the conversion rate they use is really high.
A quick side note about using USD in Laos – ATM fees are often quite high and the ATMs themselves are unreliable. It’s often much more convenient to exchange cash (and many places will actually let you pay in Thai Baht or USD). However, the Lao banks are very, very strict about the appearance of foreign bills. If there’s even a tiny tear or mark on USD bills, or if the bills are older than 2017, it’s likely they’ll be turned down in Laos.
We were pleasantly surprised to learn that Swiss and Luxembourgish passport holders can enter Laos visa-free for up to 14 days so we didn’t need to pay for the visa! From what we saw, it should cost 40 USD. Though we didn’t need a visa, we still had to pay 40 Baht as a ‘stamp fee’ and another 20 Baht for some kind of ‘tourism tax’.
You're in Laos! Now what?
As we left the Lao immigration checkpoint, we saw a line of tuktuks waiting outside. The only destination seemed to be Huay Xay and prices were fixed at 100 Baht per person. They managed to fit eight of us (and our bags) into the back of a tuktuk.
The drive was about 20 minutes and we had a great view of the sun going down on the other side of the Mekong.
Crossing the border took the better part of an afternoon but the entire process was very straightforward and easy to get through. I’d recommend going early in the day (leaving Chiang Rai in the morning and arriving at the border late morning or early afternoon) as there is a small overtime fee for visas processed and issued after a certain time (16:30 if I’m not mistaken). This surcharge also applies to weekends.