thailand-laos-(vietnam)

Jan 12, 2003
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thailand-laos-(vietnam)
« on: Dec 23rd, 2002, 6:14am » Quote Modify Remove

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We are a dutch boy and girl who currently driving on our XT600's through SE-Asia. A few days ago we tried to get into Vietnam from Laos at the Cau Treo bordercrossing but we failed. We've pleaded for an hour but they wouldn't bulge. Reasons mentioned were: too many cc's, no permission from local police ministery 100 km uproad, Vietnam not mentioned on the frontpage of our carnets and additional subwriting at the second page (along with laos, malaysia, thailand etc.) including stamp and signs were not believed as genuine.
The form that you have on your site can not be used and that form is even old. They have a new form now for declaring bagages, which off course we couldn't use either.

We came into Laos from Thailand at the Friendship Bridge-crossing. There was abolutely no probleme there. Our carnets were stamped within 10
minutes and there was no expiration date mentioned. In Thailand we almost believed the local TAT in Udon Tani who informed us that crossing the bridge was impossible and that Laos would not let us in, unless when we put our bikes on a pick-up and imported them like that. The charge for this was "only" 4000 baht per bike. We are glad that we did not believe them !
Contrary to what is mentioned on the site we did not have to fill in any forms.....but perhaps we were lucky or we didn't have to because of our carnets.
Route 13 is in good shape all the way from Luang Prabang to Pakse in the South, except some potholes and muddy parts in the mountainous area.
The several detours between Savannakhet and Tha Kaek can easily be skipped by just driving past the barricades

Bart and Irene
 
Jan 12, 2003
258
1
0
Re: thailand-laos-(vietnam)
« Reply #1 on: Dec 23rd, 2002, 11:32am » Quote Modify Remove

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Bart & Irene
Thanks for the trip report.
Your report confirms the info I have already
1. It's easy to get into Laos.
2. Vietnam is NO GO right now, & most likely will be for quite a while. If you take a look at my border crossing info at
https://www.gt-rider.com/crossingborders.html
you will see that I say

Laos / Vietnam: there are two legal ones. (1) Route 9 via Dan Savan (L) / Lao Bao (V) and (2) route 8 via Nam Phao (L) / Cau Treo (V). But note that the current situation in mid 2002 is that that entry into Vietnam is NOT possible.

The info that I have is that bikes over 175cc are not permitted into Vietnam. This has been the law for a long time, but for some reason it was not enforced at Lao Bao until May this year, when a German couple upset at being refused entry into Vietnam from Cambodia, flew to Hanoi to protest. As the story goes, they attempted to lay down the law in best German style & immediately upset the authorities with their protest. The result being that the Vietnamese authorities responded by ensuring that the law is strictly enforced at ALL border crossings into Vietnam - NO motorbikes over 175cc are allowed into the country.

Thanks for the tip on route 13 in Laos from Luang Prabang to Pakse – it keeps getting better.

Drop me a line when and if you get to Chiang Mai.

« Last Edit: Dec 23rd, 2002, 11:34am by Davidfl » 203.146.138.193

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Davidfl