You can fly to Chaing Rai on AirAsia. Take the morning or noon flight unless you want to spend the night in Chaing Rai. From Chaing Rai bus station there are very frequent buses to Chaing Kong. Like every hour, if not more frequently. I forget the price but it is practically free. I forget how long it took but IIRC it was an hour or two. At Chaing Kong take a tuk tuk to Thai immigration at the riverside for like 30 Baht, clear Thai exit immigration. Pay like 20 baht for a ride across the Mekong on a rickety looking motor boat that leaves "often" to Lao immigration at Ban Huay Xai. Visa on arrival is available. IIRC $30. Bring dollars because it is 1500 Baht if you pay in Baht. The border closes overnight at 6:00PM so keep that in mind time wise. It is all very inexpensive and relativity easy to navigate.

There is also an easy and relatively inexpensive tourist minibus service from Chaing Mai to Chaing Kong if you happen to be in Chaing Mai anyway. Ask a travel agent in Chaing Mai.

Thanks!

Thai Air also flies to Chiang Rai and prices are much cheaper if you purchase at an office or on the phone rather than online. Go figure.... Also as a US citizen I believe the visa fee is $35 for Laos. The price is dependent upon nationality. Otherwise spot on.

I haven't been over this border since the bridge was begun. Oh the days of getting in and out of boats with a pyramid of bags at the front.

I've also been told the overnight train is a nice option, there is also a new connection that will take you all the way to Vientiane. The only problem is that booking online seems to be a problem.

Actually, the Bkk-Nong Khai train and the NK-Vientiane shuttle still operate separately: you need to change trains and buy new tickets at Nong Khai. Add in regular delays (mine was delayed ~5 hrs and the shuttle cancelled), so it's not convenient at all for time being

Trip report about my abortive attempt:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...-tg-qv-fd.html

jpatokal, I've been meaning to ask:
--what's the going rate for the tuktuk from the Thai-Lao border up to Vientiane?
--did you somehow get a chance to get GPS coordinates of the termnation of the Lao train going toward Vientiane?

Thanks.

Posted price is 150 baht for your own tuktuk, but since everybody's going to Vientiane, most people share (they'll drop you off directly at your hotel). That price is negotiable if you're there at a quiet time.

No, because the shuttle was cancelled the day I was there.

So, Dongphosy Rail Station in Lao, across the Friendship Bridge, is at 102.709679112261,17.903297435115. Panoramio has a photo.

It's often referred to as Thanaleng station, since that's the name of the village where the border post is located. (But the station is in Ban Dongphosy.)

Updating with my experiences from this month's trip to Laos: we flew BKK-CEI on Thai Airways and then took a prepaid taxi from there to the Houei Xay border. This cost THB 1500 and was extremely easy to organize at the airport. It took a little over an hour to get to the border. There's no bridge over the Mekong there, just a bunch of fairly rickety boats, one of which took the two of us across right away. The visa process on the other side of the river was quite simple--we paid USD 36 apiece, which I believe was a little extra because it was a Sunday. Whatever! We had no idea where our hotel was in Houei Xay, which quickly became a non-issue because the whole town is about three blocks long.

On our way out, we left from Pakse and drove to Ubon Ratchathani airport. This time we had thought ahead to get our tour company to organize a car--well, two cars, a Lao car from Pakse to the border and then a Thai car from the border to the airport. Total travel time including the border crossing was a bit over two hours. We had built in a lot of padding in case it took longer, so we ended up sitting at the (very basic) Ubon airport for about 3.5 hours. Pretty boring, but better than missing the flight.

Pakxe to Ubon is an alternative that I'll mention, though, in rainy season the car to the border and car to the airport option sounds good:
--tuk tuk from hotel to "VIP" bus station off Highway 13 in Pakxe
--International bus to Ubon bus station. It waits at the border for border crossing formalities.
--tuk tuk from Ubon bus station to airport.