CROSSING into Thailand from Laos Didn't go as Planned S8 EP 86 | Pakistan to Japan Motorcycle
no no no I have the visa and everything. It's here. I need insurance for Thailand. Without any reason, we are going back to Laos. They didn't let me enter. Assalam-o-Alaikum everyone and welcome back to the channel from Pakping.
A small Laos town on the banks of the Mekong river. We reached here yesterday because we plan to go to Thailand. The border we want to cross is about 50-60 km from here. That we'll do today and cross it to Thailand. This is probably the most important river in Southeast Asia. It flows from China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam to the South China Sea.
It is about 4500 km long. If I am not mistaken, it is the biggest river in Southeast Asia. A lot of people, locals and even tourists travel from one town to another through this river.
It is called a slow boat and you can see its sign boards everywhere. A lot of backpackers travel through it. We are not traveling through it. But back there was a boat station. I went there to take some drone shots.
The plan is to have a nice breakfast at some place. After that, we will start our journey and try to cross to Thailand as soon as possible. I don't know how many kilometers we will cover after that. We will see. I will keep you updated as well. Here is our breakfast. I was looking for a good place to have breakfast.
So, I found a Bangladeshi restaurant here. After a long time, we have bread in our breakfast. Normally, we get rice only in the morning.
A nice cup of coffee here. I asked them to give us some milk as well. It is best. Otherwise, the coffee will be too dark for me. There are some jams as well.
There are fruits as well. There is mango, banana and scrambled egg. What else do we need? We got the best breakfast early in the morning. Otherwise, I'd have been still wondering about where to get our breakfast. So, let's start with the fruits.
Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim Prayer for the journey Ya Allah, make this a safe and memorable day for us. We are leaving Pakping now. It is quite hot here early in the morning.
I can hear some noise in the chain. I think it needs to be lubricated. So, let's stop at some petrol station.
And take care of this as well. The border is about 55 km from here. We will reach there in an hour or so. The weather has changed a lot in a day. It was quite pleasant at night. But as soon as the sun is out...
It does feel a bit windy while you are riding. In the last vlog, I told you that Laos was a colony of France. I think Laos got independence in 1955. After that, there was a civil war here. Due to the Vietnam war, there are a lot of unexploded bombs here. That results in the death of about 50 people every year.
The communist party rules here ever since the civil war. Since the 1970s. The overall development here is not that great. Things are slowly getting better.
Tourism is also coming here. We didn't go to the main tourist destinations here. But we will visit again when we get a chance. This time, we are just passing by to go to Japan.
I think we have reached the border. Let's ask the policeman once this car passes through. What is the procedure here? Hello? Yes Okay. Thank you. Let's go and park there.
I think this is the immigration and customs area. This is just immigration. This is a relatively small border. We might be able to do it quickly here. There is not much rush.
Immigration and customs work is done here. It must have taken 5 to 7 minutes maximum. We have paid them only 10,000 kip. Less than $1 for the immigration. They did not charge me anything. I had to get the local currency converted.
I had around $150. Sorry? Thank you. This sticker? It's for me? Okay. Thank you. So, this is complete now.
I was telling you that I had to exchange the local currency. Because I don't know... once I leave Laos... would there be an opportunity to exchange the currency or not. Because I have so much currency from so many countries.
And I have never been able to exchange it. That's why I exchanged it with them. The policeman gave me around 2,000 baht. I am absolutely not sure what the rate is. I said, okay. I don't mind if he does make some money off me.
There is no problem. Another passenger here also exchanged some of my dollars. I think our side has changed now. Earlier, we were riding on the right side in Laos and China. And all the other countries before.
Now we are on the left side. He gave me around 10,000 or something. I do not know. I don't know about the currency of Laos.
There were currency notes as big as around 100,000. Office of International Health Control. I think that is the passport control.
The name of this border is Hoi Kon Border. There are a lot of small shops here. I don't know what they are selling. Visa on arrival. Let's see what we get. Such a bad border crossing.
Without any reason. We are going back to Laos. They didn't let me enter.
Documents, everything is complete. No issues. No insurance. They have already sent me a message to get insurance.
I have searched everywhere. I have gone to 7-11. They sell insurance. But they are selling it only for cars. They are not giving it to foreigners online.
I have been trying to get insurance somehow but no success. So... A month ago, a traveler crossed the border.
Some security guy here, sold him the insurance. Now I am not getting it. Normally, there are insurance shops at borders.
But not on the smaller borders in Thailand. I wanted to avoid the bigger borders. I'll tell you the reason later.
I'm on my way back to Laos. Let's try from here. May be we can get an insurance agency from Laos.
I came from here. Ok, it's got translated. No, no, no, no. I have the visa and everything. It's here. I need insurance for Thailand. A motorcycle insurance.
I went from here. Yes, yes. Let me check from here. Let me ask if there is an insurance office here. It's 4 pm here and I haven't found any solution yet.
Today is a public holiday in Thailand. Today and tomorrow. That's why most of the offices are closed.
One of my friends tried to buy a ticket for me but the office is closed. So we couldn't get a ticket from the office. I requested a Malaysian friend, who was an admin in our group, to get a ticket from Malaysia to Thailand.
He's trying but he's not getting it. Because when he calls, there is no response. There's a lady in Laos who sells insurance at the border. I called her and she told me that she's in Thailand.
I'm trying another person now. Otherwise, we'll have to stay in Laos for a couple of days until we get our insurance. The reason for that is that I can try at any other, bigger, border here. But the rule in Thailand is that before you cross the border, you need a tour guide's permission.
It takes 15 days to get a tour guide's permission. I think you get that permission for a month. You have to pay $250 - $300 for that permission. So it takes 15 days to process. There are some borders where they don't ask for permission. Especially the smaller ones.
That's why I came to this border. So that I can cross the border. Everthing will be done here without needing any permission. When you enter Thailand, whether you have a tour guide's permission or not, the process is the same for everyone.
They just enforce this on few borders that you need a tour guide's permission. Especially the bigger ones. I'm sitting here now. Let's pray that I cross the border. Let's see. A friend of mine told me that he is trying to get insurance.
If he gets it today, he'll send it in half an hour. So we have finally entered Thailand. There was a customs officer sitting there. I'm feeling a bit tired now. It's been 5 hours now. There's a 7-Eleven over there.
Let's go there and get something to drink. The 7-Eleven guy helped me a lot. Let's get some coconut water. How much is it? Thank you.
There are some coins as well. Let me throw this away. How much is this Thailand coin? It's 5. This is a 20 baht note. I think it has a Thai prince on it.
It says King on it. I'm not sure about the images on the back. This is a picture of Thai King.
I'm not sure about the images on the back. This is a 1000 baht note. That's what we have. We have exchanged a lot of currency here.
We have a lot of money now. We can spend the night comfortably now. Welcome to Thailand. I got a 60 day visa on my German passport. I went to the customs office. They asked me one question.
Do you have insurance? They did not ask for any other document. They started everything else later. I got my insurance arranged.
I called a friend in Pakistan. Told him about someone who is very active in Thailand. His name is David Goodchild. I need his number.
I messaged him on Facebook. But he didn't reply. He gave me his number. I called him and he agreed to try. He sent me a message after a while.
And asked for some details to arrange the insurance. I paid him 1650 Baht. We have insurance for a year now. I think it's around $50.
It might be a little expensive. But because he helped me at a very critical situation, I was willing to pay even a 100 dollars. Even more. Because I didn't want to stay in Laos again. Have to do some arrangements to transport the motorcycle to Japan. That's why I had to come here. Another thing...
The customs officer told me that he's giving me 30 days. So I asked him to give me 60 days. That's the length of my visa. Hence we have 60 days now. If you go to another border, the rules will be different. You can enter without a tour agency. You should have insurance.
No one asks for a carnet here. Neither on the Laos side nor here. I didn't make any extra payment here.
They didn't ask for anything. People say there is corruption at these borders.. But they didn't ask me for anything.
Overall, after getting insurance, it was a smooth process. I use booking.com now. I have an eSIM from Thailand. I don't need to buy a sim card. At least for a couple of days. The advantage of a local sim is that you have a lot of internet.
You can use eSIM. You have 20-25 GB. You can use it. There is a city about 60 km from here. I am planning to spend the night there. It's already 5 pm.
We will have 1 hour of light. It will take us 1 hour to cover 60 km. Let me drink this and then we'll leave. Welcome to Thailand. Bismillah... In the name of Allah Lets go.
I have entered the address. I saw a hotel. About 85 km from here. I didn't think it was so far. The navigation says 85 km. It will take us about 2 hours. I think the road is under construction.
Let's see. It's almost sunset time here. It is sunset time, in fact.
This area looks quite beautiful. Especially when you gain some altitude, you can see all these mountains. It's similar to Laos. Of course, it's a border town.
The scenery will change as we go. Seems like an amazing place. It's a jungle, but the roads are well built. And the scenery here looks quite good. I mean it looks good. We have to ride for another 10 km.
Then we will enter a small city. Let's see what's there. I didn't book from Booking.com because I didn't want to go too far. I don't want to book and get into trouble. Check out the roads. The difference between Laos and here is huge.
The first section, for about 40-50 km, was under construction. But after that, the roads have improved. I have decided that Naan is 42 km away from here.
There is a hotel on this road. Let's stay there. I don't have the courage to ride 42 km. It's getting more difficult by the kilometer, due to fatigue. The problem is that I am hungry. I also have to look for a restaurant nearby.
I have spotted one on the map. Let's go and check it out. It says Bania Hotel.
I don't know if they have a place or not. And how expensive it is. Hello. Do you have room available? Room? I do not know. Let me translate. I am lucky that I found a room here.
I didn't have the courage to go further. It's a decent room. The price is also good. Let me show you the room.
That's the bed. It's a decent room. Nothing too fancy though. Almost everything we need is here. There is a table here.
There is a fridge here. If there is a supermarket here, I'll pick something from there. There is a place to hang clothes.
Here's the washroom. The washroom is also clean and decent. I have paid 450 baht for this room.
It is around $13.5. $1 for a room is around 34 baht. I think I got a good room at a good price. There is also air conditioning.
We may need it here. I can't feel the heat in the room. Let's go out and see where we can get food.
I didn't leave any restaurant in this small town. Where I went to see if I can get some food. Some were already closed. Some were selling the stuff I wasn't ready to eat.
Finally, I found a restaurant. I have ordered seafood fried rice. I told him that I am hungry. He brought a small plate for me. He must have thought that I won't be able to eat this much. Anyway, let's eat this.
It's okay. We will take rest. I think this is an interesting town. Don't know exactly because I reached here after dark. Google is showing a lot of options. Restaurants, cafes, etc. When I wake up tomorrow, I will check the options.
If I feel fresh, I will go ahead. Otherwise, I may rest here for a day or so. Might as well edit some videos. Let's eat this now.
I'll take your leave now. Remember to pray for me. Don't forget to Like, Subscribe and Share. Allah Hafiz
2025-04-12 08:16
