Vientiane, Laos in One Day — Overland from Udon Thani

Laos became my 82nd country, and we spent exactly one night in it. We came overland from Udon Thani, crossed the Friendship Bridge on an e-visa, had perfectly real US dollars rejected for being slightly creased, and ended the day with a 2-hour massage for $20 — for two. If you're planning the Udon Thani to Vientiane route, the practical part is at the end.

This was a detour in the middle of our 4-week Asia trip, squeezed between the two halves of a Bangkok stopover.

Laos is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia, home to about 7.5 million people. Vientiane, the capital, had 840,000 at the 2023 census and sits on the Mekong, looking across the river at Thailand. Fun fact: the Emerald Buddha — Thailand's most sacred statue, behind the Grand Palace walls we'd found closed the evening before — spent 214 years in Vientiane, until the Siamese general Chao Phraya Chakri, the future King Rama I, took it to Siam in 1779.

#Udon Thani to the Laos border by taxi

Why Udon Thani? Flying from Bangkok straight into Vientiane cost about $150 per person more than a round trip to Udon Thani plus the overland part. For a one-night visit, that's a lot of $20 massages :)

We landed there at 9:45 on August 7. The connection to the bus was too tight, so we took a taxi straight to the border at Nong Khai: about $10–15 and roughly an hour.

The driver was the best part of the morning. He talked the whole way — about Thailand, about Laos, about how tangled their history is. No wonder: Isan, Thailand's northeast, speaks what is essentially the Lao language and was once dominated by the Lao kingdom of Lan Xang.

#Crossing the Friendship Bridge with a Laos e-visa

The First Thai–Lao Friendship Bridge opened in 1994, paid for by Australia as development aid. It's 1,170 m long with a railway track down the middle, and traffic lights at the Lao end switch cars from left-hand to right-hand driving.

I'd applied for the Lao eVisa with my Ukrainian passport a week or two before the trip: $50 on the official site, and it came through in about 3 days. The site says processing is usually within 3 working days, the visa gives you up to 30 days in the country, and it works only at 9 designated entry points. Friendship Bridge I is one of them; enter anywhere else and you need a visa on arrival, with the eVisa fee lost.

The border wasn't modern, and that was part of the fun. Right after Lao immigration there were SIM card and money exchange counters, so we got a local SIM and some kip and hopped on a local bus. About 20 minutes later we were in Vientiane.

#US dollars in Laos: crisp bills only

It was one night, so I exchanged only a little money and spent most of it on lunch before check-in. The hotel charged a card fee of around 5%, if I remember correctly, so I offered US dollars instead.

They rejected several of my bills. Not fakes — just slightly creased or worn. Every note was inspected like a collector's item, and in the end it took pretty much all the cash I had.

Officially, Laos wants you to pay in kip anyway: under its 2022 foreign exchange law, paying for goods and services in foreign currency is generally prohibited. Quite a contrast with Cambodia, where the US dollar is the de facto currency.

The hotel was fine for one night and not more: a dated room, scuffed walls, and a smell of smoke someone had tried hard to mask.

#Getting around Vientiane with LOCA

Grab doesn't operate in Laos. Instead, there's LOCA, a local app with maps and other services inside; we only needed taxis, and it just worked. I assumed it was a government project. As far as I can tell, it's a private Lao startup founded in 2018, and about 90% of its drivers use fully electric cars.

#Vientiane in one day: Lane Xang Avenue to Patuxai

Vientiane is small — you can walk across it in a few hours, which is what we did that evening and again the next morning.

The best part is one straight line: from the Presidential Palace up Lane Xang Avenue, the widest boulevard in the city, past flower beds and fountains all the way to Patuxai. Some historic places were already closing when we passed. A short walk from the palace is Haw Phra Kaew, the Emerald Buddha's former home, now a museum.

Patuxai looks like the Arc de Triomphe redrawn in Lao style. It was built in 1957–1968 with money and cement the United States had provided for a new airbase — hence the nickname "vertical runway". The musical fountain in the garden around it was donated by China.

The surprise was Vientiane Center, the mall next to our hotel: not big, but full of modern stuff. I went looking for DJI (I'd drowned my drone controller right before the trip) and found a store — and, parked inside, an EV I couldn't place. Not a Tesla, as far as I could tell, just some other electric car. The streets outside are nowhere near that level.

#Food, and a 2-hour massage for $20

I can't tell you much about Lao food. Our first meal was at a small place where the owner cooks himself — a nice menu, so-so food, and a mango shake that was, for some reason, salty. Dinner was at a Chinese restaurant with really spicy food. I also bought some mangoes. That's nowhere near enough to judge Lao cuisine, so I won't.

The best deal of the whole detour came that evening, right before bed. Vientiane has plenty of massage places, and 2 hours — a foot massage and a full-body massage — cost us $20 for two. Very relaxing.

#Vientiane to Udon Thani by bus

On August 8 we took the international bus back, booked on 12Go: 12:00 from the Talat Sao (Morning Market) bus station, 14:00 at the Udon Thani bus station.

The ticket warned that the bus does not wait for you at the border — if you're slow at immigration, it leaves without you. In reality, our whole bus got through in about 30 minutes.

The Thai side was the confusing part: no signs at all about where the bus picks you up. We waited 10–15 minutes, asking people, until it finally showed up. From the Udon Thani bus station a 5–10 minute taxi took us to the airport, and at 17:50 we flew back for the second half of our Bangkok stopover.

#Practical Notes

• Laos e-visa (Ukrainian passport): apply at laoevisa.gov.la — usually processed within 3 working days, single entry, up to 30 days, valid only at designated entry points (Friendship Bridge I in Vientiane is one). The official FAQ says to bring a printed approval letter.
• Bangkok to Vientiane on a budget: a round trip to Udon Thani plus the overland part was about $150 per person cheaper than flying into Vientiane.
• Udon Thani airport to the border: about an hour by taxi (we paid $10–15). BKS announced a daily bus from September 9, 2026 that goes from Udon Thani airport straight to Vientiane: 9:30 from the airport, 14:00 back from Vientiane, 80 baht.
• Money and SIM: both at the counters right after Lao immigration. Pay in kip; if you bring US dollars, bring crisp bills, and ask about card surcharges before paying.
• Taxis: LOCA — Grab doesn't work in Laos.
• Bus back: Talat Sao to Udon Thani takes about 2 hours, border included, and tickets are sold online for about $5 per person. Fill in the Thailand Digital Arrival Card first — it's required for land arrivals too.

Next stop: Taipei, after one more night in Bangkok. One night is a thin slice of a country, and I might be wrong about a lot of what I saw. I still can't tell you what Lao food tastes like.