Woo hoo! Outstanding. Armed with our Vietnam visas we easily got same day in Bangkok we will give this a go in about a week greetings from Huay Xai, Laos & hope to meet up with you soon...

Nice work Sylwiak!

I wonder if the lady at Vietnam border was a same girl as during my crossing. She also spoke really good english .
I had to do the same posing over there .

Enjoy Vietnam!

-Hemuli

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Hi niello8,

Already in 1 week you plan to go to Vietnam?
You are really storming through the SE Asia?
Maybe I will see u in KL in few weeks

-Hemuli

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Hi Marco,
That lady was perhaps the same. She seemed to be the only one that knew what to do.
All I can say it is fantastic feeling to be in Vietnam on my own bike. It rained all day long today, I was never as dirty as today arriving at hotel, my bike change its colour from yellow to black- but who cares. I'm in Vietnam and it is wonderfull!
I had a pleasure to ride road 1 today but you were completely right about it- it is just horrible, lorries everywhere, no gaps to overtake.


Niello- I think it might take you a longer than a week to come from Hua Xai to ThaKhek. Northern Laos has many beautiful places to see and there are many nice, curvy mountain roads to pass. Not as fast as Thailand.

Greetings from Ninh Binh in Vietnam
Sylwiak

Just a thought: it might be a good idea to listen to the border staff's advice and not try to leave at another crossing. The fun may well come to an end as soon as head office finds out what is going on at this crossing.

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Yeah Laos is fantastic. So many roads & caves to explore! We may have to linger a bit...

Exactly what Im thinking bro!! After doing Vietnam on a chinese copy of a win110, I would love to get back there on a blacked out 690 in early 2014. And see local friends I met along the way

I hope everyone thats gets through obeys the lady and exits via the same border please don't wreck it for the rest of us by trying to get out else where PLEASE!!! , This could be fantastic for us!

I for one would give that special lady a large Dong for her troubles ok maybe just a big tip

Now that I look at it Im almost sure where that border road meets the HCM hi-way Vietnam there is a gas station with friendly folk and great rice wine, I pulled in for gas and left with a glow on and a full belly haha I wanna go back so bad!!!

Great news!
I'm currently riding though Vietnam on a Yamaha YBR 125 that I bought here. I'd like to ride through Cambodia as well. I'm hearing that it's hard to get across the Cambodian border with a bike from Vietnam?

Would going through this border crossing and into Cambodia and back be my best option?

I'm open to any and all suggestions! I just spent a month riding through the north.

Thanks,
Eddie

We also got into Vietnam, riding a Honda XL650V Transalp from Laos, via the same crossing, the Cha Lo border gate - the one that Hemilu and Sylwiak recently went through - at the eastern end of Route 12.

Similar sort of experience for us too: totally straightforward on the Laos side, but long-winded and a little tense on the Vietnam side. We had the distinct feeling that the Vietnamese border officials really wish we hadn’t turned-up!

No carnet needed, but there was discussion of an 'International Vehicle Permit' (IVP) requirement. I was shown an example of a trucker’s IVP, which is a green-coloured log book about the same size, maybe a little bigger, than a passport. There were several trucks and buses passing through when we were there, so the English speaking lady VN border official*, probably the same person that dealt with Hemilu and Sylwiak, grabbed one of these IVPs and suggested that I really should also have one. I didn’t of course, and so the conversation moved on to the usual lightweight interrogation:'‘What’s the purpose of your visit' -'where are you going in Vietnam?' - 'do you intend to work there?' etceteras.

* @ Hemuli and Sylwiak: was the lady border official that dealt with you quite young (around 30’ish) and slim, wearing glasses, softly spoken, polite and quite competent in English? If so, then this was the same person that dealt with us.

After about an hour of uneasy to-ing and fro-ing, we were eventually granted a 15-day (only) temporary import permit for the bike .. on the strict condition we return and export within that time frame back through the same border crossing.

Today - Thursday, April-11 - is our third day in Vietnam. We are near the South China Sea coastline in the cultural city of Hué on the banks of the Perfume River (Song Huong). The temperature is a lot cooler - a good 10°C less - than anywhere else we’ve been in SE Asia. You notice the change in climate as soon as you pass over the mountain range at the border; it’s an instant drop in temperature. And yesterday we experienced our first rainfall in the region for six weeks, a real downpour. But my word, this makes for a very green country indeed. All the padi fields are full to the brim with healthy growing rice. Nothing like west of here (Laos, Thailand etc) where the fields at this time of year are all dry and mostly barren.

Glad we came - although 15 days is far too short a period to explore this enigmatic country in any great depth of course.

Sức khỏe tốt ..

Keith [& Ellen]

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So glad you and Ellen are enjoying Vietnam! Most of you probably heard Jeff and I went down on road 1E in Laos. We are hanging out in Thakhaek until his foot is better & if it doesnt take too too long we may still try to get into Vietnam. But yes I want to echo the earlier comment, whoever tries this lets all make sure we conform to their requirements & come back out the same border. (& no dong for the lady! dont want to get her in trouble...just some profuse gratitude) K&E hope to see you when you come back into Laos

Hi Keith & Ellen,

Yes, around 30, glasses, hair a bit over shoulders and good english. Really a polite person.
Good that you made it there.
Seems like they wonder now where all these bikers are coming from
I got through really easily, no questions asked.

-Hemuli

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hi Keith1954,
I'm glad you made it to Vietnam. Thanks for mentioning that the temporary import permit for the bike is only for 15 days. I didn't know that but now after reading through it my one is expiring tomorrow...Opps I'm completely north now in Sapa and it will take me few days to get back to the border...I wonder what will that mean...
Marco did they check your temporary import permit by exit?
Sylwiak

Hi Sylwiak,

I had to give my temporary import permit back during the exit.

-Marko

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Marko, did you hand back your permit to the lady border official personally, or to some other person, or simply just handed it in over the counter? See, when I went through there was some doubt, in the lady border officer's mind, that you actually returned via the Cha Lo crossing at all!

We - the lady border officer and I - had quite a discussion about all this during my entry application process on Tuesday [read: it was a bit awkward for me at the time .. ]

just sayin'

Keith

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