Thanks for that Marko- so I have to change all my plans now and head back for the border as quickly as I can. And this northern mountain loop looked so nice...Strange that my visa is for 1 month and this permit only for 15 days. Anyway I will be late by 1 or 2 days so I just hope they will not fine me for that...
Sylwiak

Hi Keith,

I walked in to the the immigration/customs office which was different than on my way there (other end of the same building) and did not see this girl there.
So, I handed my temporary import permit to the guys behind the counter.
I would have liked to see the girl again and thank her about the possibility to visit their country.

I maybe should have asked her on my return to the same border...

-Marko

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Thank you for clearing-up that point Marko.

I won't be hanging around in Vietnam much longer as unfortunately I don't have enough time. I expect to be going back to Laos over the Cha Lo border gate around next Sunday-14 or Monday-15.

I'll make an absolute point of handing my import/export permit back to her personally.

Moreover, if you tell me when (the exact date) you handed back your permit I'll make sure she knows about it. This should clear-up any misunderstanding she might have about the validitiy of your return.

cheers

Keith

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Hi Keith,

Might be good to hand it over to her.
I crossed the border back to Laos on 24th of Feb (Same border).
If you see her, give my greetings to her and give my apologies that I missed her on my way back.

Ride safely!

-Marko

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Hey everyone! Sending greetings from Thai Hoa, Vietnam border was very quiet & chilled out...the nice lady was sweet as pie. she made noises about some transportation department letter but it was pretty halfhearted. we got the import doc & zipped through (with the 800gs) promising to return to the same place. aaah its very beautiful here.

YAY! .. YAY! .. and thrice YAY!

well done guys ..

K&E

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Hi Niello & all,
Looks like we are the next in line. We fetched our Vietnam visas in Pakse, but had a stop over in Thailand for the Songkran festival. We are scheduled to cross Cha Lo border on May 1st, as this is the first day on the Vietnam visa for us.
We are hoping to obtain a 30-day permit as we expect a visit from home mid May.

Sylwia, if you are still around it would be great to meet you around Thakhek within the next couple of days. Did you have any issues at the border as you obviously have been a couple of days late?

Please everyone cross fingers that we make it as well.
PS: You can track our SPOT GPS messages on bigtomsride.com or FB page: BigTomsRide

BigTom & CukiMoto

I think you have no problems. Just hope that this friendly girl is at the duty at that time. I think she is wondering where all these bikers are coming from
30-day permit might be difficult, but let us know if it´s possible.

Ride safely!

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Today I crossed the cha lo border back to Laos and now I'm in ThaKhek. I was expecting to be just 1 day late but due to an unexpected incident with a cow I was 10 days later... I needed this time to bring myself and my bike back in working order :-) Anyway, my plan was if the customs start to make any noises that I'm so late, I had a certificate from hospital that I was treated there. But there was only one guy at the customs (no nice lady), I gave him my temporary import permit back, he looked through it, asked me if I could wait till 1 o'clock, I said I would prefer not to because I'm in a pain (showed him my arm with a dressing) and he said I could go. So actually exiting Vietnam was easier than entering it.

I'm pretty sure Tom that if you ask the customs for a longer time on your temporary import permit than 15 days, they would give it to you. It is worth trying, I regret I didn't do it because I wanted to see more places in Vietnam.
Good luck to you!

And please mind the vietnamese cows...my one didn't survive our meeting....

I have a feeling that in few months there will be queue of overlanders up to ThaKhek on this border crossing...

Really glad you are ok, patched up and on the mend! Better the cow bites the dust than you.

Oddly enough we were on Cat Ba island in Ha Long Bay (thank you Sylwia for the advice and we met a biker there who lives in Hanoi. He was riding a 450cc BMW that he had managed to import. That wasn't as weird as the SIX big bikes we passed riding through the middle of the island. There was a CBR and a Ducati in that mix...

Xxoo from Hanoi

Quick update...We exited Vietnam at Cha lo on 4/25 and as before the border was pretty quiet. Everything went smoothly, the lady was not there but the other guys knew what to do. The main building you go to is double sided so this applies to entry & exit. Go in the front, get your passport stamped then get the vehicle import white paper in the same room. after that go around the outside to the middle of the right side of the building and have the paper stamped by the guy in the small office. There are also the usual gate checks but thats it.

Bumped into Big Tom back in Laos!

Happy riding and greetings from Cambodia

Hi HUBB community!
First the good news: We also crossed the boarder at Cha Lo successfully on May 1st, 2013. Laos exit is super simple and easy, as usual. We arranged our Vietnam Visas in Paksé, Laos, 1 of 4 points you can obtain the Vietnam Visa in Laos.
Immigration on Vietnam side also quick and simple. As for our big bikes (BMW 1200GSA and Honda Transalp), custom first sent us to lunch as they made some phone calls. On our return, we were brought back to the same room where the passports got stamped and a lady with glasses (not speaking English) started to fill out the "temporary import forms". We were not asked for Carnets. My international motorcycle registration with many import/export stamps from Cambodia and Laos were helpful, but also the regular English registration documents from the Honda Transalp went ok.
Previous travellers received a 14 day "permit" on the import form. As we plan to stay the max duration of our Visas (30 days), I pointed that out multiple times and the correct day was written down. Yeah!
Everything went smooth until a higher ranked guy showed up and checked the documents over and over again. He stated that we miss the driver's license, which we could only obtain in Hanoi. Both of us carry the International drivers license (translation of our regular EU licenses in a grey book) with us, so we presented it to him and was fine with it in the end.
Then he suddenly made the lady change the duration of our import forms to 9 days. I explained our Vietnam itinerary to him and that we'll have a visitor from Europe and at the end he made the lady change the date back again. Huh, that was a shocking moment.

IMPORANT: We were reminded multiple times that it is MANDATORY to exit Vietnam on the same border in Cha Lo. It goes without saying that also we'll follow that order.

Nota bene: Due to a heavy truck accident 25 km down the road, we needed to get back to the border as there is the only accomodation available. We met some border officials at dinner who were delighted to see us again. One guy spoke good English and he pointed out, that it is (still) NOT officially allowed to enter Vietnam with BigBikes. A special permit from Hanoi would be required. He wanted to do us a favor and let us pass through, under the condition that we exit on the same border.

He also stated that I shall tell that to my friends!

Bottom line: The few of us, who made it from Laos to Vietnam via the Cha La border can be very grateful. Officially it is still not allowed to enter Vietnam with BigBikes without special permit from Hanoi.

We are very thankful that this opportunity is given to us and that we can explore Vietnam on our bikes!

BigTom & CukiMoto

BigTomsRide.com
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Hi BigTom,

Good to hear that you made it through.
Interesting also hear that officially entrance with big foreign bikes is still not allowed!
I agree, we have been really lucky to enter Vietnam with our bikes
Enjoy Vietnam and keep the rubber side down.

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We arrived sound and safe in Sa Pa! The last week has been amazing! Vietnam is so beautiful and we enjoy the cooler climate.
We have posted a photo story on FlickR.
Enjoy!

BigTom & CukiMoto

I'm glad that you have managed to get through and visit on your own bikes.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that everything keeps running smoothly and that I can enter...I'll be entering from China at Muc Nam Quan Border Crossing and hoping to exit into Laos

I'll be on a 750cc with all fingers and toes crossed