Thailand - Laos Border Crossing Report
 

This might be useful for anyone trying to get into Laos from Thailand by motorbike.

The border crossing we used was the northernmost one, Chiang Khong (T) / Huay Xai (L) via Thai/Lao Friendship Bridge No. 4.

Visa: 40USD in Nov 22, you need to provide a passport photo.

Temporary import of motorbike (foreign plates, non-Thai): charged us 200 THB per bike, we were about to fill in the online form when they informed us that the Carnet de Passage was enough. We weren’t planning on using them but they had a stack of torn off pieces from other travellers so had an idea what they are for apparently. Keep an eye on them while they fill it in, they did ours wrong (also filled in the export section). We're finding that in South East Asia, the Carnet is becoming a proxy for Temporary Import Documents, which is handy but also massively a grey area.

Warning about the tourist police: they invited us into their office and after taking our passports and some chitchat about our travel plans, told us we either needed to arrange a guide or could pay them to give us a form detailing our itinerary for when we would get stopped by police on the road. They told us the cost was 3,000THB per bike (80 USD equiv) but then said it was negotiable. We refused to pay, forcibly took our passports back and walked out of the office (note we are one woman and one man, woman playing bad cop helps). They didn’t follow us so we didn’t end up paying anything.

You buy the compulsory insurance after the border crossing.