Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Lao Immigration so that's Immigration in Laos. I don't do these very often but every now and again I will be just sort of going through the ether that is the internet and I will come upon some tidbit regarding Immigration in one of the countries that borders Thailand. This stuff can be of interest to expats out here and tourists for that matter, because oftentimes tourists who come here, they come to Thailand, then they say I am going to go up to Laos, do a couple of days, I want to see Vientiane or go to Savannakhet or something or Cambodia for that matter, even Myanmar at times, Malaysia as well; Vietnam which doesn't actually border Thailand but a lot of folks hop on a plane, go over to Ho Chi Minh City or up to Hanoi or something. So I will occasionally do these kind of videos where I talk about Immigration policies in countries that are near Thailand. 

I thought of making this one after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Neighboring countries look to Thailand for Visa reform. Quoting directly: "Laos meanwhile still requires evidence of Covid vaccinations (or risk compulsory testing at Vientiane Airport) and has different regulation from Thailand about bringing foreign currency into the country." Yeah again Laos, obviously they have their own Immigration apparatus and apparently they sre still pretty serious about this Covid stuff.

Now as you can tell, as anybody who has watched this channel can tell, I have thought that the response to Covid was nonsense. I continue to think it is nonsense. I don't know why Laos is continuing to do this especially based on the actual record and the data we now know about all this stuff. That said, they are sovereign country; they can make those determinations as they want but I thought it was information that was useful for folks who are travelling in this region or just coming to Thailand and may actually make a side trip to Laos during their stay.