Visitors wishing to enter Laos can spend the evening in a hotel in Nong Khai before crossing the border the next morning. A new bridge spans the Mekong River. Trains leave the capital every day in the morning and they arrive at Ubon at dusk. When the Laotian border is open, one can travel on from Ubon to Pakse in Southern Laos. In November each year this northeastern line is fully booked all the way to Surin, for the annual elephant round-up taking place there.
Trains leave Bangkok one day and return the next.
It is a popular trip and one of the best recommended train journeys in Thailand. This route was very popular a dozen years ago, when the Cambodian border was open. Travellers could reach Aranya Phrathet before noon, take a trishaw across the border and in Cambodia board a bus to Siemreap, arriving before night fall. The next morning, after an early breakfast they could rent a bicycle and cycle to the ruins at Angkor Wat. Hopefully in the near future the border will open again for visitors.