hi lorena,

I heard about that bus from jinghong to houay xai too, but it seems it doesn't run every day? when did you take it? sounds like a good option too, I'm just wondering if it might be nicer to split the trip and spend the night in luang namtha instead in houay xai, like I did last time. the guesthouse was decent and the food great ;)
when does the border close btw? maybe it's possible to make it in time

Last time I took that bus was right before Chinese new year, it was a Thursday, the time before that I don't remember what day it was, I just arrived and bought the ticket. No idea if it runs daily, but both times I took it there was one,... At any rate, if you want to stop at luang namtha, there is another bus that goes there, leaves from jinghong at 2 pm, and I would tend to think that one runs daily... It was available the day I took the huaisai one. For the border closing time, I believe it is 5pm Laos/Thai time, 6pm China time.

I took a Jinghong to Luang Namtha bus around 10 or 11AM just a month ago, runs daily from the south (main) bus station.

Thanks guys ;)
A chinese friend of mine called the south bus station for me, it seems there is a direct bus to Houay Xai!
However, it would be great to have known before if the ride is comfortable and not too long... we'll see.

It will be comfortable till Namtha. That's where Chinese built roads end and Laotian roads begin. Also, you must enjoy 18 or more hours of bus?

@Alex: maybe I'm wrong, but I think the entire road to Huayxai was built by Chinese companies. In fact the road south from the border to Luang Prabang was originally (? I don't know what was there before) built by the Chinese in the 60s to aid the Pathet Lao & Viet Minh in their war effort (the north of Laos had not been under the control of the central government, or the Americans, for years. It's winding and indeed rather tiring - the road to Huay Xai is much better.

The road is in mint condition along Namtha and all the way to and past the Thai border and to Oudomxai if you're going south.

It gets really bad just before Vang Vieng.

and by the way there is a direct bus to Houay Xai, it passed me when I was there.

and by the way there is a direct bus from Jinghong to Houay Xai, it passed me when I was there.

I'm currently on the way to Chiang Khong, but not sure if this is of any help as I make a couple of stops on the way.

It seems that there are buses everywhere but e.g. here in Mengla the bus only leaves every second day (so it's leaving tomorrow but not Thursday when I plan to take it). For Jinghong you might call the Mei Mei Café they can give you excellent travel advisory +86-691-2161221

My advise would be to split the trip, e.g: Kunming - Jinghong & Jinghong - Luang Namtha (maybe 36 hours) in one go, and then from Luang Namtha to Thailand

I'll let you know how my trip went