Hello everyone

Well we set off two months ago now, from England, and have got as far as Nepal in our 1985 110. We thought we had Tibet and china all sewn up but it appears that the trip we organised through caravan Cafe has fallen through, DAMN! Anyway because of this we need some advice on the best way to get our Land Rover to Thailand. We have looked at driving through Burma but it seems like a no go also catching ferries to the Andaman islands then on to thailand seems imposible. we know that it would be possible to ship the land rover by container from Calcutta to port Klang but it means we miss out so much of the drive, so any advice on other routes would be greatly received.

Also we just assumed that to get the land rover into Thailand would just be a matter of showing the Carnet at the border, but is this true? or is it more difficult to drive you own vehicle in Thailand and Malaysia, any info on this would also be greatly received.

Thanks for taking a look and I hope you can throw us some ideas.

Jason

Hi there jasn,

I'm afraidI can't offer any advice on your problems. But I am in the early stages of planninga trip throuh China with the Caravan Cafe (or someone else maybe), and would be very interested to hear what's go wrong. can you eloborate? Did it cost youany money? we were quoted about £4000 for six weeks, and thats one big gamble. One that I am getting ess interestedin, which is a shame, as I saw China as a real highlight...

I will follow this thread with interest!

Good luck either way

Cheers

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Ollie

www.jollyfollies.com

Land's End to Sydney 2009

Jason, please let us know how you get on and why it has fallen through. Bad service, change of laws, change of your plans etc

I'm will be doing a similiar route next year - well at least from Europe to Thailand anyway so interested to know as are others.

If no luck with the CC then I have a contact that can organise the Chinese side of things. My strong advise is to get through China as quickly as possible with the vehicle. Then when you find somewhere safe to leave your vehicle in another country, return to China as a normal tourist. It will be much cheaper and you won't miss out on anything imho.

It was possible to get through Burma about 6 years ago using a German agency. South African friends of mine did it. From the India/Burma border a driver drove your vehicle whilst you flew to Mandaly I think, and then you were free to drive on your own on only a few approved roads to Thailand etc.

But I believe this has all stopped from a quick scan of other postings??. Follow it up with the German agency if they still exist etc. Then kindly let us know how you get on...

(Old posting on it: http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hubb/4wd-overland-travel/india-burma-thailand-is-possible-20725 )

I have sent them an email to see if they can still do this. Maybe do the same - demand and all...

Good luck, and be nice to everybody for those who follow ;-p

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Kiwi, 7 years around Africa. Overlanding channel:https://www.youtube.com/c/roamingyak

Jason, Try a question to Mark and Amy at their web site hectorsadventures.com They travelled that way last year. Chris

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Chris

Hi

Well we started to organise the china part of the trip back in January and after loads of internet searching and unreplied emails, caravan cafe were the only company who wanted to deal with us. but the costs seemed astronomical (here is a copy of the quote we got for 18 days travel from Nepal to Laos via Lhasa):

"Your modified itinerary is close enough to the original, in number of days, that we will keep the price quote the same at $5950 (or 47005RMB at an exchange rate of 7.9RMB to 1 U.S. Dollar). Please note that the RMB price is firm because the U.S. Dollar may devalue against the Chinese RMB.

US$5950 covers all required permits and licenses, liaison officer/guide and his salary and meals, and service costs for your itinerary.

Not covered are:
- your visa costs
- your meals and lodging
- road tolls
- any other incidental costs incurred by you or your party not noted as included above

If you choose to have us arrange your trip, I will then send you details of the information and images/photos we need in order to submit paperwork for processing. For your trip, we would also require a US$1300 non-refundable deposit be deposited via wire transfer to our bank account in the U.S. before we submit your paperwork for processing. We do this because once we submit your paperwork for processing, we are liable for the cost of processing. The balance of payment for your trip would be due 45 days before your scheduled entry into China. For sake of clarity, below I have included our "Terms of Payment" and "Cancellation Charges".

If you want us to make your arrangements, I urge you to begin the process as soon as possible. Paperwork needs to be submitted to many government offices, including 6 different offices consecutively in Beijing alone. The bureacracy here can not be rushed. We are literally at their mercy regarding when the paperwork is finished. We have seen paperwork completed in about 2 months and we have seen it take up to about 4 months. Since your trip begins in May 20, I would recommend getting us everything so that we can submit at least 4 months in advance.

If you have further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Steve Larson
Caravan Cafe Travel "


Although it was expensive I did some research on the company and spoke to some of his previous customers and Steve and his company seemed very reputable and we had no choice so we booked the trip.

Everything was going fine and we had travelled to Nepal and were staying in Bardia national park when we decided to email Steve to ask how it was all going. In reply to that email Steve mentioned that we would have to get our own Tibet pass from Kathmandu, unfortunately we were not told about this before and we had already got our Chinese visa in the UK and apparently you get a Tibetan pass when getting your Chinese visa and of course getting a reissued visa could be difficult. Anyway as we were making plans to drive to Kathmandu early and sort this out we received another email from Steve saying that our paperwork had gone missing, here is the email:

"I just received a phone call from our Chinese subcontractor who informed me that somewhere between the military and the Tourism Bureau in Beijing, your paperwork has gone missing. The military processed it and after them it can not be found. I was told earlier that it had passed the Tourism Bureau, but now it seems that may not be true. What a foul-up! It was to have gone on to the PSB (police) in Beijing, but they reportedly say that they have not received it either. My understanding is that these agencies pass completed paperwork to each other, meaning that we are at the mercy of their proficiency or lack of. I am a bit fuzzy on who last had the paperwork and it could be that no one agency is going to want to take responsibility for losing it.

So, this does not sound good - to have paperwork go missing amongst government agencies in Beijing. This problem is major and is far beyond our control. I know nothing of details beyond what I have said above. "


Well this is where we are now and we are giving it a week to see if the paperwork is found but it does not look likely. The good thing is that caravan cafe have agreed to pay back all of our money minus $200 which they say is for their expenses and I don't want to complain about it since losing 200 is better than losing 6000. However, if the paperwork does turn up and the process continues, we still have to get our own Tibetan pass, if we fail to do this we are liable to still pay $1300 to Caravan café (non refundable deposit) and not be able to go through Tibet.

I have to say, Caravan cafe are a good company and they will do their best so sort it all out, they always reply to emails and supplied any info I wanted, but so they should when you are paying that much money up front. I suppose that I should be grateful for getting my money back but I am very disappointed that the trip has not come off since we were really looking forward to doing this. Everyone is saying things like 'well it is China after all' and judging China by our western standards is impossible, everything seems to take longer and there seems to be pitfalls at every junction, but I nevertheless feel a bit let down by the company and the Chinese government.

I hope this has been useful, if a bit longwinded, and just for your interest I'll let you know how we get to Thailand.

Good luck in your planning

Jason

Thanks for the long reply mate. In my mind you should get 100% of your money back. They are making the (I know, huge) profit so they should bare all of the risk.

You kept your side of the bargain, they did not so you are entitled to it all back. It does not matter where they are based. Their clientale is probably 99% western and they should be protective of their reputattion according to the standards we expect.

I just got a reply back from the Burma Agency which might be another way of doing it? (though pay no money up front I say - only at the border when you cross into Burma etc?)

"Hi Darren, certainly we are still busy with all application procedures and organizing the transit- tour for the Myanmar part. As you might know we face lots of changes in Myanmar every here and then - so we never can guarantee to be successful in receiving special transit permits.

For the India part (Manipur transit permission) you have to care one your own - the soonest the better.

For getting an overview please give me some details about your travel plans regarding number and nationality of travelers, number and kind of vehicles and approx. date of departure to India, arrival in India and approx. date of arriving at Tamu - the border town. Best regards to you and **** and ****. Franzeska > > >


Hi, A few years ago you helped some friends of mine (**** & ****) travel overland from India, through Myanmar, and onto Thailand with their Land Rover 4x4. Are you still able to organise this kind of thing?

Kind regards, Darrin

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Kiwi, 7 years around Africa. Overlanding channel:https://www.youtube.com/c/roamingyak

Hello everyone

Just to let you know the shipping from Chittagong, Bangladesh to Bangkok, Thailand was successful and the details are in the shipping section of Horizons.

Best Wishes

Jason

Hi Jason, we happened to stumble onto your last message. We are in Malaysia with our 110 landy and have a web site that details exactly how, if you want, to drive thru Burma. See our top tips page.
Also, we are planning to drive thru China for 45days, 2 vehicles, the quote inc. guide has come in at $3,800 per vehicle. We asked CITS for our quote and if you are interested we can pass on their details.
Our web site is : HOME
Good luck! Rose and dave

We are also in Malaysia at the moment down south in Johor Bahru. Thanks for the info but we have given up on China and, as of now will probably just ship over to OZ and continue the trip. However, we might try China again in the future so we'll definatly keep a keen eye on your progress via the web site.

Thanks again have a good trip.

Jason