Hi everyone,

We are a French/Taiwanese couple who purchased a motorbike in Malaysia and want to go back to France from Malaysia, We are now waiting for all paper to be done. But at the moment to pay the guy told us we will need the "carnet de douane" and show me the list of the countries where I need it, so as Pakistan and Iran required the carnet, I will do my way up to the north.

But now we just learn about this story of the guide thing in China and maybe even in Vietnam so we are looking for a way to go in the country without the guide.. as we are still young, and we would like to do more adventure type of travel, our budget is pretty tight so we are planning to do a lot of camping along the way, nothing fancy which just want to experience once in our lifetime...

We have already talked with couple Chinese agents for motorbike tour but the price either too expensive or the period is too far for us....
(We plan to go to China in March or April)
so we are now looking for recommendation of a Chinese agent who will accept to let us go without a guide after crossing the border but we will hire them to do all the paperwork, visa and license ..
As my GF is from Taiwan, so she can take care of all the communication, should be easier for the agent.

If there's anyone who have relative experience recent years would be really helpful to share with us!
OR
If someone is organizing a similar route in China, we are happy to consider joining you...

Hope to hear from you!

Cheers

M&D

salut,
je suis dans la même situation , ma femme est Taïwanaise et je suis français , après de nombreuses recherches, il est impossible de voyager seul en entrant en chine avec un véhicule, la seule option possible serait d'y aller sans véhicule et d'acheter une moto sur place puis de la faire sortir du pays, attention certaines régions nécessite des autorisations spéciales. avant il était possible de traverser le Myanmar mais plus actuellement apparemment. donc pour éviter le guide le mieux serait de partir de l'Inde, reste le problème du carnet de passage .... qui est très cher , en tous cas en France , je ne sais pas dans les autres pays. l'alternative idéale niveau administratif et coût serait un départ d'asie centrale, transit par la Russie , le caucase et Turquie (e-visa gratuit pour les taÏWANAIS) si vous voulez visitez le kurdistan irakien prévoyez de faire le e visa au moins 3 jours avant , nous n'avons pas pu le faire directement à la frontière en juin dernier à cause de la nationalité taïwanaise de ma femme . voilà , et vous venez quand vous voulez en France , nous sommes en auvergne . bonne préparation .

You could consider skipping either the Carnet or skipping China. Will save you a good bit of money.

1. If you travel Malaysia-Thailand-Laos-China (with guide) then Kyrgizstan or Kasakhstan, then some of the other Stans (Tadjikistan,
Uzbekistan, Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, Georgia, Tyrkia and then Europe - you will travel through countries that dont require a Carnet. Money saved and can be used for travel and instead.

2. Or travel Malaysia-Thailand-Cambodia-Laos and then you need to airfreight your bike to either India or Nepal from Thailand or Malaysia (by all accounts I have read the easiest way is KL to Nepal) because Myanmar is closed for overland travel. Then you travel Nepal-India-Pakistan-Iran/Iraq and further towards Europe - then you will not need to go through China and pay a good bit of money to chinese travel agencies. So money saved there but you will need airfreight KL to Nepal though as Myanmar is closed for overland travel and although nobody knows for how long it will probably be for a while.

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