Hi all!!!! really need some help. im riding around australia on my Donkey "1974 Honda CB550" ridden from Emerald QLD to NSW to Victoria and just before Christmas i rode 4100kms from Victoria to Perth on the Nullabor, anyway times closing on my time in Australia i leave in September shipping my bike to Kuala Lumpar and thats as far as ive got, i mean ive had plans riding Asia north to Russian and across to Europe vague i know, but could do with some info on what i should be doing now, i work on outback farms all over Australia and on my final job which i will work for 6-7months saving around 20,000 then take a month or two to ride the west coast to Darwin, would it be advised on the Russian way or India and Iran?? how easy is it to sort Visas and should i start sorting paperwork and such now???? any help would be great,

Thanks
The Donkey and Me

Another thing to research: to go to Indonesia, India, Pakistan, or if shipping the vehicle into Malaysia, you´ll need a carnet for your bike (shipping into Thailand you should not need it).

Hi Ben.sinton

I suggest you take the India and Iran way,because its popular for travelers and almost cheap,but to entering china its very difficult and you should spend a lot of moneys,about Burme its impossible to enter there by a foreign vehicles.

finally about Iran,first of all you will need a carnet for entering into our country and visa is easy to get.

BTW we have place for staying travelers with safe parking,bed,breakfast,lunch,showing city and so on.if you want contact us when you cross our city.

best regards



Hossein

Hi all,

I deeply love Iran and its people. I've been there twice, the latest for 40 days and plan to come back hopefully more times. I made friends there and helped them once back when they asked me. One of them was able to study in Europe and now works here because of our direct (economic) help.

So now (st*pid me) I feel the urge to write, even if it means to reopen a closed and controversial thread, because I love and enjoyed Iranian legendary and real hospitality: it's -to say the least- very misleading if someone in his posts puts a link to his site and then writes e-mails to travellers "inviting" them to stay in his place to finally charge them 25USD/night, which is certainly very expensive for Iran. Anyone doing so should CHANGE his PROFILE to a VENDOR in HUBB. We as a couple traveled Iran on a Renault 5 and including absolutely everything (on a reasonably tight budget, but also including parcels sent home, RAM memory for laptop, etc, etc, etc) spent 15.50€/day/person. So it is not offering help, but selling SERVICES (as a business), a much more appropriate term. Everyone has the right to make his living, as we all do, but HELP or INVITATION should be avoided to use SERVICES and PAYING ACCOMODATION instead.

I know we all do our best to remain respectful and keep calm in HUBB, but IMHO opinion it cannot be allowed that someone writes posts offering Iranian hospitality but later charging fees. No more velvet diplomacy here, please. I know I may be getting now in trouble, but I have to write it as I feel it.

Therefore, I urge HU to take this issue into serious consideration.

Esteban

PS: This is a general thought, so please Hossein I don't want to receive private messages on this issue.

Thanks guys, i really like the idea of riding Iran, without sounding sill were would i go from Laos to get to Iran, im not sure on the routes available mountain ranges and such???

Here´s something that I used on a magazine a few years ago... it´s not fully up-to-date any more, and it was never intended to really be a route planner as such, it was just to give a very rough idea of some of the most common overland-routes. Still up to you to get good maps, and get recent info on security situations, etc.

And note, that routes marked with red in China mean that you go with the guide, and pay big time. And route to Lhasa means you´d go to Tibet, which may have its own travel restrictions, and even if not, it´s still a damn high mountain route. Not many travellers have done that with bikes. Route into Yemen is probably no-go at the moment, check your government´s travel warnings and advisories.

The airplane symbol means airfreight, and the smaller ´boat´ means cargo ship – you need to arrange your own flights or whatever the way you plan to transport yourself to meet with the bike at the shipping destination. Usually the bike needs to be put in a box (crate) for shipping, though some airlines may fly it uncrated. And the bigger boat is a car ferry, on those you typically travel on the same boat as your bike. Especially the freight routes have endless variations, so really these are just examples, don´t take them too literally:

(and the arrowheads should naturally be on both ends of the lines, this was just drawn as “from Europe onwards”...)

Thats a handy map thankyou, so my biggest problem is from Laos to Bangladesh or Nepal????

Most people use Bangkok because they are set up for flight cargo. Laos is not the best place to ship anything from, believe me I was stuck there 2 months waiting on parts.

If you do your SEA ride, try and do a loop up through Laos, down through Cambodia and end back up in Bangkok where you can arrange flight to India, which is the most practiced route.

I am not saying you cannot do what you suggest, but if you do it please document it real well for the rest of us

Just a note, some Laos/Thailand borders have been closed to motorcycle traffic in the past month or so, nothing set in stone but bikers have been refused entry

Cheers
TS

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One of the biggest problems is how to go with vehicle between Southeast Asia and other parts of Asia. Note, that my map didn´t show the topography at all... which is quite an important factor, if planning to go from Laos to Nepal I think. I don´t know, what the exact routing thru China would be, just drew the yellow line, but anyway it´ll be mostly mountains, including the Himalayas and the Tibetan plateau:



Quite sure that it´s not do-able 12 months a year, and actually I believe there are no other possibilities for foreigners with vehicles to cross between Tibet and Nepal (and not possible at all between China and India, for example). Add to this the known hardships and costs of getting into China, and you see why most travellers freight their vehicles onwards from SE Asia.

@ trallingstrom: which crossings? can you flick me any links? we'll be going through on our wee in a bit

The nepal china border is called the friendship highway i think and its near last resort on the nepal side (insane bungy jumping). much of the himalayas is definitely seasonal and each region can be very different. Tibet requires special permits and this year the other bikers we rode with were unable to get permission to do the (guided) ride that way. might depend on the moody government...

Hi Pecha72, the map looks bigger, can you send me the complete map please?
Thanks!

Hi, you can check them out here:

MOTO1-TERVETULOA!

(the links on the right on that main page: kartta_01, kartta_02, etc... I would´ve put here the direct links, but it does something funny, so I´m not sure if they´d work)

South America is still missing from there, and I´ve got it, too, it was on the printed mag, but haven´t had time to get it online yet.. it´ll be there, but if you wanna see it now, send me pm, and I´ll mail it to you.

And please keep in mind, that the purpose of these maps was _only_ to give some rough idea about the most common routes. Barring a few exceptions they´re not the only ones you can do. And also situations and routes can and often do change.

Thanks a lot for these maps, for a beginner very helpfull to start with...

I have not read the whole thread but great looking map. Shows all the possibilities but one thing that's missing is transit of northern or Kurdish Iraq.
Easy to cross from Turkey to Iran or vv.
Also, the Caucasus can be crossed from Georgia last I heard.

Ch

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