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????

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