Hi there,

I'm Brad, 33-ish and had enough of my life in London and need to do something before I go mental. I've wanted to do a big trip since I read Jupiter's Travels about five years ago, and been inspired by c90adventures and the like. I've got some friends in Melbourne so am thinking to go visit them. Starting in late July this year, hopefully.

The most adventurey trip I've taken is across the US coast to coast in two weeks on a knackered Kawa 550 LTD that topped out at 68. I'm mostly an inline 4 sport-ish type rider.

Since before I can even choose a bike I need to know the vague route I'll take due to cc restrictions and the like, so my first question is this:

What kind of route to Asia from Europe is considered passable nowadays? I see three choices.

1. "North", through Russia and down through China (I think that limits me to 250cc)
2. "Central", entering Russia and trying to get through the -stans
3. "South", through Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India, Burma

All routes go through Thailand and Island hop / ferry through to Papua New Guinea

Has anyone any experience of this kind of trip in the last couple of years? Politically it changes so quick I can't keep up.

I think route 1 is tough, especially when you ride through mongolia and then entering china

Route option 2 will be my primary choice

Route 3 is interesting, but I heard these days it will be difficult or risky to ride through Burma and Myanmar.

Thailand all the way to Indonesia are good, but don't enter Singapore. Jump to Indonesia from Port Klang in Malaysia, to the city of Medan, and ride on all the way to Bali, Flores, Timor and finally Australia.

Safe trip breadlord, enjoy!


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Hi there!

I think the real choke-point with option 2 is that when coming down into India I'd have to go through Kashmir or Afghanistan; neither of which I'm massively comfortable with. I think I'd be happier going through Iran. Not sure the state of the Turkish border at the moment.

British Foreign Office are saying that Burma is pretty much OK as far a security is concerned. Is the problem coming in with a Bike?

Overland it's a choice between Burma and China to Thailand, I think. China's meant to be impossible, so I don't think that's an option.

The other option is to cut out northern India and try to get to Thailand by boat - Or ship the bike and fly from south India.

My thread 'Sep 2017 UK-Bangkok.....anyone?' Has the southern route to Thailand which we'll be doing......in September!!!!

Chris


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Possible route 4 - through Russia .. some 'stands' return to Russia and out to the east coast .. ferry to South Korea and ship to OZ from there. This gives you only one shipment .. other than the ferries. Each time you ship = costs.

All three routes are possible, no.2 would require you to cross a small part of China into Pakistan but as with route 1 you might team up with others to share a guide.
Pakistan visa can be a bit of a problem for Brits but still seems possible and Iran currently requires Brits to have a guide but again you can team up with others. There is no 250cc limit that I know of on any of those routes but both Myanmar and Thailand now require guides.
As to which bike you can do this on anything but a medium sized single or twin cylinder bike is popular and some say best, avoid anything with too much sophistocated electronics.
I would recommend you go the the HU meeting in June and speak to others that are planning or have done this trip, all your questions can be answered there.

Hey Chris,

I'm very very interested in your trip. My flat lease is actually up in September, so I have been thinking that perhaps I will cut it off short. I can spend a month in Europe and meet you before Turkey or something.

I don't think the corridor to Thailand is going to be passable as a single rider, so if you can stand a couple of months with an idiot...

Can you PM or email me (I don't have permissions to PM yet and I'm leery of creating another couple of posts just to get DM rights)

Cheers,
Brad.

Don't be. Most people do it to begin with

Plural idiots usually

There is no need to ride the entire route together ... you will probably have different interests .. not that indulging each others interests is a bad thing .. but it can get boring at some time. Don't let that fester - simply say so. Agree on some meeting point further along the route and do that. Provide more than one contact channel to allow for things that happen. Be prepared to ride back and help if needed. Establish some basic 'rules' (guides) at the start and you'll all enjoy it.

Hey Brad

I'm planning the exact same trip under similar circumstances. I live in Leyton, East London and have wanted to do a big trip for some time. At 35, I decided to finally bite the bullet and hand in my career-break notice for Summer 2017.

I have relatives in Melbourne so this felt like a natural destination.

Bikes in the garage and I'm slowly accumulating gear... but route / visa/ carnet planning is really daunting single handed so would be great to team up with someone else or a group.

Initially thought about route 3 but because of the required guide through Iran, I've mentally settled on route 2. But basically up for anything as long as I get to Oz.

As for Burma, sure I read that boarders are a lot easier to pass these days but the second you need to take your own vehicle in, things get pretty complicated. I think you can take a bike in via the india border but you have to exit the country through the same border. Happy to stand corrected on this one. For this reason, I thought about shipping my bike from India to Thailand.

I work in Holborn and always in East London if you wanted to meet.

Cheers

Chris

Chris46 - you can take your own vehicle in and through Myanmar - as enter from India and exit into Thailand (or opposite) But it requires permits, mandatory guides, approved itinerary, approved accomodation etc. And in addition permits, guides, itineraries are mandatory for Thailand also nowadays. So both of these countries require a bit of planning a good bit of time in advance before you plan to enter. And cost-wise its probably best to arrange a group of travellers to cross together to keep the cost level down. Those guides, permits etc are not cheap!

But it is doable....

__________________
In the end everything will be fine. If its not fine its not the end....

All the routes you mention are doable. The 3 biggest headaches nowadays overlanding this route is China, Myanmar and Thailand. All of these countries now requires mandatory guides, permits and lots of red tape. It is however doable but can be very expensive, especially China permits, guides etc are expensive. And it requires a good bit of planning a good bit ahead of when youre planning to enter these countries.

One option to avoid these countries is to ride as far as India or Nepal and fly the bike to Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia. It will of course cost a bit of money to fly the bike this stretch but it still be worth considering.

There will also be two more shippings along the way to reach Australia, namely Malaysia to Indonesia - which is quite straightforward eiter with Mr Lims socalled Onionboats from Penang to Belawan. No big deal as hundreds of overlanders have done this before or another option is a passenger ferry from Port Klang to near Dumai. Several travellers have done this trip lately.
Or even another more adventorous option is to try to get your bike shipped from mainland Malaysia to Borneo and then from Indonesian Borneo (Kalimantan) take a ferry to Java or Sulawesi and continue south from there. Totally doable if you just get your bike from mainland Malaysia to Borneo.

Then the last shipping will be from Dili - East Timor to Darwin Australia. Totally doable but it takes some time and money. You will not be the first person to sweat on your knees in the front yard of Dili Backpackers meticulously cleaning your bike to get it through the very strict australian quarantine inspection.
Alternatively to that last leg is to fly your bike from Jakarta or Bali. Singapore is to be avoided visiting with your own vehicle. Find a place to park it in Malaysia if you wanna go there. Very expensive and very bureucratic!

You mention Papua - but that must be a mistake. There hardly any connection from there to Australia afaik....

And try to get the seasons right too. Riding in torrential rain for weeks aint much fun. Leaving Europe late summer is good. You will avoid the worst heat in southern Europe or central Asia and if you spend some time on the way you will be in southeast Asia in their winter (dry season) nov-april approx. Indonesia is better from april to october. North Australia gets hot and wet in nov-dec usually.

Bikewise - if I was to do such a trip again I would strongly consider a 250 cc. And by all means not bigger than 650 cc.
The lighter the better! And out of Europe something bigger than a 250 would be overkill anyway. Just my 5 cents though.

Good luck with your trip!

__________________
In the end everything will be fine. If its not fine its not the end....

Hey all!

Good news, I've connected up with Chris.W and his group who are going as far as Thailand! I *think* this is up to and including all the "difficult" border crossings and should be able to move on without guides and the like from that point.

I'm still planning on keeping on going to Oz, though. The hard work planning starts this weekend. My nominated specialist subject for the short term is... Pakistan!

Hey Breadlord, I've also sent a message to Chris W and would keen to tie up with your group what's the best way to get in touch?

I'm also working with a few guys doing UK to Bangkok / UK to OZ and New-Zealand, in 2017. We go through Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Laos, Thailand. It's a good route - in that you can ride those central Asia regions on your own, or as a small group, it's a cheap region to travel through, good roads nowadays, (mainly!) I organise the MotoExplorers trips through China, but also happy to help guys with advice on the Stans, Europe-Russia stages etc. I'd occasionally get a few guys wanting to just hook up to do the 'get through China stage' 27 days, from Torugart/Kashgar to Laos. Unfortunately you also need guides/permits for Laos & Thailand as well now, so guys are tending to try linking up for those as well, we'd plan 12 days Laos to Bangkok. Anyway - happy to hear from anyone if you'd like a bit of advice on The Stans, can pm me, or for an idea of the whole trip I organise, motoexplorer.uk (it's shown as a full 70 day trip, but happy to look at assisting riders on just the China stages / Laos-Thailand)
Dates, we'd cross Europe-Kazakhstan August, China in Sept, enter Laos - Thailand, early October.