Crossing borders with motorcycle in Asia?
 

Hi all,

Very soon I will be shipping my bike to India and I plan to ride from India - Bangladesh - Myanmar - Thailand - Laos - Vietnam & finally Malaysia and Indonesia.

Can you enter all of these countries on a foreign motorcycle?

I have a Carnet that I will use for India but it will expire around the time I leave India.

Any information is welcome.

Thank you!


Ireland to South East Asia two up on a 89 Africa Twin 650.

Updates Here:

www.instagram.com/Africatwinadventures
www.facebook.com/DHealy91

merhaba,sad news from south asia continue..myanmar,thailand going to be very hard and expensive to enter by vehicle..(vietnam and laos seems will have the same rules soon) so better be uptodate with inf. on these countries..currently 1 choice available to get to malaysia or ındonesia from india or nepal (best), airfreight..
All the best..

For Myanmar and Thailand how much is expensive ?

I have only two options.

1: ship my bike to India and then travel all the country's I listed above. And finally ship from Thailand or Vietnam to Vladivostok.

2: fly to India and do the same trip but rent or buy a bike in every country.
And then fly back to my bike and drive the long way to Vladivostok (via Kazakhstan & Mongolia)

At the moment I and in central Russia and making my way south to Iran when I reach Iran I will ship my bike to India.


Ireland to South East Asia two up on a 89 Africa Twin 650.

Updates Here:

www.instagram.com/Africatwinadventures
www.facebook.com/DHealy91

For Bangladesh I have heard of only one person travelling with a motorbike there and he had huge problems with customs etc. If I were you I would havw researched a good bit before entering that country on a foreign plated bike.

Myanmar - right now the border is closed - or you can only enter and exit at the same border crossing, something that makes overlanding impossible. Hopefully the authorities will sort it out and overlanding will be possible again. Although in these countries you never know...
The price of crossing Myanmar with guides and permits etc have been as low as 1000 USD including accomodation. Depending of the length of the crossing (how many days) and the number of participants in the overlanding group. The more participants - the lower price. Have a look at this Facebook-group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/152596798515738/

Thailand - overland crossing is possible but a lot of red tape is required. Most essential is s letter where the overlander explains his intention with visiting and travelling in Thailand, with itinerary and hotelbookings and the letter must be authorised by an embassy or consulate. Permits to travel through the country can only be handled by certain agencies - insurance is in the package - I think I saw the price 7000 baht all included. Which is around 200 USD/180 €.
The problem as I understand it is that going through Thailand twice as if youre coming from Myanmar and then going to Laos/Cambodia/Vietnam and then to Malaysia and Indonesia dont seem like an option. To get a aecond entey was said to be not likely to be an option. But there are much uncertainess to this the new rules and regualtions for foreign vehicles in Thailand are new and have not been enforced long.
Have a look at this Facebook-group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1024579897597702/

Laos - theres much uncertainess there as well. There seem to be a law that requires permits for foreign vehicles travelling in Laos that have not being enforced very strictly before - that now are being enforced very strictly. In the befinning it was only vehicles coming in into one province of Laos that were required permits but now it seems to be more provinses involved. But things are not clear for the moment. I do think travelling through Laos will be possible although some red tape will be required for sure. Check out the websites of Rideasia.net as they usually are the best source for updates.

Vietnam - permits needed in advance and are a bit expensive if I remember right. Dont know much about travelling in Vietnam though...

Malaysia and Indonesia - quite straight forward if you have a Carnet. Some papers needs to be done when entering Malaysia but nothing to worry about.

Myanmar Border Crossing
 

Hello guys!

I have some good news about Myanmar, it's OPEN AGAIN!!:clap:
It is official, so you can go also without carnet.

I should add that I have an Irish passport and my motorcycle is registered in Ireland.

If it's impossible to get into a country then I won't try but it seems a lot of people say different things about these country's, some entering without any issues and some not.
I believe Thailand, Laos & Vietnam will not be impossible and will not be expensive.
But I know very little about Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Do you need a guide for Myanmar ?


Ireland to South East Asia two up on a 89 Africa Twin 650.

Updates Here:

www.instagram.com/Africatwinadventures
www.facebook.com/DHealy91

Yes you will need guides and permits to cross Myanmar. Please se the "South-Asia" section of the forum. There are heaps of threads about it. See also the facebook-group I linked to in my last post.

And as I wrote my last post in this thread Myanmar seems to have opend up again. Things are happening very quickly nowadays...

Flew my bike into thialand got an temporary import papers took all day at the airport got a fixer to help with coustoms reelection just keep smiling boarder into loas hand a similar thing only problem was when I left they didn't cancel in so after a loop of loas left at ventine one I got to thia coustoms was taken in the office and they were passing my paperwork around shouting kept cool collected all up and went to the guy with the most gold brade and said calmly I paid money not my prob he pick up my paperwork and stormed back to couscous post threw may paper at the girl there and stormed of phew I was back in. Used carnet for Cambodia no prob couldn't leagaly get into Vietnam when back into this land they insisted on using carnet which caused trouble when I left try to keep to temporarily import and make shaw they cancel on leaving Dave.

Be aware, that Thailand seems to have changed their temp import rules just lately.. it used to be a breeze, but perhaps not so any more. I do not have the details of those changes, though.

And I think Bangladesh might be very complicated to temp import your MC, even on a Carnet. The last I heard (from the Swedish AA about a year ago), was a 800% of the value bond required... that said the whole Carnet system has undergone major changes just lately, too.

its closed now!!!!!!!!!!

Great response to this post Snakeboy, thanks for sharing.
I've been studying everything about riding in South Asia for a while and things are not looking good for us. Very sad that this is happening, seems like they just want more of our hard earned money - bummer!!

Hopefully by the time I arrive to that part of the world, things will be settled and I will be able to ride my bike too. That part of the world looks so beautiful and I really hate to skip it.

Cheers.

Report today on Overland Sphere that Thailand is about to require Thai guides in Thai registered vehicles to escort foreigners through. May not apply to bikes though

Its not official yet but from uofficial sources its most likely to be the way you describe it with mandatory guides and probably also the companies who are providing escort snd guides through the country will sell this as package tours. It wont be cheap....