I’m planning a 6 mo. trip beginning in mid Jan 2019 and would appreciate some advice or comments on routing. Initially we (2 up) planned to leave from Vancouver and ride south through the Western US to Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica to Panama then ship the bikes to Columbia and head south. The next leg would have us ship the bike to Australia or Singapore then riding up through Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam (not necessarily in that order). My question is there any advantage to reversing the order - Asia first then up through South America & Central America ? We don’t mind rain - we live in a rain forest already - but a couple of weeks of straight downpours can be a bit testy ??. Good weather is certainly an issue but are there other advantages to starting in Asia first then up through South America ?? Your comments are appreciated.

Depends at least partly on what parts of South America you're planning to ride. In your original plan you'd probably skip much of the southern tier because you'd be there in early winter, which is not ideal. On the other hand, you're trying to cover a lot of ground in a hurry, so you'll end up giving up on a lot anyway. Maybe you'd like to stick to northern and central areas: Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia....? In that case you can probably make it work, depending on everything from how quickly you get there to whether you're lucky with the weather.

Southeast Asia, on the other hand, will be towards the end of dry season when you get started on your trip--much more appealing than during the heat, humidity, and then rain to be found toward the end of your trip.

I don't know if that's helpful, in part because I don't know whether you're being realistic about how much ground you're going to cover. In my mind the issue is not so much rain itself as absence of visibility in the various mountains, washed out bridges and highways, mud on the side roads, snow and ice in highlands and passes, etc. etc. etc. Maybe you're comfortable leaving our (shared) neighborhood in January, picking your way through winter weather by avoiding most of the fun riding all the way south into Central America....but maybe that gets old fast for you. It would for me, but then again I've already done that, just once.

Personally, I'd ship directly from Vancouver to SE Asia in January. Note the difficulties entering Vietnam on a large, foreign bike, and the expense of hiring a guide to take you through Thailand. Then if you're up for it you can ship to South America and start heading north, though you'll definitely have to skip lots of destinations in the Andes. Late spring and early summer are fine times in most of Central and North America, but you might hit the hottest part of the year in the desert southwest US, which can be brutal.

IMHO it'd be easier to plan a longer trip. Maybe you decide that shipping your own bike into SE Asia isn't really worthwhile for just a couple of months there, maximum (trying to include Australia would be ridiculous, although I'm sure it's technically possible).

Hope that's helpful.

Mark

Mark: Thank you for your comments, they are appreciated. From what I understand about Thailand - extrapolated from fairly recent posts - is that the rules have changed somewhat so that you don’t have to include a guide in your travels. It sounds like this is fairly recent change so I clearly have to nail down more details. I take your point on how visiting Australia might pushing the schedule a bit to much much. Cheers

You plan to cover north, central and south America, Australia and southeast-Asia in 6 months? That cant be much fun, you only gonna see roads, gas stations, inside of hotelrooms or maybe your tentwalls? If I were you and had 6 months available I would do only one continent as of south America or southeast-Asia.

Central America is wet from May to October/November I think?

Andesmountains area of Peru, Bolivia, north Chile and Argentina are wet from December to April.

Southern parts of south-America aka Patagonia not very accesible from March/April to October so best travelled from Nov/Des to Febr/March.

Australia - northern parts have a heavy rainy season from November to March.
Southern parts of Australia can have pretty miserable and cold weather in June-August.

Indonesia have a rainy season from October to April so best travelled May to September.

The rest of SEAsia have a rainy season from May/June to October with some local variations of course. Best travelled November to March.

No matter what you say about rain - nobody likes to ride in heavy rain day after day after day. Your gear never get dry, your paperwork get wet, your electronical stuff stops workin etc etc. Belive me I have tried - its not fun!

And think twice about covering that much ground. I spent 6 months in Australia alone and 1,5 years in south America. And there are still many places I couldnt see or travel.

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Snake boy: thank you for your comments, and advice. Our current plan is a bit more toned down than the initial plan, mostly based on time, that pesky weather, and of course money. Flying into Bangkok, up through northern Thailand into Laos, then down Vietnam and into Cambodia over the course of 2 1/2 months. Next leg is to fly into Santiago and head “a bit” south, crossing over into Argentina then up to Uraguay and perhaps Paraguay time permitting. Finishing our trip in Buenos Aires gives us the advantage of a better shipping hub.

I think you should research a bit more about flying bike into Bangkok. Thailand introduced new rules in 2016 that made it mandatory with guides and very strict permit requirements. Enforcing this at bordercrossings have been a bit accidental and many travellers have been able to avoid these rules. But flying a bike in is and avoid these rules are difficult. I have read about bikes that have been stuck in the customs at the airport in BKK for a long (and expensive) time.
I do think Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia is a much better place to fly a boke into.

Also you should research more about getting into Vietnam. It seems to be very quite complicated. Expensive permits seem to be mandatory and hard to get a hold of. Some travellers on foreign bikes have reported to get through border crossings into Vietnam, but by avoiding the customs office totally. So that means the bikes are illegally in. Im no so sure if thats a recommended way to do it.

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