Hello, I'm an America ntrying to nail down a route RTW. From Europe, Is Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India, Burma, Thailand out of the question?

Iran seems touchy, but not out of the possibility.

Burma?? Anybody done this yet?? I probably should contact the embassy in Washington DC...

THought I'd check here first.

Thanks,

Kent aka Hi Ho Silver!

Burma, pretty much not possible for the last couple of decades but there is some faint glimmer of hope that things are opening up, slowly.

You can hop over it by sea and/or air from India or Nepal. Search the site and you'll get a few stories of travel and visas to get through the countries to get there. As you can imagine, visas for Iran as an American can be a bit difficult at times, not sure what the latest is. If you look around a bit you can usually piece together a few blogs that'll give you a good perspective of the fairly recent situation. Things can change pretty quickly so you may want to have a alternative route in mind. Happy planning.

We are pretty much bagging Iran for now and planning for the stans. with Israel making bombing threats, AIPAC meeting right now, Obama there speechifying some hard line stuff...i can live without iran right now. I did try to contact the Myanmar embassy but didn't get an answer. I live in DC so I plan to try to go there and inquire in the next week or 2, will be happy to let y'all know if I find out anything.

I suppose recent developments also make the show up at the border and see what happens method a possibility

Thank you Mt. Man and Neillo8. Yes please keep me informed. I will try to contact the embassy as well from here in SF. I really don't want to miss that area. Burma would be amazing. I hear Iran is still doable, but will need to go through the Pakistan Embassy here in the US to get Visa. Hopefully the "heavy" talk will settle down.

Unless you´re an expert on that area, speak the local languages etc., and have absolutely unlimited time (AND patience!!) I think it´ll simply be best to forget about Burma (in the context of crossing overland between India and Thailand).

It´s been that way for over 40 years, and I´d be surprised, if it all changed very soon. Going there as a backpacker might be do-able, though.

i actually had the opportunity to meet with some people that travel in and out of Burma from the Thailand side. The best information I received is there is no way, even if you got inside Burma, you would be limited to an area not too far from that border crossing. Roads may not exist linking the India to Thailand. There are some areas that are "Black Out" as wars and fighting make it too dangerous. I am scratching that idea.

I don't want to fly or ferry bike out of India, and travel in Pakistan and Iran seems, not impossible, but challenging.

I'm now thinking above China rather than below. Istanbul-Stans-Mongolia-Vlad; ferry to South Korea-Bangkok or Vietnam. Whew...

Leaving San Francisco mid June. UK in early July. Arrive in Vlad. Sept?? I hear it is getting cold in Mongolia in September.

Thoughts?

Kent

Whew again...

Kent
There is the China option there are travelers heading down form Mongolia, Kyrgystan into Laos, i have a guys name looking for travellers from Mongolia to Laos in September.

Eric

The biggest challenge could be to get visas for those two countries. I don´t think travelling in itself would be any harder than in India (...or in fact India could be tougher!)

As you´ve found out, Burma is nearly impossible – you can count with the fingers on one hand the number of people, who have succeeded to go with their own vehicles from India to Thailand or v.v. in the past decade. Those who think they´re just gonna ´give it a go´, usually have no idea, what they´re up against.

China & Vietnam... well, maybe not totally impossible, but the costs could pile up seriously, especially if you´re on your own, and have no group to split the costs. Add to this the fact, that you´ll need to start arranging everything months in advance, and you have some of the main reasons, why most traveller look for some other interesting countries to ride. Not that there´s any shortage of those in Asia!

BTW, if you are actually referring to passenger ferries, when you mention "ferry", then I´d advice you to do some more research. International ferry lines these days are very few and far between in that region. From India, for example, the only possibility right now should go to Sri Lanka. (So no ferries going from there to Thailand or Malaysia, or to the Persian Gulf for that matter). One thing that is constant over there is change, so it may not stay that way forever. But in general, air travel has killed the longer passenger routes by sea, decades ago, actually. So if you cannot ride, you usually freight the bike (by air or by sea), and fly yourself.... a big pain in the *rse, I know!!

I thought US citizens could not travel by themselves in Iran, but needed to be on a guided tour. Maybe a solo rider guided tour, don't know.

Burma, most people backpack there (aka no one brings his own vehicle, don't waste your time on that research) and still not that straightforward apart from the typical places we all visit (wonderful anyway).

Check out the threads of people gathering to "attack together in a group" the China fees.

I was also under the impression that Iran had to be guided for US citizens. I did get some quotes from a couple travel agencies, pricey but it included lodgings. I think I got the names here.

I know I said I was planning to visit the Myanmar embassy but I have been crazy busy with taxes and trying to get my house ready to rent - a daunting task. I do plan to go very soon. And I am definitely way far from expert but what better way to get there than to try?

Hi hi ho silver,

We're leaving Canada in July and flying to Germany to start our tour. We had also thought of going to Vladivostok but have now confirmed a tour through China. We'll be riding across Russia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia and then September 10 entering China (along with another couple in a car) and going to Beijing, Xi'an and Shanghai. We'll catch a boat to South Korea and the other couple will continue to Laos. You're welcome to join us as that would reduce the cost of the tour in China. PM me if you're interested.

Ekke

__________________
Ekke Kok

'84 R100RT 141,000 km (Dad's!)
'89 R100GS 250,000 km (and ready for another continent)
'07 R1200GS Adventure 100,000 km (just finished Circumnavigating Asia)
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

www.ekke-audrey.ca

Hi

Have you entered China? Any problems so far if you have?

Hi Degsy,

We've just put the bikes into cargo containers here in Shanghai after 17 days in China. We'll now spend the next week in Shanghai on our own while the bikes float over to Fukuoka.

The tour itself went OK as in all the paperwork was in order and the tour company took care of everything. The entry at Erlynhot from Mongolia was a breeze as they did everything. Same thing here in Shanghai, they took care of everything. We also ended up in a couple of minor scrapes along the way that the guide and driver helped with.

That being said, I can't say that we were very happy with the guide or the driver provided to us. The driver couldn't navigate very well, blindly following his GPS and the guide couldn't guide very well as half the places we went to he had never been to before (about Suzhou he said, "I have seen it on TV. It is very famous.") and we ended up learning more from Lonely Planet.

So, logistics I would give an A and navigating/guiding a D. We used China Overland.

__________________
Ekke Kok

'84 R100RT 141,000 km (Dad's!)
'89 R100GS 250,000 km (and ready for another continent)
'07 R1200GS Adventure 100,000 km (just finished Circumnavigating Asia)
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

www.ekke-audrey.ca

So what happened, Kent?