Only a whim at the moment, but any suggestions of a rough outline (i.e. countries and not-possibles/hops)? But these things often snowball quickly soon after

Probably starting with a fairly direct route as afraid I don't have unlimited time!

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Hi Ian, met you back in 2007 in La Paz, Bolivia...seems a very long time ago now!

Did this route in reverse from Oz to UK in 2008 though getting Iran visas maybe looking a bit iffy thanks to our excellent foreign relations policies..have a look at my blog site below for the rough route, think it was around 5 months in total but could/should have taken much longer.

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Mike


www.singapore-scotland.blogspot.com
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My little Vid: India/Pakistan

BMW R1150GS
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Hi Mike, how you doing? Yes I remember it well, you gave me some tracklogs of what actually turned out to be one of the most exhilarating sections of the whole Trans-Americas trip - certainly the highest altititude!

I'll take a look later. Did you do that one solo? Or with Michelle(?)?

Would you say this trip is similar in time/distance to Prudhoe/Ushuaia?

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You´re not saying when, and for about how long?

Getting a visa for Iran with a UK passport could be tough right now. Not advisable to go through Afghanistan either, so it is likely that you´ll run into the dilemma of ´can I go to China´, which is in fact a widely discussed topic on these boards (the short answer seems to be, that you can, but it has to be arranged well in advance, and costs several hundred euros per day – going from the Stans to the Karakoram Highway and Pakistan, however, only necessitates a relatively short stay inside China).

You´ll also need the carnet, if you plan to enter Pakistan or India (or later Indonesia or Oz) with the bike. Burma is also practically a no-go, so once again you pay big time to go through China to Laos (crossing the Himalayas, so it´s not possible 12 months a year) or, like most people do, you ship the bike across the Bay of Bengal by ship or by air. There are no ferries. The most common route here seems to be Kathmandu to Bangkok by plane, where you can avoid the horrible Indian bureaucracy, but you can also ship out of India, if you like – I did that, but I don´t recommend it!!

Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Malaysia are also do-able on your own bike, and all very highly recommended, too (warm climate, nice people, great food, beautiful roads and sceneryl!)... but Vietnam unfortunately is a pain to get your own motorcycle into. Easier to leave your bike somewhere, fly in and rent locally.

And how to get the bike from one of the island nations to Australia is yet another slight problem (once again no ferries)... the most widely used option seems to be cargo ships, run by Perkins shipping, that go between Singapore - Dili (East Timor) - Darwin. You could also send by air or by sea from the bigger cities/ports in Indonesia, but it is probably complicated. Some smaller boats from Kupang (West Timor) might also be an option, when the weather permits, but there probably isn´t any solid information about them, you´d need to go there and ask (...and basically the same goes for most ferry boats operating inside Indonesia – do not expect to travel very fast there, unless you fly!)

I did Europe to Oz with my girlfriend about 4 years ago, and we spent 6 months. That was okay, but sometimes I wished we´d had a few more months, mainly to rest a bit in some nice places along the way, so maybe 8-9 months would´ve been sort of ´optimum´ for us. It was some 34.000 road kilometers, though we did some 9.000 out of that in Australia... and actually I would not start off on that route (or I would cut the trip shorter), if I had less time than what we had. If you really wanted, I guess you could do it in just 2-3 months, but that means rushing a lot.

More about our trip here:
MOTO1 - Matkalla

Hi

Im intending same route, well going from Perth Scotland to Perth in australia. China was the original plan but others have dropped out so its way too expensive now to go alone, although a few days avoiding Iran into Pakistan sounds not too bad an idea for me.
I'll fly across to BKK then head to Singapore and shipping straight to Darwin. Indonesia will have to wait until year after when I have more time.

Im looking to leave UK in late august so interested in anyone else going same way, your thoughts perhaps.

Cheers
Steven

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Steven
Perth to Peru 2014 | Perth to Perth 2012

Hi Steven

If you leave UK in Late August, and avoid Iran, I'm guessing you'll be taking the Karakorum Highway from Kyrgyzstan-China-Pakistan. The border as far as I've read is only open from the 1st May to about 15th November. I wonder how cold it will be by late autumn?

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Hello all,

The relatively short stay in China you speak of to get from Kyrgyzstan to the KKH, roughly how many days would that be?

When applying for the China transit/guide permit thingy I assume they ask for an entry date. Is this set in stone, arrive late and you've missed your slot type of thing, or, given the unpredictability of overland travel, do they allow some flexibility.

Is the 'popular' routing Kazakhstan, Krygyzstan, China, Pakistan or do people miss out Kyrgyzstan? Until I get more detailed maps with marked roads/tracks I'm left wondering.

Hi
Just to let you know I will be leaving John O Groats in the last few days of July 2012 heading home to Thailand, meeting up with various riders on the way.
I think it will take me approx 11/12 weeks to get back home, I plan to meet some more riders who plan to enter China 1st or 2nd week in September from Kyrgyzstan to Kashgar then follow route 219 to Lhasa then into Laos, looking approx 35 days in China I will spend approx 7 days in Laos then leave either at Mukdahan or Ubon Rachathani into Thailand.
Neil from the UK is planning Cambodia then Thailand then into Malaysia.
We are still waiting for quotes and the ones we have had, it’s not cheap to do China, but feel it’s worth it as it will be once in this life time for me.

My planned route is;

UK
France
Germany
Austria
Hungary
Romania
Bulgaria
Turkey
Georgia, {may decide to enter Azerbaijan and sail Caspian sea to Turkmenistan then Uzbekistan
Russia
Kazakhstan
Uzbekistan
Kyrgyzstan
China
Laos
Thailand

I estimate;
12000km from the top of Scotland to the China border
6500km in China Kashgar to Mohan
1000km in Laos.

Eric

Revenue,

I hope you have an alternative to China if you are unable to cross it either because of cost or red-tape.

Many have tried (without paying the incredibly exhorbitant prices) to cross China and more specifically Route 219 and abandoned the idea. Maybe you don't know (through ignorance ore otherwise) but unless you have some very special military priviledges I don't know about, the route 219 is a restricted zone and is not open to tourism. The heavy military presence along this route has meant that those who have travelled along any part of it were just as soon stopped and turned around, sent back the way they came. You may have a better chance on a bicycle or a chinese registered motorbike...

But don't trust my word. Look it up for your self.

Let me google that for you

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Has somebody (who is not Chinese, and/or on a Chinese-registered bike) actually travelled the whole length of that Hwy 219 before?

Well i guess i must have been talking to two Aliens here in Mukdahan, these people had just arrived from Laos here, they had just taken that same route!! But they sure looked and acted like humans
This is why i very rarely post on forums as there are the Arm Chair experts everywhere.

Sometimes best in life to keep your mouth shut and people think you are a FOOL as to open it and prove you are a FOOL.

Hi Eric

The reason Im not going through china was the hassle of guides and so on. Im not experienced but assumed that this would have to be well organised in advance meaning dates to adhere to, cost & so on. Hence the more southerly although hotter route.

Im looking at set off dates and it looks like you're two weeks in front of me. I did look at doing the KKR Hwy instead of Turkey so its similar to yours up to that point.

I've been sifting through other peoples blogs and so on looking at other possible routes. My preference would be to make it all the way to Singapore by road but as Burma is closed that isn't going to happen too soon.

I was quoted $1000 for a week. How much is it going to cost you for a guide through China? Are you meeting up with others going same way to save money?

Cheers
Steven

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Steven
Perth to Peru 2014 | Perth to Perth 2012

Hi Steven
yes we have had quotes but with massive differences, i feel the final figure will be 120000 RMB for 35 days, this includes for the Vehicle Guides and all the paper work involved, then devide that by how many travellers, i was talking to some guys who just came through Mukdahan on their way to Singapore, they had 7 riders, and he said this was to many especially at fuel stops as it could take nearly 90 minutes to fill the bikes with small buckets. So if we worked on 4 riders the cost would be 30000 RMB or 3000 quid plus fuel plus Lodgings, nothing is fixed but would like to think in the next 10 days its all confirmed.

Regards
Eric

Hi Ian and the rest of the posse trying to plan their trips,

Route 219 is a bloody fantastic ride and a tough one(due to the prolonged high altitude).

Here's the 1200GS I was riding stuck in Bull Dust



There is a lot of red tape to go through, of which although I was the tour guide for GlobeBusters I wasn't part of the process but had to send off passport details and driving licence stuff three months before we set off- with the other prior planning and preparation with the chinese tour agency starting well before that. Our company always uses Navo and they were excellent- I know there are quite a few companies that offer this type of assistance.

We were told that ours was the ONLY motorcycle group to get permission to travel that route in 2010. In fact we saw no other foreigners for weeks. the situation regarding Tibet and the tourist permits is particularly fluid and volatile (we got chucked out) and so it's a tricky one to predict.
And ditto about the fuelling up process - small kettles were used at many garages as bikes are not allowed near the pumps


Although our 13 bikes split up and used separate garages wherever possible to speed up the process.
Have fun and good luck.

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Tiffany

I was going to Singapore with Globebusters through China but due to lack of numbers Kev cancelled it sadly. Hence my alternate route via India etc.

I need to organise bike so knowing how much road / off road is expected will help me decide. Going the way you did, how much off road/ road riding was there?

Eric what bike you taking?

Regards
Steven

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Steven
Perth to Peru 2014 | Perth to Perth 2012