Fly to Vietnam, buy a bike and overland to Ireland
 

I am considering a trip to Vietnam, my original intention was to rent a bike for 2/3 weeks and then fly home.

However looking at maps and following people who are cycling/motorcycling back to Europe I am considering buying a bike and over landing through India back to Ireland

There is no real time scale as yet but I am worried about buying a bike in Vietnam as I cannot find anyone who has done it without an address


No man is truly married until he understands every word his wife isn't saying

Perhaps motorbikes are viewed differently, especially if they are bought in-country (assuming that is even possible), but I understood that it was very difficult for a foreigner to get permission to enter with a vehicle and transit Vietnam.

That is a reason why I was going to rent a bike in Vietnam. Unless I just rent a bike in Vietnam then go to Cambodia or Thailand and overland from there


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I don't think buying in Vietnam or any of the surrounding countries is the problem but getting the carnet de passage you will need to travel through India, Pakistan and Iran will be. I would be interested to hear from anyone who has done this with a bike bought in SE Asia but my initial thoughts are it is not possible.
There are tales on here from people who have ridden back from that region but that has been on their own European registered bikes they have shipped out there.

You can rent different bikes in Vietna, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand (you cant take bikes across the boarders in SEAsia):

http://schoene-motorradreisen.de/?re...ok&design=dark

then you fly to Indie and rent a bike there (cheaper then flying a bike) because your not allowed to ride through Burma and Balgladesh:

http://schoene-motorradtouren.de/?re...ai&design=dark

and then you jump Iran because if the carnet and Pakistan because you dont get a visum right now and buy a bike in Europa and go to Africa

http://afrikamotorrad.de/?report=en_...ka&design=dark

and then you fly to South America and buy a bike there too

http://motorradtouren-suedamerika.de...ka&design=dark

World trips dont have to be expensive ;-)

Thanks lads. Yeah I had a feeling buying a bike over there would be an issue. I do fancy driving through Iran though but of course than involves a carnet. It maybe that I may drive through China to avoid Burma etc, though I would not mind visiting
Ta-rider. Plenty of reading there for me. Africa and SA are something I am planning for my 60th birthday, only 7 years time ;)


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If you can be satisfied with something around a 150cc or smaller , buying new and selling when you must would be the cheapest , least maintainence, may not have to change tires or pads, beyond, maybe putting on some more dirt worthy tires to begin with.

You can definetively take a local bike through most local borders but getting a Carnet in order to cross Carnet demanding countries such as India, Pakistan, Iran etc will be a huge problem.

Not quite correct.....You can rent in Thailand and take over the borders, I went in to Laos and could have also gone into Cambodia if I had wished, they would have done the paperwork for me, as they did for Laos

Wayne

No not if your riding a cheap bike for 5 Dollars per day. Yes they offered to do the paperwork to cross the boarders for me if i take a bike for ten times the price but 50 Dollars per day is stupid. Just rent another bike on the other side of the boarder and use the saved money to extend your trip :-)

$50 that was alot, i paid $25 which is still more that $5 but saved me a lot of hassle
But you said you couldnt do it! I just said you could :-)

Wayne

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Theres not a problem taking a thai plated bike to Laos and Cambodia and there is not a problem taking a Vietnam plated bike to Laos and Cambodia. There seem to be a problem taking a Vietnam plated bike to Thailand and vice versa. However I have seen Vietnam plated bikes in Thailand so obviously its possible.

If you dont own the bike yourself you need papers from the owner saying its ok for you to bring through borders. If you own the bike yourself - no problem.
Some rental companies in for example Thailand will not allow their bikes to be taken into other countries and others will. Obviously they will charge a little more. Its your choice - take it or leave it.

Basically - what TA-rider says is wrong.

This is wrong. It takes a huge amount of paperwork and money and therefore is a big problem!

This is wrong. We tried with our own vietnam plated bike to enter cambodia but did not manage even we offered 100$ bribe so had to sell the bike again!

That is not true. It takes no paperwork if the bike belong to the rider and one paper if it doesnt belong to the rider. And under no circumstances does this cost any money.


I saw heaps of western travellers on Vietnam plated bikes in Laos and Cambodia january/february/march 2015 so obviously this is possible.

What`s about Pakistan?
 

Hi folks!
First: excuse me because my bad english.

So, I don´t understand why you are asking about to buy the motorcycle, when (under my point of view) the problem is another one: to cross overland Pakistán.

I didn´t find update info, and the one I have about is too unsafety, because the taliban/terrorist/kidnappings situation.

Yes, maybe I am wrong, but, please, Could someone write info about update Pakistan situation?

Thanks in advance.

Happy New Year 2016.

http://topalante.es

Read carefully! I was talking about rented bikes. To fly in your own bike into a country were renting is so cheap is a big waste of money.


Not if your coming from Laos and for the big pakistan Visa problem i skiped the country and flew into Indie and rented a bike there...

Snakeboy is correct in what he says. When i rented in Thailand i had one bit of paper, which was my permission letter so to speak, which enabled me to leave the country and go to others.
We realise you are on about rented bike but you stated that you can not take rented bikes across the borders in SE Asia. We know you can. I have done it. I know prices are more to be able to do that but that was irrelivant to the statment you made :)

Wayne

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OK for 25$ insted of 5$ per Day (400% more) or 600$ more per month or 1800 Dollars more per 3 months (1 in Thailand, 1 in Laos, 1 in Cambodia) you can. As you mentioned before but wasting 1800 Dollars is never an option for me so id say you cant. Rather rent different bikes in different countrys ;-)

Incorrect, It doesnt take a huge amount of paperwork to take a bike over 150cc into Laos or Cambodia. Its very easy as long as the bike ownership is in your name, you need copies of your passport & ownership book. Its about 600B - 700B for the bike on top of your visa, I took my own Thai reg'd Versys over to Laos in November. Time wise, you expect to lose 1-2 hours, but thats also waiting around for you passport visa, which you would need to do anyway.

If your taking a rented bike over the border, you need an official power of attorney form from the Dept. Land Transport, you take the ID card of renter / the ownership docs, you pay the stamp duty and the DLT verify the paper, it takes a morning to get. I think the paper, like most things at DLT is like 20B or 40B, but thats doing it yourself. If you are relying upon an rental company to do it, then expect to pay for someones time.

______________________

Anyway, lets move on .. Heres a solution for you ..

UK Reg'd Transalp 700 in Thailand (CM) for sale

Nothing else i said. Not possible with 125cc and with more it will be expensive or lots of paperwork for someone who never was in Thailand before and dont know the language and were all the offices are to do all what you wrote.
Basically - what Snakeboy says is wrong.

Theres no reason to read your writings carefully as it is bs from start to end. Anyhow I clearly recall you mention something about buying a buy in Vietnam. And now owning a bike all of a sudden changed to only cover rented bikes.

There is normally no problem taking a bike, rented or owned between most borders in SEAsia. Between Vietnam and Thailand however there seems clearly to be problems. Glad to see that Lonerider and Recom273 can confirm that.

But to buy and take a bike back to Europe from one of the SEAsian countries - I consider this impossible as until someone can prove it could be done.

Thanks for all the advice here. I am beginning to see that buying a bike maybe a problem, well not buying it but getting through certain countries maybe a problem.
Given this maybe shipping my own bike to Thailand and then going to Vietman and then back to Europe but to bypass Pakistan either north direction through China or by ship to another destination, maybe Iran


Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and India for the Christina Noble Children's Foundation. Watch this space

Getting a big bike with european plates into Vietnam is a huge problem and will demand that you organice the trip through a travel agency. Its costly and very inconveniant.
If you ship your bike to Thailand then concentrate your travel on Thailand, Laos and Cambodia as it is pretty straightforward paperwise.
If you want to travel by bike in Vietnam by bike - rent or buy a bike there.

Just because you dont want to read my answers carefully does not mean they are wrong doh
I think together we came to a prity good picture about what is possible and what is not possible or expensive. Most of the answers fit together if you dont mix up big/small/owned/rented/thai, vietnam or Europe plated bikes.
Bs. Vietnam has a limit in cc. The problem are not the european papers but usuarly those bikes are bigger then 300cc.

Ah man, it doesnt stop does it .. and the 'facts' twist and change every time .. SB is correct. I just hope people stumbling on this archive of information don't rule out doing something because of a posters bad information.

One thing, totally unconnected but was mentioned earlier in a round about way, but a FYI for the guys riding small bikes. It seems Laos is stopping bikes under 150cc from entering ( sometimes it seems uncertain to wether or not they will permit ), for sure Thai reg'd scooters, maybe foreign bikes too.

Did you run your bike through VN snakeboy ? - you have a GSA right ?

This is just not true. Not with rented 125er and not without lots of paperwork and money for bigger bikes as shown before. Easyest and cheapest is just to rent different bikes in each country and biggest waste of money is to ship your own bike around the globe into a country were there are no spare parts for it. Its so easy!

Yes i hope so too otherwise i would not care and would not allways correct wrong information here!

This is such a difficult issue. In their own way - based on their own personal experiences - probably all contributors posting on this thread are correct.

It is definitely not easy or straightforward getting vehicles in and out of Vietnam, not helped by inconsistent Hanoi officialdom and red tape on the various crossings along VN's borders with Laos and Cambodia.

It has been done though. I did it in April 2013, riding a New Zealand registered 650cc bike (2-up). I'm a Brit btw, so was my pillion.

And we weren't the first to ride into VN that year. A handful of other foreign overland bikers got through before me - all on big displacement bikes; plus

One other American touring couple on a US-registered BMW 800GS successfully crossed the frontier into VN a few days following our return back into Laos. We all had a group hug .. awww shucks! .. before they set off. The four of us just happened to be staying in the same hotel in Thakhèk (alongside the Mekong R.)

There's a lengthy earlier HUBB thread, amongst others, all about this vexed issue: HERE

Best of luck with it all. :thumbup1:

No - obviously it doesnt stop as we can see. I just hope The HUBB ont let the misinformation be standing too long as new members might be mislead.
But I am going to stop now. To fight fools seems useless...

You are right that Laos seem to stop smaller bikes from entering from the Thai side. But I wonder if that is only for thais? I met a dutch guy on a thai plated Honda Wave in northern Laos somewhere. If I remember right this guy lived in Thailand. So obviously it can be done.

No I didnt go to Vietnam. As you know big foreign bikes arent allowed in there without being on a organised kinda tour. I ride a Tenere660 for the moment.

Yeas you were one of the lucky b******* :clap: who got into and could ride around in Vietnam on a big foreign plated bike. How long was that window open again? Just 2-3-4 months or so? Anyhow - great for you guys. I must say I envy you a tiny little bit there. Would have loved to ride into and around in Vietnam. Maybe another time...

I have recieved , from those in VN in the tour business, various responses:
1.Pay $900 for the permit.

2.Since I have a 150cc no permit can be issued,ride in( this is where the communication got fuzzy).

3. Park your bike, catch a bus and rent ours.

when we get to Luang Pruang(?), we will go the VN consul there to inquire of the possibility of entering . We will start a thread if it happens.

Our Bike is a 150cc and so much is being said about the limits to size but yet I donot see anyone entering , especially on a regular basis.

Ahhh now even you got it. Great :-)

Most of the time yes but sometimes even they learn something so it was worth correcting you so many times.
Happy new year :-)

Its still a good idea to read and quote the whole period and not just the part if that suits your paranoid mind.

I do think that there is a kind of restriction of what thai plated bikes with thai owners and riders that is allowed over from Thailand to Laos and vice versa. I guess Thai government doesnt want heaps of laotians on their bikes riding in Thailand and Laos government doesnt want heaps of thais on motorbikes in their country. Or whatever reason and regulations they have.

But as for foreigners on thai plated bikes to enter Thailand there havent been any such problems. Sometimes the thais are reluctant to let persons cross the socalled "Friendship bridges" border crossings, sometimes they want money for an "escort" over the bridge etc etc. After all this is Asia and every rule, laws and regulations can be bend and quite often seem to be very strongly connected to the mood of the official one happen to meet.

But I have been in Laos on a thai plated bike in 2013, a 750 ccm. Lonerider was there in january 2015 on a 250 ccm, I met a dutch guy in Laos in january/february 2015 on a 100-125 ccm, a norwegian friend of mine rode through Laos on a 500 ccm thai plated bike in november 2014, recom273 has been in Laos on a thai plated bike (he lives in Thailand). And belive it or not - we are not the exceptions! We are the common guys and travellers.

And in addition to this I can add that I on my 2015 trip through Laos and Cambodia with my european plated bike I made the following observations:
There were heaps of vietnam plated bikes in Laos ridden by backpacker type of westerner travellers. I also saw a few of vietnam plated bikes in Cambodia ridden by western travellers. And I also saw cambodia plated bikes ridden by cambodians in southern Laos, not many though.

I strongly recommend persons that are thinking about riding motorbikes in Thailsnd/Laos/Cambodia/Vietnam to search information other places such as for example Rideasia.net and GTriders.com. The (mis)information presented by some member here is simply not correct.

Haha they are renting out way more small bikes. Guess why there is a renting shop for small bikes allmost around every corner? Small bikes are way more common in Asia then any other size of bike but this was not the question. It was just wrong information again :D

So to confirm, there doesn't seem to be an issue if I buy a Honda Wave or such like in HCMC, have the papers for it (but not in my name) for me to cross into neighbouring countries, Thailand maybe an issue?

I arrive in HCMC on Tuesday :D

Cheers
Pete

I will try and help you as you are on limited time.

Laos, Cambodia seem allow the free movement of VN bikes .. There seems to be some kind of reciprocal agreement, but don't quote me on it.

The place that can give you 100% reliable information is Flamingo travel in Hanoi. You can contact him direct and he has also contributed some essential posts to GT-R, if you are thinking of buying a bike in VN.

Thailand won't let a VN reg'd bike in .. because there is no reciprocal agreement that allows Thai bike to VN.

However - There was an advert on FB the other month, a guy was selling 2x CB100's VN Reg'd ( Not in his name ) .. I was very interested and after I got the lowdown from Thai customs, he had left the country and dumped the bikes. So, it is possible - somehow.

Yes, I think the reasons are the bike clogging up the customs queue.

There doesn't seem to be any Lao-Thai customs agreement that allows people to travel freely across the border. As you know, down my way in the South, Malays and Thais work, trade and move between the 2 countries quite freely.

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The thing with the bridges goes back to an incident a few years back when some Thai bikers had an accident and instead of stopping and sorting it - ran to the border, ran over the bridge without stopping Laos side and Thai immigration let them enter Thailand. Since then there has been an issue at the bridges.

I think that Thai immigration / customs enforce the laws on their side of the bridge, as its not worth the grief - they know what will happen if they allow bikes to freely ride over .. the Laotians will just turn them back.

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Yes, if you need to know something - GT-R is full of information. RideAsia has a lot of info too, including the document and instructions on taking a rental bike over the border, another place, which CAN SOMETIMES offer a quick reply is ThaiVisa.com.

Many thanks for the speedy reply & information, much appreciated.

You can ride from Vietnam to Laos and from Vietnam to Cambodia but NOT from Laos to Cambodia and NOT to Thailand. At least they did not allow me with an owned VN bike and all the legal papers even i offered 100US$ bribe...

Once more for your information: Small or big bikes, rented or owned bikes - the same rules appear. If you not own the bike you will need just one paper that shows that the owner oof the bike allows you to take bike to take the bike across borders. Thailand - Laos this goes for.

I spoke to a rental firm in HCMC and they said they would provide the paperwork. They did mention a deposit which is fair enough


Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and India for Christina Noble Children's Foundation. Watch this space

A deposit will probably most rentals take for any hire. And especially when it involves taking a rented bike across a border. It sees fair enough to me.

That's true. Shame about Thailand and Vietnam not allowing plated bikes to pass. Would suit me to buy a 150 and drive home


Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and India for the Christina Noble Children's Foundation. Watch this space

Its correct that the the only border crossing between Laos and Cambodia has been closed for foreigners on motorbikes lately in periods in the direction from Laos and into Cambodia. As I mentioned in a post earlier - this is Asia and anything can happen for any reason etc etc. In the other direction on the other hand - from Cambodia to into Laos ther seem to be no problems whatsoever.
So if someone are planning to travel Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia - plan according to that. And always seek out the latest news about the actual border crossings one plan to use. If a border crossing is closed at one occation for one rider it doesnt automatically means its closed from that point and until eternity...