Originally Posted by Snakeboy

A thai plated bike into Vietnam I would belive is very very difficult, I havent heard about anyone that has been able to do that other than a very expensive organised tour with guides etc. As I mentioned above - a thai plated bike should go if luck and faith works together into Malaysia, Laos and Cambodia. And Myanmar with a guide and permits of course.

Vietnamese plated bikes into China - well I dont know about that but as far as I know ALL foreign plated vehicles that wants to get into China needs guides and permits etc. And that is very very expensive. You will need to sell a kidney and a lung to be able to afford that if doing that alone.

There was quite recently a man who posted his story about buying a bike in China and riding it around there for some weeks. 100 % legal - absolutely no, easy - definetively not, possible - yes. Worth it - well that depends. For example - it is difficult to find accomodation in China because most hotels, hostels, guesthouses are not allowed to house foreigners as they dont have the license to do that. The expensive ones often have - the ones from 70-80 $ a night, the cheaper ones doesnt have license to house you. Also remember many internetsites are blocked in China such as facebook, Google (me thinks?) etc. Can you read chinese? Roadsigns etc?

Im not sure about asian plated bikes into Russia, I really dont know. Maybe some others can answer about that. I think russian visas are harder to obtain - depending of nationality of course than maybe vehicle temporary imports.