Burma

[baluchiman]

Just interested, like. Does anyone know of anybody who has successfully entered and traversed the country on a motorcyle before?

[Jake1]

As far as I know it cant be done. I rode to Aus and had to fly over it. You can enter from the Thai side for about 30k then have to turn about and exit same way. A lot of bandits. Good luck.

[pecha72]

Google "the missing link of overland travel" and your 1st result should be to a 6-year old thread in gt-rider.com forums (and even those riders weren´t allowed to cross the entire country with their bikes)...
　
And The ASEAN rally at around the same time did go overland from India to Singapore... but I dont know, if they actually drove all the way through Burma. And this kind of event is special, the governments may be involved, so it doesn´t relate to a normal traveller anyway.
　
You´ll need to have unlimited time (and patience!) and you should also be very familiar with the local ways & speak the languages to realistically even think about it. A lot of people start their route planning by drawing lines into a map, and dreaming the rest. Sadly ain´t gonna work with Burma.

[TurboCharger]

Originally Posted by pecha72

Google "the missing link of overland travel" and your 1st result should be to a 6-year old thread in gt-rider.com forums (and even those riders weren´t allowed to cross the entire country with their bikes)...
　
And The ASEAN rally at around the same time did go overland from India to Singapore... but I dont know, if they actually drove all the way through Burma. And this kind of event is special, the governments may be involved, so it doesn´t relate to a normal traveller anyway.
　
You´ll need to have unlimited time (and patience!) and you should also be very familiar with the local ways & speak the languages to realistically even think about it. A lot of people start their route planning by drawing lines into a map, and dreaming the rest. Sadly ain´t gonna work with Burma.

+1

What Pecha said.

You might be able to cross the border at Mae Sai in the very north of Thailand with your vehicle but the day I was there only pedestrian traffic for duty free shopping was permitted and people like us doing the visa run. And this was only permitted in the border zone, max 20kms. After that there are military checkpoints and you will be turned back.

[parkie]

Simon & Suzi rode through in 2004 - google Simon Harby

[pictish]

Just the read theabove mentioned story about crossing burma looks like they still ended up flying and having to ship their vehicle overland by truck through some areas, otehr folks I think have shipped by truck/flown their bike and then backpacked across burma as much as they can.

[ilesmark]

FWIW here's my experience as far as 4 wheels is concerned. I drove through India and reached Calcutta in Jan 08.

overlandcruiser.net - India

I would have liked to drive from India into Burma, but didn't even bother trying as I had been told it was impossible. So I stuck the car in a shipping container in Calcutta and jetted off to Burma with a backpack for a couple of weeks before rejoining the car in KL.

Imagine my surprise when I met Thierry and Coralie in Inle, with their French-registered Landrover. They had driven in from Thailand, through the Mae Sai border.

Overland from Mandalay -->Imphal ... - Thorn Tree Travel Forum - Lonely Planet

I tried to find out how they had managed to negotiate the bureaucracy to get into Burma, but they wouldn't tell me - didn't want to open up the floodgates (as if!) I think, or rather I know, that Thierry was very good at talking to people and getting what he wanted without directly asking for it.

But you will be interested to know that even Thierry, having enlisted the help of the French Ambassador to Burma to speak directly to his Indian counterpart, was not able to get a permit from Rangoon to travel through the North Eastern Region of India. This was categorically NOT the Burmese junta refusing him, but the Indians. I am told that this was nothing to do with visa issues, nor where the permit was applied for, but due to a then-imminent crackdown against separatist rebels in the NER, which the Indian government did not want foreigners to witness. So Thierry and Corali had to return to Thailand through Mae Sai.

By all means go to Burma, but I wouldn't get too worried about not taking your own vehicle. If nothing else, you will have a lot of difficulty getting decent fuel for it - Thierry and Corali had to threaten a diplomatic incident every time they wanted diesel from the government filling stations. I remember one time when they ended up buying 5 gallons of government diesel, at the black market price, only to see the government filling station people promptly using their money to buy 5 gallons of black-market diesel from outside the station and pour it back into the government diesel tank! We heard many stories of people's engines being ruined with black-market fuel; government fuel is rationed in Burma, and can only be bought with ration books issued to vehicles registered in the same division as the one they are buying fuel in. Getting a foreign-registered vehicle into Burma is obviously such an unusual phenomenon that nobody has thought how to address getting fuel for such vehicles!

I was also told in Calcutta that the border between the NER of India and Burma IS open, but only for Burmese/Indian citizens ie no 3rd country nationals.

[parkie]

Jochen and Cordula drove their Landy camper towing a trailer with 2 R100GS's through Burma from India to Thailand in 2004. [url=http://ziguin.de]

They drove all the way (& parked up then used the bikes) - had valid paperwork after much persistance chasing Visas & Inner Line permits in Delhi. When officials tried to turn them back they patiently pointed out they needed a very large turning circle with the trailer - not available on the shitty little roads - & then retreated to the camper until the officials gave up & let them continue.

They told us but we had already comitted to flying my bike from Nepal to Bangkok - I told Simon & Suzi & they followed the process then rode through...but were forced to fly the last 200 kms while thier bikes disappeared for 2 weeks. Simon said they had many midnight police raids hassling them & he would not have done it again.


Oh, to be on the road again...sigh.