india to sri lanka to malaysia
 

anyone has any experience getting from india to sri lanka and then further east (ideally malaysia)? I'm on my way on a bullet and intend to head east from india (chennai or anywhere else in the south). Trouble is i have no carnet de passage nor do i intend to get one. I would very much like to catch a ferry over the bay of bengal and was wondering if anyone has done it.

would appreciate any advise.

thanks,
s

There's still no ferry service between India and Sri Lanka. There were plans to revive the service last year, but the Indian government shelved the plans due to security concerns over the Tamil Tigers. At the moment, the only way is to fly.
There are ferries/cruise ships that run from Colombo to Malaysia and Singapore.

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no pipe, no slippers
www.chasingthesun.org

thanks a lot harvey.
How about malaysia? It seems to be possible to ship the bike to malaysia, from india, but i am not sure if i need a carnet or not.
Once in malaysia i could sort it out with thailand and finally cambodia - where my trip will end - without any carnet.
By the way, i have seen on your website that you shiped your bikes from india to bangkok: any info on the company and procedures? Also, if you know more details about the ferries from sri-lanka to malaysia or singapor, i would be very much obliged.
with many thanks,
s

Shmirgel,

We flew our bikes from Kathmandhu to Bangkok, so I don't know about shipping out of India.
You don't need a carnet Cambodia and I think you can get into Thailand without one. In Thailand they issue a temporary import certificate which lasts for 30 days. We didn't register our bikes in Cambodia and had no problems.
What are you intending to do with the bike after Cambodia?
Are you buying the Enfild in India? If you are, my understanding is that it is very difficult to take the bike out of India.
For the Sri Lanka - Malaysia ferries, I just searched on www.google.co.in and it came up with several ferry companies that operate this route.

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no pipe, no slippers
www.chasingthesun.org

[This message has been edited by harvey (edited 23 January 2004).]

Harvey,

I tried this google link thingy, but all I can find is pages and pages of general travel pages. Any ferry links are about ferries to resorts, etc.

If you have found something more concrete could you please post the relevant links. This should be of great interest to many overlanders, including us, as it may be an interesting, perhaps even cheaper alternative to flying from Kathmandu.

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Salut from Southern France, the bikers' paradise,

Peter.

Hi Guys,

we are right now on the way the oposite direction Malaysia - India. As far as we could figure out, there are now ferries any more (used to be several years ago) We will ship the bikes from Port Klang to Chennai and we will fly over. Try www.seahawklines.com. They will do our shipment and have also a office in Chennai. Concerning the carnet: for Malaysia and Thailand no problem. Might be, that they like to see one, but we got in without it (just talk with them, here they are all happy, happy)

Good luck

Lo

www.lomo-expedition.de

Peter - to be honest I didn't look any further into the Sri Lanka - Malaysia ferries, I just saw that there seemed to be plenty of sites advertising ferry services out of Sri Lanka.
The India-Sri Lanka-Malaysia route is not really a viable option as you still can't get your bikes from India to Sri Lanka, unless you fly them and then it definitely won't be cheaper than flying India/Nepal-Thailand.

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no pipe, no slippers
www.chasingthesun.org

Lo: thanks, but when I try the link I get a blank page with "Hello World!".

Harvey, thanks for your email. I wasn't aware that there is no ferry to SL any more. Still, perhaps one could rent a fishing boat? I believe it's not that far. Of course it could only be cheaper if you aren't in the north!

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Salut from Southern France, the bikers' paradise,

Peter.