China-India by side-car

[Sam&Karine]

Hi everyone,

We are currently living in Shanghai and are going to move to India at the beginning of next year.
We are planning to travel by side-car from Shanghai all the way to India via land. It would take us about 3 months and we would cross Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand. As it seems to not be allowed to cross Myanmar with your own vehicle, we plan on shipping the side-car from Thailand to India.

We have several questions that could maybe be answered by some of you who are more experienced regarding bike’s regulations in those countries or/and who actually did a similar trip before.

1/ Rules & Regulations
In a legal point of view, is a side-car viewed as a motorbike? Are the rules and regulations the same for a side-car as for a motorbike (specifically in those countries)?

2/ Driving the side-car out of China.
Our side-car has a Chinese license plate which allows us to drive in China without any problems.
Are we allowed to drive in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand with this same Chinese license plate or will we need to get a local licence plate or a kind of transit visa/form for the bike?
Which specific paper works (for the bike and for us) will we need when we cross the borders between those countries?

3/ Driving licences
Do we imperatively need an international driving licence to cross those countries?
We currently have American, French and Chinese driving licence but not an international one which is not very easy to get here in China.

4/Changing the passenger part of the side-car from right to left
Driving the side-car in Thailand and in India, where the traffic is on the left side, suggests we change the passenger part of the side-car from right to left. We think about doing this change as soon as we get to Thailand.
Are there any suggestions about this specific topic?
Does this change really need to be done?

5/ Shipping
We read a lot about shipping motorbikes on the website and we found it very useful, especially to find appropriate shipping companies. However we still have some questions.

According the weight and the volume of the side-car, as well as the fact that we will actually move to India (and therefore will not urgently need the motorbike there), we still think it will be cheaper and more appropriate to ship the side-car by boat.
Does anybody know if there is a way we could roll on and off the side-car on a boat going from Thailand to India without putting it in crate or a container?

Because India will be our final destination, importing the bike and paying all import duties will be required. We will be moving to India on a transfer of residency. Currently we found some sites explaining the procedure to import a car into India. Does anybody have any information about this procedure of importing a bike/side-car into India, and/or the paper works needed for Customs?


Thanks and happy

[TBR-China]

G'Day,

the Shanghai - India trip has been done before.
read: Shanghai Bikers :: Duncan's Trip

best regards, Butchman

[CrazyCarl]

I guess my question would be why you don't want to go through Tibet. Maybe fewer border problems?

CC

[oldbmw]

I get the impression that importing a bike into india could be difficult. They now have very stringent emission laws which is part of the reason why the new enfields are so much better in that department. also why they had to discontinue their diesel bike. ( sadly )