Border crossing advice please: Cambodia - Thailand - Malaysia - Indonesia - Australia

[ndthl]

Hi people,

Every now and again someone gets a crazy idea in their head. This happened to me last night. I have a bike I rather like in Cambodia, but contract ends August and am heading back to Australia. Is there even a remote possibility I could ride it home? I've successfully crossed into Thailand (and back) previously from Cambodia. Does anyone know if it'd be possible to cross into Malaysia, then Indonesia... all on a Cambodia registered bike? Then I'll just chuck it on a boat in Jakarta or something and pick it up in Darwin.

This is a pretty over the top idea. But if it can be done, it must be done! If anyone's successfully done this, please let me know.

Wil

PS - found this from Wolfgang, but does not answer my main question whether it would be ok to take a Cambodia registered bike across Thailand into Malaysia, then Indonesia... would Thailand/Malaysia/Indonesia let the bike out of their countries?: http://www.gt-rider.com/thailand-mot...628#post279628

[pecha72]

It's not over the top. I've done that route, but the bike had European plates, and I had the carnet, which I used when entering Malaysia, Indo and Oz. Sorry I don't know how the game changes, when you have a Cambodian bike (ASEAN countries, does it make a difference, etc).

I think there was someone at the HUBB, who did it (or at least went to Indonesia) on a bike bought from Vietnam not so long ago. I'd expect Indonesia's seemingly erratic customs "rules", and import regulations and quarantine & roadworthiness inspections in Oz to be the biggest stumbling blocks.

But it's one hell of a road trip, if you can pull it off... and I would NOT skip Laos & north Thailand on my way!

[ndthl]

Hey man, thanks very much for your reply! What is a carnet? I'm sorry, I'm no veteran when it comes to all this. I have the paper from the bike importer in Cambodia that I bought the bike from, effectively a receipt, stating VIN, model, purchase date etc. The bike actually was imported from Japan and I was the first the own it in Cambodia. There's further complications though, as you can't be the first owner of a bike as a foreigner in Cambodia, so it was actually registered in my friend's name. He then had to write a letter stating that he transferred ownership to me. I presented this letter and other info at the Cambodia/Thai border and was able to get it across.

What I'm unsure about, though, is if the Thais' condition of letting me in is that it goes out of Thailand ONLY back to Cambodia, or if I'll be able to get it out into Malaysia instead ... and so on and so forth to Australia through Indonesia.

Yes, I've heard Laos is good, although I don't want to spend my whole life doing this trip ;-) Perhaps Cambodia - Laos - Thailand - Malaysia - Indonesia - Australia would be the most complete trip considering my starting point though ;-)

Wil

[OnkelKarle]

Hi Wil,

we did kind of a similar trip this winter: We bought bikes in Malaysia and rode them to Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and back:
We had no problems crossing the borders. We wrote a lot of information in our blog on how we did it if you want to check into it:
http://unleashyouradventure.com/buyi...uth-east-asia/

A carnet is basically an official deposit that you will export the imported bike again. I do believe though that you can enter Malaysia with a small bike (Honda Wave etc.) without it. The locals do. But no guarantee on that. We came the other way.

We really enjoyed our trip. It was awesome.

Cheers Patrick

[ndthl]

Hi Patrick,

Thanks for your help. I'm now very interested where on earth I can get a carnet in Cambodia.... I'll have to ask the Cambodia Biker Club or something. The rest sounds hard, but doable.

Wil

[pecha72]

Not sure, if vehicles registered in the ASEAN even need a carnet to cross borders inside that zone? Cambo, Thailand, Laos and in practice Malaysia too if entering by land, are do-able without it. Indo & Oz are probably more complicated.

And if you're an Aussie returning home, remember vehicles entering on a carnet are never meant to stay permanently in a carnet-country. The whole system was basically made to prevent that.

[ndthl]

Hey, thanks again for the reply. All of this is a mystery to me and it's great to have support from those who know. It would be great to be able to confirm from those who've done it that I can get through ASEAN countries without a carnet. Just having to deal with one border crossing is less of a worry... and being able to get it into OZ is the whole point! hmmm

Wil

[pecha72]

Sorry, but I don´t really know how it goes, when you plan to travel on a Cambodian bike. Hopefully someone else can give better answers.

I´ve done some trips with Thai-regoed bikes, to Cambodia and Laos (and the owner of the bikes was with us, so that made border crossings probably a lot easier). Definitely had no carnet for those bikes, nor was it ever asked for. But I think Indo & Oz will be harder to get into.

[pecha72]

There was a dude on gt-rider dot com forums, who got his Thai-plated Africa Twin from Malaysia to Sumatra without a carnet... but not without wrestling a couple of days with the customs! And this was 5-6 years ago, so it may all be very different now.

[Akentigernfox]

Indonesia without carnet is almost impossible, speak to vedett who shipped, asked and tried, and ended up shipping back to malaysia without entering into indonesia.

The mistake will probably cost you the price of a small honda here. Ask Edd on his C90 who just did malaysia to uk on one, anything is possible.

Shipping on the onion boat into Indonesia is apparently not running (return indo-malay is ok).

I would suggest, pop down to malaysia, on a cheap flight, buy a bike, ride around malyaisa,thailand, cambodia, laos. take the bike back to malaysia and sell it again.

Fly into Indonesia, and buy/rent a local bike again and sell it. It will probably work out cheaper.

Remember Air Asia , tiger, etc are incredibly cheap to pop around.

just thoughts

[roo poo]

Hi, Can anyone help with some questions about buying two bikes in Malaysia and spending 2/3 months traveling up thru Thailand and Cambodia.
What is needed to get through those border crossings
Can we sell the bikes in Thailand or do we need to take them back to Malaysia
Which maps are available to buy online showing back roads thru those 3 countries.
Thanks for your help