Burma update
 

In the process of planning my Singapore to London road trip in 2015 and wanted to gauge HUBBers reactions and get some responses on the current state of affairs with taking your own vehicle through Burma, entering east, exiting west.

Most of the posts I read here tell me its not possible but there are a couple of glimmers of hope, and it's those I'd like to hear more of.

Ultimately - can it be done!?

Be good to hear your thoughts,

Ben

I think the major issue is the Indian side of the border and no permits being issued to enter that area.

It can be done, at least at the oppsite direction...

This is the most recent documented crossing of Myanmar / Burma i guess:

The pensioner caravan:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yj2x_7O0tV...-Mongolei.JPEG

4x4tripping: Die Rentner Karawane durch die Mongolei

Surfy

Hi,

I'm currently investigating crossing Myanmar overland around April/ May of 2014.

So far all sources have indicated that you can cross into Burma from Thailand at four points which allow onward travel.
- Mae Sot / Myawaddy (preferred)
- Mae Sai / Tachileik
- Phunaron / Htee Kee
- Ranong / Kawthaung

It seems you can then travel independently as far as Mandalay but traveling further - anywhere near the Indian / China borders; requires special permission.

I'm wanting to cross into India at the Tamu / Moreh checkpoint but this requires special government permission and possibly a guide.

I've been in contact with a travel agent in Yangon, but they require a detailed itinerary (which I don't yet have) and are reluctant to provide the permissions services without committing to book all accommodation etc through them.

If anyone has further information on this or will be traveling the same way I'd certainly like to hear from them

Cheers,

Tim

Friends of mine crossed from India into Burma a week ago with their Africa Twin, I don't know the details, agency used, route etc, the photo on their Facebook show them at the Iron Bridge Gate crossing point.

They are on the HUBB so hopefully will post details sometime.

Here is the blog of somebody else's trip which shows the same crossing point. Interestingly it shows an old map of British India which includes Burma as part of the same country.

http://ridingtorangoon.com/blog/

Good to hear, I'd love to find out which agency etc they used if you've got any details?

Cheers,

Tim

I hope that they will be putting a full report up here sometime but know from experience that the internet is pretty poor in Burma so it might be a while.

I am hoping to do this route in late 2015, so will follow this thread with interest. I have been told by a motorcycle tour company in Myanmar that this is possible, but do not have any details.

Hi Mark, Hi everyone!
WE DID IT!!!! We have just crossed Burma, we exited yesterday to Mae Sot. Wow, it was really, really nice. For me it was the result of 9 months of research and work. There is an easy and safe way to cross Burma with your own motorcycle and it can even be not that expensive.
I will post a complete report when we'll reach BKK.
We are late on the website, poor connections in Assam, Nagaland, Manipur and Burma. We are working on it. I post right now one or two pictures of Burma on our fb account : cardpostale as I know that Mark wants some proof ;-)
Cheers!
Guillaume
Cardpostale | A honeymoon around the world

Wow - Cardpostale. I will look forward to hear the details of the Burma crossing you did and I am sure many others will as well.....:clap:

Crossing myanmar 2014
 

Hello! we are planning to cross Myanmar between February and March, we have a safe contact and thanks to him one group is crossing now (we are waiting for the report from our friend in the group) and another will cross early February. The cost with this guy can be around 1000 dollars including food and hotels (sleeping half night in the vehicles) and all the permissions with escort.
Prices are per vehicle for 5/6 days it can decrease depending on the number of participants. Anyone interested?

I'm very keen to hear how you did it too, Cardpostale.

Please post up details soon.

Regards,

Jaykay

This certainly seems to indicate that the borders are open:

Unlike everything else I've previously seen, this is from an official government website.

http://tinyurl.com/njkyfy5



Here are some other links I'm sure someone will find useful:
http://tinyurl.com/pw5fsbx
http://tinyurl.com/qj5olot

It seems like the restrictions are constantly changing, so the true restrictions will become apparent when you actually get to the border and border officials give you a list of where you can go.

Please bare in mind, however: I'm just doing web research from the comfort of my lounge in Australia - I have no on-the-ground knowledge of the region yet.

Whilst obvious in retrospect, google searches for "77/2013 myanmar", "list of restricted areas myanmar" and "burma map restricted areas" have produced the best results to date.

Safe travels

Jaykay


(apologies for the 'tinyURL', but I was having difficulty posting using the normal URL link for some reason)

Jaykay: The first link you have there only tells that one can enter Myanmar from Thailand at the 4 bordercrossings mentioned - but you must also exit back to Thailand again. It doesnt mean that you can enter Myanmar from the Thai side and then travel through Myanmar and exit the country to for example India.

And even doing this - enter Myanmar from Thailand and exit back to Thailand again will take a decent amount of paperwork.

Anyhow - I would like to hear more from Cardpostale about how he/they did it.....

Snakeboy: yes, we all would like this information from Cardpostale.

However, if you do any research on this yourself and find anything useful, feel free to post it up here too.

My first link indicate you can exit from whichever border you like:
" Those who enter/ depart from the aforesaid International entrance/ exits will be permitted to enter/depart from any International entrance / exits of Myanmar; Nay Pyi Taw International Airport, Yangon International Airport, Mandalay International Airport, Tachilek, Myawaddy, Htee Kee and Kawthoung."

If you had looked at the other links, however, I am making no claim that there is clear passage from one side of the country to the other. It seems the department of tourism in Myanmar wants you to pay local travel agents in order to get 'Special access' to the restricted zones, and thus travel from one side of the country to the other.

This article, published a couple of weeks ago has some helpful information:

http://myanmarforumonline.com/2013/1...es-in-myanmar/

Happy travels,

Jaykay


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Jaykay wrote:

Thats correct - but if you look at the map you will find the 4 places mentioned to be bordercrossing points between Myanmar and Thailand. Not between Myanmar - India, Myanmar - Bangladesh etc. Except the two airport exits of course.... so you can enter Myanmar from Thailand at one bordercrossing and exit from Myanmar to Thailand at another of the bordercrossings between these two countries. Something you couldnt do before - at least without very much paperwork and hassle.

Its probably correct that the Myanmar government want you to have a guide while travelling there. I travelled in Myanmar in 2011 - not by motorbike - just by air, boat and by bus/car - and we did need to have a guide by our side most of the time and especially when travelling. I think this was more or less mandatory. When we was in a town we could walk freely around - but we needed to have a guide contact "at hand".

In the meantime were all waiting for Cardpostale....bier

I can help with Burma/Myanmar crossing
 

Hi everybody, we did it 5 months ago in group of 3 cars and 1 truck. We went from Indian side (Moreh). This border is not officially open for crossing because of missing billaterral agreements between India and Myanmar.

But you can have special permit from Myanmar goverment. This permit (what I know) is for 100 USD only, but you need to ask Myanmar Travel agent to arrange it. And that's the problem. Because it can only be arranged by a few travel agents connected to the goverment. They keep prices very high. We had one offer for 3500 USD for 17 days travel. Finally we found another one and we paid 1500 USD for 6 days transit doh. Our friends manage it with the same agent for "only" 1080 USD for 5 days transit but they joined a group of 60 Malaysian people. So bigger group has smaller expenses for one unit.

Normaly you need also permit from Indian side to cross this border, but they are not so strict and it is possible to do it without (but better is to have it).

We also heard from Indian high officers on the border that maybe in 2016 it will be open for everybody. But it's not guaranteed.

You who really want contact to these travel agents please write me personal message.

On our website you can see pictures from Burma.

Hi guys

I am based in Singapore and am looking to ride from here to Croatia this summer (June/July 2014) and was hoping to get through Myanmar (Thailand to India), so am very keen to hear what you guys have found out about the crossing so far. From what I have learnt you need a permit and possibly a guide, and to obtain these, costs vary significantly. Appears the easiest way to keep costs under control would be to bargain furiously intitially and then team up and share the permit / guide?

Just throwing that out there for now, while we all continue to wait for cardpostale to get back to us ;)

Interesting there's a land border now! Had to fly in and out when I went, only managed to bike around a bit renting a little 125cc thing, haha.

To fly in and travel around for your own let you see more of myanmar than these who cross myanmar overland and had to follow the well known paths together with an agency.

Surfy

If everything is going the right way we will be crossing with a guide from Thailand to India (Tamu crossing) start pf June. Everything is settled but we want to try to get some more people joining us, so we can share the costs of the guide and driver.

Anyone interested?
Contact us: ronald.enrini@gmail.com
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