Hi guys,

This is my initial post (it will definitely be updated with the detailed plan of the trip).
I am starting to plan a trip from Croatia to China.
For now there are two of us coming from Rijeka, Croatia.
The plan is to start on the May 2nd 2019.

If someone has already made this trip, it would be so helpful if you can share some important info.
Moreover, we would like to invite other members of the horizonsunlimited to join us.

As I have said, this is the first step and whoever decides to join us is welcome to help us make the detailed plan.

We would like this to be the one way trip and we would like to ship the bikes back and to return by plane.
Basically we are not on a tight schedule, so we can travel 2,3 months. It depends on how we agree about the route.

An update:

Generally the plan is to go through:

Croatia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Turkey,Armenia, Azerbajan,Iran,Pakistan,India,Nepal, India, Bangladesh,Myanmar,China.

I am reading about lot of issues on entering Mynamar, so if someone entered it recently, please be so kind and share the info.

Myanmar shouldnt be any problem but you will need a guide and permits and thats mandatory and theres no way around it. It isnt too expensive either, I have seen prices down to 6-700 USD pr person including guides, permits and accomodation for a 7-10 day crossing.

Are you sure the Myanmar-China bordercrossing is open for foreigners and foreign vehicles? Im not so sure about that.....

Also remember that guides and permits are mandatory for China and they are expensive and must be organised well in advance.

Bangladesh - I think you should research a bit more. I have heard of only one overlander going through there and he got stuck in the customs and was to pay a huge amount of money and he even hadvto involve hus own embassy to get out that problem. It might be easier and even straight-forward nowadays but research a bit more first.

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In the end everything will be fine. If its not fine its not the end....

This is the kind of info we need. Thank you very much, I really appreciate it.

So what you are saying is that there is no way to get through Bangladesh to Mynamar?
Do you have some other idea how to get into Mynamar? Through India then?
The cost is not an issue, we just need to be able to enter somehow.

Basically, we just started to plan the trip and we just want to get to Shanghai, and honestly, I never thought it will be this difficult.

What about Kathmandu - Lasa? Is that an option?

Yes through India. You certainly dont have to go through Bangladesh to get to Myanmar. If you look closer on the map you can see that there is a small «corridor» of India north of Bangladesh so that India and Myanmar share a bit of a common border. I think the bordercrossing most if not all overlanders use is called Moreh - Tamu, India to Myanmar.
But as I mentioned it might be possible to go through Bangladesh. Its just not a common route and the only overlander I have heard of going through Bangladesh got into serious trouble with the local Customs department.

Kathmandu - Lhasa is from what I have heard a really difficult stretch to get the correct permits for. I know of a german guy who runs a bike tour company in India and have done so for more than 20 years and he have done guided trips from Katmandu to Lhasa but even with 20 years experience and all kinds of contacts througout all governments and authorities he could arrange this trip one year but the next year it was impossible.
It might be possible but you would certainly need a good company with the right contacts to make you the correct permits. And it wont be cheap! Remember Lhasa is in Tibet and Tibet = China as China brutally occupied and took over Tibet in 1959. And thus you will need mandatory guides and permits as for China mainland but extra permits since its Tibet. The best thing you could do is to contact different chinese agencies that offer guide and permits and see if they can help you.

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In the end everything will be fine. If its not fine its not the end....

As far as I know, the Armenia/Azerbaijan border is also closed. They had a war, and don't like each other much. Maybe think about heading straight for Iran from Armenia.

If you start following threads about trans-Asia trips, you'll see that people deal with these issues in various ways. You'll also see that 2-3 months is not an excessive amount of time for what you've got in mind--particularly if you want to see the sights along the way.

Hope that's helpful.

Mark

@Snakeboy :

Yes I know about that little gap between Bhutan and Bangladesh, but wanted to go more south. Doesn't really matter as long as we get through and reach China at the end.

@markharf:

This info is also new to me, so it looks like we will have to remove Armenia and Azerbaijan off the list as well


Thank you guys for being so helpful!
The next step for me now is to call the embassies and agencies that offer guides and permits.

Is there some post where I can find those agencies phone numbers or some contact info?

There's no need to skip Armenia or Azerbaijan, you just need to do it in the right order.

Since Armenian borders with Turkey and Azerbaijan are closed, your best option is to simply add Georgia to your list.

Enter Georgia from Turkey, then turn south to Armenia, make a round trip and return to Georgia. From there continue east and enter Azerbaijan and then south towards Iran.

Make sure you don't visit the disputed territory of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) from Armenian side, since any trace of it in your passport will cause Azerbaijan to ban you from entering.

Keep in mind Azerbaijan has very restrictive vehicle import rules and they only give you 3 day transit with your own vehicle (I'm not 100% on this, its based on several reports from various adventurers)

Also, several countries on your route will require a "Carnet de Passage", namely Iran, Pakistan, India and Nepal.

Hope this helps.

Wow, this route looks great! For how long do you plan to stay in each of those places?
I've been to Macedonia once, there should be no problems there, and I suppose it might take your breath away...

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Regards,
Ethan

This is so helpful. Thank you, and everyone that is sharing their experience with me. We have enough time to prepare nicely, and with the help of HU members I am sure we will be prepared as much as someone can for an adventure like this one.

Actually, Macedonia was a part of Yugoslavia as was Croatia, so we were the same nation and Macedonia is something I visited a log time ago and it doesn't excite me as much as Asian countries.

We are really flexible guys, so if we like some country more we will stay more in it ( or as much as Visa's or permits allows us)

If you like the route, you are welcome to join us!

Nice trip. Maybe there is a chance to go together big part of the way. 2 of us from Croatia are planing something in that direction...