Small update: I just saw a Thai leaflet on an Enter Thailand FB group saying that Songkhla (Malaysia), Nong Khai and Udon Thani (Laos) land borders are open from yesterday under a pilot scheme.

Not sure what that means yet for entering Malaysia, but very interested to know if anyone is able to use these borders yet.

This is incorrect. There is TALK of these places being opened up. FYI, Songkhla is not a border, it is an area. The border of Bukit Kayu Hitam/Sadao is the proposed entrance point and will come with some restrictions. General tourist entry to Malaysia is being discussed now for 12 countries under a VTL system, inc Australia. Currently the only method of entry is via the Langkawi Travel Bubble.

Yes, you're right. If you go to Thai pass it is still only possible to register for air arrivals. I wonder who produced such an official looking document, but seems not to have been accurate.

Now Malaysia have said they will announce the borders next week, and are mentioning a holiday in May as a key date that they want to be reopened by. Whether that is land or just air is not clear, but we hopefully know soon. They also talked about a VTL with Cambodia from 15th, which I wonder if that is good news for Oroboros up the thread, if not for overlanding.

In other news, Thailand have announced a VTL with India which is good for potential shipping plan. Still lots of maybes hanging in the air.

We had initially said that we would like to have a pretty clear view of border likelihood by the end of March/early Apr to make a call on whether to go in June or Dec. Still looks like we could know by then on SEA, but doubt we will have any movement on India by then.

Malaysia has just announced borders to open from 1st of April without quarantine.

They haven't spoken specifically on the land borders, but other stories suggest the land border to Singapore will be open, so hopefully we might get confirmation soon from Indonesia and Thailand on the status of their respective crossings.

I would guess the Thai border will follow soon as they have been dancing around this for a while. For Indonesia, they have just dropped quarantine on Bali completely as a pilot, so moving in the right direction.

Todays update is that Thailand have updated their ThaiPass registrations to allow arrival by land. Perhaps gearing up for an announcement?

Edit: Also have seen announcement today that India will remove international flight restrictions from March 27th. They currently only have travel bubbles in place, so this is a return towards normality. Looking at their Covid rates they have dropped off a cliff in the last few weeks, so this looks promising. Could that be the first step to opening land borders and reinstating standard visas?

I saw an article posted an hour ago by times of India saying Amritsar expecting increased border crossings between India and Pak with sources being advised that they can transit if they receive a Pakistan visa.

Article says that since 2020 people have needed to apply for a 'No Objection Certificate' to transit, but recent applicants have been told no certificate needed, just go to border.

Probably not helpful for anyone going the other way, but sounds promising for the Attari crossing.

Another rumbling from Twitter. The Indian consul general in United States has tweeted that suspended tourist visas have all been reinstated. I cannot find anything more official on this, and he is specifically talking to US residents of course, but that seems like good news that new issues for tourist visas may be available soon.

Indonesia have announced quarantine free travel is to be extended to the whole country, with details expected tomorrow. They had already announced dropping testing for internal ferries a week ago, so I hope this means they are close to opening land borders.

With all other countries opening or somewhat open, they seem to be the last holdouts for Australia to Thailand portion. We have been hoping to set off in 2 months, so I'd feel a lot better if they would just announce already.

Oh, and for India we can now apply for standard 1 year visa through VFS, so feels good to start getting organised.

As of 17th March, Cambodia has dropped it's requirements for a negative PCR test 72 hours before arrival and it has also scrapped it's on arrival lateral flow test. Also visa on arrival has been reinstated. Still only for flight arrivals, but it's going in the right direction.

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-p...rs-2022-03-17/

Heading off on a similar route in June from South west WA to Darwin then Dili then westwards…


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Sounds like we have similar plans. Perhaps we'll meet at Kakadu!

We have been told to contact the freight forwarders in a couple of weeks for a June shipping and Darwin drop off date.

I feel like you might be few weeks ahead of me. Received similar info from ANL - just give a months notice or thereabouts.


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