Hi everyone,

My boyfriend and I (both from the UK) are currently on a RTW, and at the moment we are in Turkey, heading for Georgia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Mongolia, and maybe China (we are in talks with a company offering a tour).

We are looking at taking a break from the travel, as after 12 months on the road, we feel we are becoming a bit blasé about what we are seeing, and we both recognise that we could do with a break. Since we already have the expensive and difficult Russian business visas, we have decided to take this break after doing the Russian leg this summer.

Ideally we would like to store the bikes somewhere for up to one year, somewhere in SE Asia, so that we can fly back home, and go back again to continue the trip when we're ready, but as it's something we weren't planning to do, I haven't really researched it.

I'm aware there are sometimes problems with leaving your bike in a country if your passport has a stamp to say you've been in with it. Plus, if you leave the bike in a country which requires a visa, you'd have to get another visa to return to your bike. Has anybody done this before that could offer some advice?

We are planning on either going from Mongolia back into Russia, and ship from Vladivostok, or if we go through China, we would go to Laos, Cambodia and then Malaysia.

Are any of these countries easier to leave motorcycles in than others? If so, has anyone come across somewhere that we could potentially store the bikes?

The other alternative is to have the bikes brought back across Siberia (it'll be September/October by this point, and too late to ride them), and then ride them home the rest of the way. Has anyone done this?

Thanks so much in advance!

Not sure if you still can but I took my bike into Malaysia without either the carnet being stamped, it being written into my passport or entered into any data base so I could of left it there if I had wanted to. I would suggest not mentioning it to customs upon entering that you plan to leave it anywhere.