Hi

Im intending same route, well going from Perth Scotland to Perth in australia. China was the original plan but others have dropped out so its way too expensive now to go alone, although a few days avoiding Iran into Pakistan sounds not too bad an idea for me.
I'll fly across to BKK then head to Singapore and shipping straight to Darwin. Indonesia will have to wait until year after when I have more time.

Im looking to leave UK in late august so interested in anyone else going same way, your thoughts perhaps.

Cheers
Steven

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Steven
Perth to Perth 2012

Hi Steven

If you leave UK in Late August, and avoid Iran, I'm guessing you'll be taking the Karakorum Highway from Kyrgyzstan-China-Pakistan. The border as far as I've read is only open from the 1st May to about 15th November. I wonder how cold it will be by late autumn?

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Hello all,

The relatively short stay in China you speak of to get from Kyrgyzstan to the KKH, roughly how many days would that be?

When applying for the China transit/guide permit thingy I assume they ask for an entry date. Is this set in stone, arrive late and you've missed your slot type of thing, or, given the unpredictability of overland travel, do they allow some flexibility.

Is the 'popular' routing Kazakhstan, Krygyzstan, China, Pakistan or do people miss out Kyrgyzstan? Until I get more detailed maps with marked roads/tracks I'm left wondering.

Hi
Just to let you know I will be leaving John O Groats in the last few days of July 2012 heading home to Thailand, meeting up with various riders on the way.
I think it will take me approx 11/12 weeks to get back home, I plan to meet some more riders who plan to enter China 1st or 2nd week in September from Kyrgyzstan to Kashgar then follow route 219 to Lhasa then into Laos, looking approx 35 days in China I will spend approx 7 days in Laos then leave either at Mukdahan or Ubon Rachathani into Thailand.
Neil from the UK is planning Cambodia then Thailand then into Malaysia.
We are still waiting for quotes and the ones we have had, it’s not cheap to do China, but feel it’s worth it as it will be once in this life time for me.

My planned route is;

UK
France
Germany
Austria
Hungary
Romania
Bulgaria
Turkey
Georgia, {may decide to enter Azerbaijan and sail Caspian sea to Turkmenistan then Uzbekistan
Russia
Kazakhstan
Uzbekistan
Kyrgyzstan
China
Laos
Thailand

I estimate;
12000km from the top of Scotland to the China border
6500km in China Kashgar to Mohan
1000km in Laos.

Eric

Revenue,

I hope you have an alternative to China if you are unable to cross it either because of cost or red-tape.

Many have tried (without paying the incredibly exhorbitant prices) to cross China and more specifically Route 219 and abandoned the idea. Maybe you don't know (through ignorance ore otherwise) but unless you have some very special military priviledges I don't know about, the route 219 is a restricted zone and is not open to tourism. The heavy military presence along this route has meant that those who have travelled along any part of it were just as soon stopped and turned around, sent back the way they came. You may have a better chance on a bicycle or a chinese registered motorbike...

But don't trust my word. Look it up for your self.

Let me google that for you

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Has somebody (who is not Chinese, and/or on a Chinese-registered bike) actually travelled the whole length of that Hwy 219 before?

Well i guess i must have been talking to two Aliens here in Mukdahan, these people had just arrived from Laos here, they had just taken that same route!! But they sure looked and acted like humans
This is why i very rarely post on forums as there are the Arm Chair experts everywhere.

Sometimes best in life to keep your mouth shut and people think you are a FOOL as to open it and prove you are a FOOL.

Hi Eric

The reason Im not going through china was the hassle of guides and so on. Im not experienced but assumed that this would have to be well organised in advance meaning dates to adhere to, cost & so on. Hence the more southerly although hotter route.

Im looking at set off dates and it looks like you're two weeks in front of me. I did look at doing the KKR Hwy instead of Turkey so its similar to yours up to that point.

I've been sifting through other peoples blogs and so on looking at other possible routes. My preference would be to make it all the way to Singapore by road but as Burma is closed that isn't going to happen too soon.

I was quoted $1000 for a week. How much is it going to cost you for a guide through China? Are you meeting up with others going same way to save money?

Cheers
Steven

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Steven
Perth to Perth 2012

Hi Steven
yes we have had quotes but with massive differences, i feel the final figure will be 120000 RMB for 35 days, this includes for the Vehicle Guides and all the paper work involved, then devide that by how many travellers, i was talking to some guys who just came through Mukdahan on their way to Singapore, they had 7 riders, and he said this was to many especially at fuel stops as it could take nearly 90 minutes to fill the bikes with small buckets. So if we worked on 4 riders the cost would be 30000 RMB or 3000 quid plus fuel plus Lodgings, nothing is fixed but would like to think in the next 10 days its all confirmed.

Regards
Eric

Hi Ian and the rest of the posse trying to plan their trips,

Route 219 is a bloody fantastic ride and a tough one(due to the prolonged high altitude).

Here's the 1200GS I was riding stuck in Bull Dust



There is a lot of red tape to go through, of which although I was the tour guide for GlobeBusters I wasn't part of the process but had to send off passport details and driving licence stuff three months before we set off- with the other prior planning and preparation with the chinese tour agency starting well before that. Our company always uses Navo and they were excellent- I know there are quite a few companies that offer this type of assistance.

We were told that ours was the ONLY motorcycle group to get permission to travel that route in 2010. In fact we saw no other foreigners for weeks. the situation regarding Tibet and the tourist permits is particularly fluid and volatile (we got chucked out) and so it's a tricky one to predict.
And ditto about the fuelling up process - small kettles were used at many garages as bikes are not allowed near the pumps


Although our 13 bikes split up and used separate garages wherever possible to speed up the process.
Have fun and good luck.

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On the road from...I'm not sure any more
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hi Fern

I dont think Iran is a problem for me as I have two passports (Aussie & UK) so I might continue going that way, then again China is tempting if I can either join up with other people or find a cheap guide & so on might be worth heading across to Thailand this way.

I've asked Myanmar consulate in Australia if it is possible to go via Burma but expect rejection of this idea.

I have just about mental overload now with all the options, bike options, route and so on. I need to formulate some final decisions either way otherwise I'll end up in loony bin by new year!

What to do ?

Steven.

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Steven
Perth to Perth 2012

Just to contribute my experience of doing the Oz - London route.

I started in Sydney and rode to Darwin. From Darwin I used Perkins to take the bike to Dili in East Timor. It took a week and cost around $300. I had to fly, using Air North I seem to remember, costing $200 one way.

I believe it's common to ship straight from Darwin to Singapore, though I can't understand the reason as Indonesia is quite possibly the best country on the route. And to cut it out, is to my mind, a little like cheating.

I used local ferries to cross the Indonesian islands. These cost a few dollars and vary in time. They're an interesting experience, that's for sure.

When I entered Indonesia (West Timor) it was insisted that I exit through the port of Medan at the top of Sumatra. Getting a ferry from here to Penang in Malaysia was dificult. There is a passenger ferry but it doesn't take motorcycles. Eventually I found an agent who took the bike on a local boat and I had to take the ferry. It cost aroun $150, which I had to pay twice having been kinda scammed. The agent's name in Penang is a Mr Lim. He seems legit. It's his counterparts in Medan who are the crooks. Can dig out contact details if needed. But he has an office in Penang Town.

From Malaysia to Thailand with no bother. Just remember you have one month permit for vehicle in Thailand which you can extend at a border post or customs.

Burma was, and I believe, still blocked. I took a plane from Bangkok to Kathmandu. Price for my flight around $200. Price for bike around $600. Bear in mind bike weighed 95kg and was packed down, so with price going on volume weight could be a lot more if on 'proper' bike.

In to India no problem. Going any further was tough. Luckily I got Pakistan visa at Bangkok embassy but don't count on it. They insisted for a long time that I go 'home' (England) to get it and come back. It was only because they thought it was funny that I was on a 105cc bike that they granted me one.

The Irananians however wouldn't.

I tried for a long time with Iranianvisa.com but in the end gave up and went through China. I used an agency called Stan Tours, run by a guy named David. There are cheaper agents but the service here was good. For a one week passage through the corner of China, from the top of the KKH to Krygyzstan cost $2000. That included hotel and guide. Not cheap, but the only option in order to keep wheels on the ground.

KKH was spectacular. Krygyzstan (if I'll spelt it right) is also stunning and well worth exploring if you have the time. It is difficult however with having to nominate a date for your crossing in to China. Doesn't allow for much flexibility.

Visas for the Stans I found were complicated so just got one for Kazakhstan, rode across there, a transit visa for Russia and from Ukraine it was all EU.

My feedback is not to miss Indonesia, or Pakistan, or East Timor. And if you have to detour north through the Stans it's not the end of the world.

Hope that helps. Msg me if I can offer any more assistance.

Nathan

+1 for using David at stantours, great service and nice guy - h eeven cooked me dinner when I turned up in Almaty

After my post about routage I had a pmsg about costing of my trip and having responded they suggested I should post it up here as it might be useful.

The question asked was if £10,000 is enough to do Sydney to London. My answer is below. I think perhaps I did it as cheap as you can do it. So I wouldn't say it's wholly prepresentative of the funds of most people on here. But anyway...

Hiya Ted,

Glad the post was of use. But tough question regarding cost. I've never really sat down and worked it out, mainly because there were so many bits here and there - some on credit cards, others on overdraft, some borrowed - that I'm not entirely sure how much it cost. But when I set off I figured it would cost me AU$8,000. But in reality cost me about 12. So in theory, ten thousand English is enough.

I'll tot up some figures....

Carnet - $950 (not sure what yours would cost)
Health Insurance - $500
Shipping Oz to East Timor - $500 (inc me)
Shipping over Burma - About $1000
Passage through China - $2200
Visas - East Timor ($30), Indonesia ($45), Malaysia (free), Thailand ($20), Nepal ($30), India ($80), Pakistan ($200), Krygyzstan ($80), Kazakhstan ($60), Russia ($100).... these are all rough estimates based on vague memory. Total: $645
Depending on where you get them (pref from a visa agent) could be a bit less.
Living expense (inc fuel, food, accomm) = $15 a day. Sometimes this was less, sometimes more.
$15 x 9 months = $4050.
I guess this depends on how you choose to do it. Guesthouse/hostel in India is circa $4 a night. So affordable. In Oz, Russia, Europe etc less so. I wild camped in these places. Bear in mind it took me this long as I had to sort visas out as I went, so lots of sitting around. If you were well prepared you could do it 4-5 months if you so wished.

Total so far; $1030.

That's bear minimum. No doubt I had other expenses, repairs, stuff, that I can't account for. But at worst lets say another $3000 for contingencies. Heck, say $5000 for contingencies, which means that, I would say at least, that 10k (english) is enough. It just depends how you wish to do it. And how frugal you can be.

And remember, that includes China. If you got a visa for Iran and could cut that $2k cost out then that's a huge saving.

Looking at these figures now I'd be confident setting off to Oz with six grand English (apologies, no pounds sign on keyboard) and if I could do it on that I'd think there was something wrong.

One difference obviously is fuel consumption. On a 105cc I was getting 330 kilometres out of 13 litres. A litre in India etc is around 50p. So maybe it cost me 5 or 6 quid to do 330 kilometres. I covered 35,000 kays total, so doing the calculations I spent somewhere in the region of 650 pounds on fuel. Not sure what your economy's like but it gives you something to work on. But bear in mind fuel has already been included in the $15 a day budget.

I guess in summary, you have enough. In theory, too much. So it would be possible. You'd just have to make it possible. And perhaps have a reserve stashed away somewhere just in case. And if you do do it, hide a stash of American dollars somewhere in case your cash card fails. Caught me out a few times. And places like Western Union are a god send.

Right, hope that helps. Let me know how you go.

I would not use stantours, we used them for Turkmenistan and David was very unresponsive to problems we had with the people he subcontracted too.

You're better off finding a local guide and paying a 1/3 of the price!

"from the top of the KKH to Krygyzstan cost $2000."

we paid about $600........ not using stan tours

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