Hi,

As said in my introduction, I am just starting to plan a road trip around SE Asia and here is the first of 1000 questions I'll have to answer in order to make this idea true:

After reading here and there I realized that crossing the borders may give troubles depending on where the bike is from. I think that buying a bike on the spot would be the cheapest way on the long term, but where do you think I should start my trip between the following countries if I wanted to keep the same steed during the whole trip (buying and selling in each of them would be crazy and too time consuming).

1) Thailand – it seems that Thai have some quite strict rules and are not happy to accept bikes not coming from specific countries which they have mutual agreements with (i.e.: Laos and Cambodia, I still don't understand if Malaysia is another one).

2) Malaysia – many people say that it's easier to buy a bike there (less bureaucracy problems?)

3) Laos or Cambodia – they may be a good option in order to get to Thailand with not many questions asked, but I'm not sure that Malaysia will be accessible and the range of available bikes may be tiny?

4) Vietnam – it's another country full of bikes available (and the only one with Vespa, which instill an option I'm considering), but it seems that crossing the borders from there may be troublesome.

That said, I still don't know exactly what documents I will need for the bike, which will surely be a small one (no more than 250cc, maybe an underbone) and I feel mostly concerned with the Carnet de Passage that has to be issued where I buy the bike, but at what costs of time and money?

A lot of questions already, thank you in advance for your hep land for all the inspiring rides that you share everyday, hopefully will be on the road again like you guys.