Hey,

Doing a road trip from mid december16 to mid feb 17. Only just decided so in a bit of a rush. (Originally wanted to go to South America but solo traveling there with little time to plan seems a bad idea)

Was going to buy a bike somewhere and travel around but research suggests that border crossings are difficult with a motorcycle bought there. Is registering a bike in my name possible/ worth it? And will it make things easier.

I only have 2 months so I'm wondering how many countries I have time to visit.

Mainly want to visit Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar. I know I have to cross through China, Laos or Thailand to do those three. Done Laos already so would probably choose Thailand.

Is 2 months enough for Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and Myanmar. And is it even possible to take a bike through those countries?

What about buying a bike in Vietnam and selling it in Cambodia then taking public transport around Myanmar?

Thank you,

M

Hello and welcome,
I would start by flying to Bangkok as it is usually the cheapest place to fly to and look into renting a bike in Thailand. Something like a Honda 125 will do the job fine but bigger bikes are available and when you have seen as much of that country as you want to return it to the owner, take public transport to the next country and repeat the process.
I believe it is possible for foreigners to buy in some SE Asian countries but can take time and you cannot take it across many borders, renting is easy and relatively cheap.
Take your own helmet and riding gear, what is available there is usually crap, you don't say where you are from but if you can get an international driving permit do so but your own country's licence will probably do.
It will be a bit of a rush seeing all of those countries in 2 months, 2 or 3 will be enough and if you have not been to SE Asia before take time to see how the locals drive, might is right usually applies and drivers can be a little unpredictable.
Have a good trip.

Agree with Mark.
Foreigner unless with a local residential address cannot buy a local bike. Many though opt to circumvent that by buying using the bike-shop name...it is not a guaranteed concession. Applicable in most SEAsian countries.

Cross country selling is even tougher as you would be needing a local importation and govt issued Approved permit. No way you can get that. Even locals cannot get that without lotsa money and/or politico-connection..
You cannot even bring your own bike in Vietnam unless u have permission from 3 ministries (Tourism, Transport & Security/Police) and u might even be 'persuaded' to use a local guide.
January is a good time to travel in Cambodia. And cool temperate in northern LOS.
Bike is banned in Yangon city...but you can rent electric bike in other towns.

Good luck and every bit or obstacle or hassle is also an adventure.

I think you have got it there mate .. You don't mention Thailand and Laos, which I think is the best move considering there isn't enough time to buy a bike and register it.

Buy in VN, you can take that bike into Cambodia quite easily then fly over to Myanmar.

You can buy a Minsk, for $300 USD and then dump that in Cambodia - to me that's a good deal.

VN is hard to impossible for a foreigner with a work permit to register a bike, the guys that sell the bikes are well used to dealing with foreigners, you pay a little more but the paperwork supplied will even get you through Thailand and into Malaysia if you wish.

I don't really know too much about visas over a month for these countries, It's usually a basic 30 day visa - so if you are talking about 3 months, 30 days in each, then your plan suits.

I did a month in VN, I think I saw enough, we were quite happy to come home to Thailand after the month. We didn't find many places to spend time, but travel was great. Cambodia, you might want to do 3-4-5 days at ankor, explore other places in Cambodia and leave time for relaxing by the beach, where you probably have the best chance of selling your bike.

There's a guy I follow on YouTube - frostZk - a Cambodian rider, seems to know a few places, take a look.

Then fly to Myanmar. You talk about crossing Thailand and entering Myanmar which isn't really possible for you. Just rent when you get there

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, I find some incorrect info in the above posts, but don't want to argue the toss.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My friends son and his mates recently went to Vietnam and they all bought small cc bikes (around 110 I think) for around $300. They rode around Vietnam, went to Cambodia and then sold them all back in Vietnam after maybe 6 weeks for not much less than they bought them for. One even sold within the hour as there is quite a market for this among backpackers in Vietnam.

Anther friend of mine from HUBB (sadly no longer with us), came to KL a couple of years ago, bought a 200cc scooter (one of the bigger types) and spent 6 months going all over SE Asia then came back to KL and sold it to a backpacker, pretty straightforward. Don't bother thinking about carrying camping gear, accommodation is generally cheap enough, just make sure your luggage is waterproof.

One thing to stress is to make sure you are comfortable with the Asian traffic as there are usually a lot of accidents with inexperienced backpackers on bikes.

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Mike


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