London to NZ 2012
 

Will be travelling from London to NZ by landrover (Disco 2) in mid 2012.

Am now starting on route planning and keen to hook up with others travelling at around that time. May be able to carry some spare tyres for a couple of bikes etc.

Hoping to go through China through to Laos/ Vietnam as part of the trip.

If you are planning on travelling around that time on bikes or 4x4 and want to meet up to discuss, let me know

Thanks
Richard

Will be taking a fairly similar route 2012 with a 110 defender towing a trailer/ small caravan summer/winter (haven't decided what kind of conditions I want to drive in yet probably the start of summer though)

London to bangkok via London-Europe-Russia-Kazakhstan-Mongolia-china-Laos-bangkok

I would like to visit north Korea on the way and I hear it is possible via china tour groups but without the car.

The prices Ive found so far are indicating 6.5k for the china leg just on my own if you do find anything cheaper please send me a PM.

Would be interested in meeting up for a good leg of the trip depending on what our dates are.

Our plans at this stage are Europe to Turkey. Down to Jordan via Syria. Back up to Iran and from there we are unsrue whether to head down to Pakistan or go up to the Stans...

Ultiamtely, we hope to cross into China via Nepal and head round to Laos from there, but these are just ideas.

Our plans are very flexible.

Are you in London by chance?

Cheers
Richard

Gerrards cross in bucks so not far away from london really, we are obviously taking very different routes although collaboration on china onwards and/or the start of the journey into europe could be an idea.

I'm interested in the trip.

I'd be traveling on a GS1200A.

I might be in London in the next couple of weeks to drop my passport of at the Jordonian embassy for a trip in September.

Francis

EZ64 - Definitely re China. If I can I want to hook up with some others to try and get the costs down. I;ve done some prelim research into costs and the various copanies people have used but will need to do quite a bit more.

Send me your email if you want and let's see what we can come up with to help one another. 6.5k seems way to steep from what I have read

Francis, email me when you are coming to London and let's try and meet up for a beer and a chat

rshine at reedsmith.com

cheers
Richard

Just respond to my email in my profile (stops the bots sending advertising emails)

Will be good to try and lower those china costs somehow as 6.5k is literally the only quote ive managed to get.

Yours will be a lot cheap (nepal to laos) rather than mine thats down the entire country but still it seems expensive.

Transit China
 

Hi, I see you are looking at costs to transit China. You are duplicating a journey made this year by Anne Power and her family. Anne did a lot of E mailing to obtain best quotes etc. The last I heard she had settled on a guy nature_lunwang ( at ) hotmail.com He came well recommended and was the cheapest. Annes site/blog is at overlandwithkids.com.You can contact her through the site. I would be interested in sharing the guide through China...I would be solo on a motorcycle, entry from Mongolia exit into Loas. Hope some of this helps.

Regards Jimmy

Thanks for the heads up I will look into it and when we are nearer the date we should pm each other for at least a partial meetup :)

Hi Richard
I would be very interested in tagging along as far as china, I am driving a shogun and would be alone, rough camping, soft camping, BBs, Iam pretty flexible on all aspects including route and timings as long as its not a race through each country.
Kind regards Warren

I've recently return from a ride to Egypt and I'm now ready for a longer trip. So if your still planning on going I would like to meet up with you in Jan/Feb.

I'm thinking of caring on to America after you stop.

Francis

Transiting China 2012
 

Hi, Subject to the time of year..( I am riding a motorbike and the Gobi desert can be very cold!!) You can count me in. I( have an xt600e that I prepared 2 years ago and have been trying to sort out China for 2 years. If yopu are having an informal meet let me know.

Thanks Jimmy

China trip, camping
 

hey guys, im not sure if this will be of any realvence to you or not but i recently spent 7 weeks in china on a local Chinese motorbike (illegal i know, but fun) i rode from Lanzhou (more or less the geographic center of china) to kashgar.

Along the way i was stopped about 1/2 a dozen time and as soon as i took my helmet off the police didnt want to know me and directed me on. APPART from in northern Qinghai (above tibet) because there are 5 towns that are 'closed to foreigners'. there is no road block on the way in and no body knows about it until you are actualy there. officially you need a permit otherwise you will be told to leave and go back where you came from. i however rode through the first one, had lunch and a looked around without hastle from any one. i only got into trouble when i went into a hotel and later the police arrived to inform me of the bad news.

Also, i would advise camping in rural areas that are off the 'tourist' trail, every town has hotels but in the non tourist ones (ie without backpackers) the only hotels that are registered to house foreigners are expensive, doubles (no singles?) range from 120 yuan to the roof! (cheap hotels in the same town go for 40-60 yuan)

this is for western china (not your destination i know) but i am led to believe it extends into eastern china some what as well. in the east there are more tourists and many more budget options tho.

cheers

Hi All, how about arranging a meeting?
 

Hi, I see there are a few of us all looking to transit China in 2011. My preferred route in Mongolia, China, Laos. I do understand that the china transit is an expensive proposition however for me it is a trip of a lifetime and one that I hope to remember long after the cost has been forgotten. So...is there anyone else who would like to share the journey through?. Entering China about the beginning of July 2011. If we could all meet up regardless of routes and dates we could share info and contacts etc..

Jimmy XT600

we will be happy to have welcome drinks and adventure talks with you at our club when you are in istanbul.
wish you all the best.

China or bust
 

Hello everyone,

I have been reading the threads pertaining to the wish to travel to China and beyond for some. I have been researching a little on the matter as I too am hoping to visit China by motorcyle via Europe with a possible toe dip in Africa, along with a hope or even a pray to travel back to Europe and thus home, post China.

I understand that the carnet is not applicable in China hence the soul destroying fees, so I too would appreciate some company for companies sake but with a secondary wish/motive to reduce costs.

As for timing I was hoping to commit to 2011, however, knowing that this trip is life changing, possibly life ending even (apologies for the morbid humour), I am somewhat flexible on timimg.

Route wise I had planned to pursue a path which would take me through Iran, Pakistan, India and then Tibet on to China. My return leg would push my path a little north (Russia) thus covering both routes to/from China.

I speak a few on route languages so that may help, other than that i'm a lost soul. So any samaritans out there please do make contact. ;-)

We are making progress on our planning

Leave date for us is likely to be July 2012

We are going through Iran and Pakistan

Latest info is we will need to get Pak visa in UK as we are resident here. Requirement is that then need to be in Pakistan within 3 months of issue. Problem, we don't plan to get there within that timeframe. So we are lookin into whehter we can extend the Pak visa in Turkey. Iran is slightly different. If we got the visa in UK we would need to renew based on our timing, but all going well should be able to apply for the visa in Turkey...but if there was a problem we will have a major headache. So, will prob try and get in UK and renew in Turkey.

China....difficulties galore, all well documented. Aside from cost it looks like we would end up with a set timetable to be at the border. That doesn't appeal. We are debating the merits of crossing china versus the alternatives

We are in a 4x4 so options are (a) ship from india to malaysia - straightforward I think (b) try the burma option - on the postive side the eastern indian states have now opened up for tourists as from the start of the year, so it looks like it might be possibe to make the border. Whether the burmese will begin to allow anyone to transit the country in light of the recent political reforms awaits to be seen...unlikely, but you never know. We will keep an eye on developments but a big longshot.

So back to China option. We are going to sketch out a date when we think we would be in Nepal. Our plan if we go this option is to try and get to Lhasa and then head on to Laos.

We will post more details as we work them out but ideally would like to hook up with others for this leg of the trip to share costs etc. I understand that bikes are not allowed on the chinese motorways unlike us. So if we teamed with bikes we would be going backroutes and this take longer and naturally greater costs. Having said that we are open to any ideas.

Hope to find someone with similar plans and timings who is up for sharing the load on the research and enquiries into the China option. Happy to do it myself but will take me time....

Hope everyone elses plans are coming togehter!

cheers richard

hope all your plans are going well, I used www.navo-tour.com in 2009 to cross China from Kazahkstan, for 21 days we paid about £2k each + import bond which depends on the value of your vehicle.

I cannot praise them enough!


Here's my blog, its a bit crappy, feel free to message me

Rachiesbigadventure

Hi, Same time, same start point, same destination, different route. Im going north as far as St Petersburg then east staying in Russia. Interesting though I'll follow your posts. Cheers Louie