SE Asia – best place to buy the bike for the trip?
 

Hello everyone!

Sorry, but I'm not totally sure this is the right place for conversation about crossing borders.
I am writing from Italy and hopefully will be back in SE Asia soon to finally fulfill my dream of a road trip (I never went over 1500-2000 Km so far). I said "be back" cause I've lived in the Philippines for a couple of years already and traveled a bit in the meanwhile around Malaysia and Thailand.
I have loved motorbikes since ever, I used to ride a Sportster until 2011 when I left home for Australia and then had a couple of small dual sports, an Honda XR200 and a KLX150.
As said, at 32years old I am tired of putting off this trip and I guess that Asia is the best place to start due to reduced costs (at least regarding some aspects like accommodation and food) and cause I already know a little bit of it (most of all Cebu City gave me a good school for what concerns crazy asian traffic, which I believe is a key issue for riders who come there for the first time).
I have read some pages of this beautiful website and I hope you will be able and keen enough to help me in planning this trip. Many questions will probably be kinda F.A.Q., please bear with me if that's the case, it will mean that I have already been searching around the website.


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.

have you read what was put on the other topic you started?

Probably Chiang Mai

I read it and the guys gave some good info. I see that most of the people advise to buy in Thai or Malaysia and I don't mind either of them, but I think that the ease with which I can cross the borders will be the key aspect. I don't expect the prices to be much different and I guess that the available models are quite the same.
Some people are also telling me that if I buy a bike in Malaysia I won't need the carnet, at least in Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam or Thai. Did any of you guys have any problems with that?