Hi there fellow dreamers
This is my very first post and I do apologize if I have missed a thread that have already answered my question.
Since this is my first post let me introduce a bit. I am a 31 years old photographer and videographer from Bosnia which is currently living in Hanoi Vietnam. I have ridden many small bikes and my long term baby is my Vespa 50cc from 1983. Let that not fool you, I have ridden some tough terains and went trough some real trips I always wanted to believe that it is not that much about the bike at all! Just came back from a Ha Giang loop, a trip of 1100 kilometres done on a Honda Blade, a semi automatic with a pillion and luggage at the back So the will and eagerness for stupid things is there, thats the most important part. I am finally ready to move for a serious bike and to make my dreams of travelling the world and doing my loved photography real
As I said I am currently living in Vietnam and since the price of our flights for home would cover half of the journey and since one of my dream trips was Europe-India I thought why wouldnt I do it on two wheels from here back to home, of course I would have to wait for borders to go back to normal again and I would have to go trough a big hustle with paperwork but what am I asking is is this DOABLE? I reckon that it would be expensive, tough, it would take me 2 months and who knows how many kilometres but it would bring a lot of my dreams to reality
Bike that is available to be purchased and that can be purchased with carnet de passage is Royal Enfield Himalayan 400cc. He fits my budget and I believe that with a new one I wouldnt have too many unsolvable problems on my way. I would travel with my girlfriend and some luggage but we are 125 kilos in total with 20 to 25 kilos of luggage at the back so I guess that we would be fine, I am aware of vibrations, limitations of the bike and how GS would do better 2up but thats not the point here. I would really appreciate any kind of advice from people that have done something at least similar to this. My main concern are the papers, I am aware of carnet de passage and international driving license being a must, can you please tell me can I get an international license here in Vietnam and the most important thing is would I be able to import that bike into my country and register it over there after I pay all the taxes and whatever this modern worlds shitty bureaucracy brought too us
There are couple of route options with the one with least visa hustles is CHINA-RUSSIA-EU but China made it all so complicated with their rules that this option is I guess impossible to be done.
What is left is VIETNAM-LAOS-MYANMAR-INDIA-NEPAL-INDIA-PAKISTAN-IRAN-TURKEY-BULGARIA-SERBIA-BOSNIA
As I said any advice would be much appreciated, whatever is on your mind and that could help me out please share it! Border crossings, police and how to deal with them, accommodations, on the road tips... whatever you awesome people know I am ready for it
Well I guess that I missed a lot of details but the most important ones are here, I look forward to hear your thoughts guys, tnx a lot and please accept my apologies if I made a ton of mistakes, English is not my first language and adrenaline is not allowing me to review typos

I can't answer most of your questions, but I'm going to suggest that you start by contacting your own government to ask whether you can nationalize (permanently import) this bike into Bosnia. If the answer is no, you can start working on another plan. If yes, ask what hoops you'll have to jump through.

Here in the US, those hoops would be prohibitively expensive, given the differences in a bike produced for the Vietnamese market and one named the same but produced for the US market. About Bosnia I have (or course) no idea, but you can easily find out.

Others will probably chime in with their thoughts on various borders, paperwork, scheduling, objective dangers, etc. You may want to get ahead of the curve by searching on this site for information about, especially, border crossings and the necessity of paid guides in certain cases. You already know about China, but Myanmar and Iran may present similar difficulties. There are already lots of posts about these issues--just be prepared for lots of changes, some of which won't make any sense.

Hoping that's helpful, and wishing you welcome and good luck!

Mark

Do you have a valid drivers license for a 400CC ?


You should check the blog of Itchy Boots (Noraly from the Netherlands). She did a trip like yours on a Himalayan.
Her blog: https://www.itchyboots.com/
Her Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEI...W9WmYtsOcJBwTg

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Jan Krijtenburg

My bikes are a Honda GoldWing GL1200 and a BMW R1200GS

My personal homepage with trip reports: https://www.krijtenburg.nl/
YouTube channel (that I do together with one of my sons): motormobilist.nl

Markharf Thank you so much, I did as you suggested and I will post when I recieve an answer back from home. Lets keep our crossed that it wont be too complicated...

Jkrijt Tnx man, will check on her for sure. I watched couple of you tube videos from here and I loved them, I will go more deep now

Itchyboots got an Indian market Himalayan and when it came to registering it in the Netherlands she came across all sorts of problems that basically meant that it wasn’t worth the hassle of getting it registered - the issues seemed to be based around “type approval” and the different requirements for the different markets. I wouldn’t be surprised if you have the same problem.

In answer to your question, do a little more research relevant to your personal position (e.g. would your bike be OK in Bosnia when you get back home) - otherwise go or it.

As mentioned above - getting a Himalayan produced for the asian marked registred in Bosnia might be a problem. Bosnia is still not a member of the EU but afaik in negotiationes about entering (?) So it will be the same rules as Noraly AKA Itchy Boots faced when she tried to get her Himalayan registred in Netherland - not type approved for the EU and thus not possible to register.
But the best source of information about this is the traffic authorities in your home country.

A couple of other things:

1. There is no international bordercrossing between Laos and Myanmar. Its only a local bordercrossing for Laos and Myanmar citizens. Theres been talk about upgrading it to an international bc and Myanmar has actually prepared for that, but Laos has not. So you will have to travel through Thailand.
And Thailand do not like vietnamese plated bikes so you will most probably need the mandatory and costly permits and guides that Thailand demands of foreign vehicles in their country.
A tip - it should be possible to ride from Huay Xai/Chiang Khong (Lao/thai border) to the Mae Sot-Myawaddy bordercrossing in one longish day to reduce costs. Or if you could cross into Myanmar at Mae Sai-Tachilek it would be even better as its only approx 100 kms from Huay Xai-Chiang Khong.

2. Myanmar also demands these mandatory guides and permits, absolutely no way around. Join a group or form one yourself to reduce costs.

Best of luck with your trip!

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In the end everything will be fine. If its not fine its not the end....