Thanks for the replies. We've hit major problems with the trip planning.

The Chinese guide has told us the Chinese Gov't aren't letting people cross the border from Nepal, that the crossing at KKH may also be closed or have huge difficulties crossing there.

The best place to enter would be Krygystan, which is a huge detour.

Last resort is shipping from India to Thailand - just been doing a search and didnt see any mentions of time or cost...

I personally think Burma would be a bad idea, imagine getting there with the paperwork and still not being allowed in

Its all very frustrating!

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Yeah Burma is there for the truly hardcore who want to cross. You have to be insane to try. For those of us who are more reasonable with our expectations, shipping from India to Thailand is fine. Another option is Nepal to Thailand which I think is the most common route.

As some said, might be worth going to the Burma border just to see what happens. And my China well....

Best of luck,
Ol

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Put the bike on a cargo ship to sail the Bay of Bengal, and you should have about 2 weeks spare time, buy a rucksack, get a flight to Yangon, and explore Burma as a backpacker, before you go meet the bike at the other end. That should be fully do-able, and if I had an obsession about that country, that´s what I´d probably do.

Been trying in vain to get into Vietnam with a foreign-regoed bike, and I wouldnt waste my time trying to do the same with Burma. Even if some miracle of biblical proportions happened, and I´d be allowed entry, I would most definitely not be allowed to ride all the way, so what would be the point?

Certain amount of optimism is often ok, but still I would use my time on the trip more efficiently.

Hi all

FWIW here's my 2 penn'oth.

I drove through India and reached Calcutta in Jan 08.

overlandcruiser.net - India

I would have liked to drive from India into Burma, but didn't even bother trying as I had been told it was impossible. So I stuck the car in a shipping container in Calcutta and jetted off to Burma with a backpack for a couple of weeks before rejoining the car in KL.

Imagine my surprise when I met Thierry and Coralie in Inle, with their French-registered Landrover. They had driven in from Thailand, through the Mae Sai border.

Overland from Mandalay -->Imphal ... - Thorn Tree Travel Forum - Lonely Planet

I tried to find out how they had managed to negotiate the bureaucracy to get into Burma, but they wouldn't tell me - didn't want to open up the floodgates (as if!) I think, or rather I know, that Thierry was very good at talking to people and getting what he wanted without directly asking for it.

But you will be interested to know that even Thierry, having enlisted the help of the French Ambassador to Burma to speak directly to his Indian counterpart, was not able to get a permit from Rangoon to travel through the North Eastern Region of India. This was categorically NOT the Burmese junta refusing him, but the Indians. I am told that this was nothing to do with visa issues, nor where the permit was applied for, but due to a then-imminent crackdown against separatist rebels in the NER, which the Indian government did not want foreigners to witness. So Thierry and Corali had to return to Thailand through Mae Sai.

By all means go to Burma, but I wouldn't get too worried about not taking your own vehicle. If nothing else, you will have a lot of difficulty getting decent fuel for it - Thierry and Corali had to threaten a diplomatic incident every time they wanted diesel from the government filling stations. I remember one time when they ended up buying 5 gallons of government diesel, at the black market price, only to see the government filling station people promptly using their money to buy 5 gallons of black-market diesel from outside the station and pour it back into the government diesel tank! We heard many stories of people's engines being ruined with black-market fuel; government fuel is rationed, and can only be bought with ration books issued to vehicles registered in the same division as the one they are buying fuel in.

I was also told in Calcutta that the border between the NER of India and Burma IS open, but only for Burmese/Indian citizens ie no 3rd country nationals.

Mark

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In that case, its not an international crossing. There are many such crossings between, say, Cambodia and Vietnam, where locals come and go all the time, usually to work to the other side and return in the evening, but falangs arent allowed to cross there.

I better clarify what we're doing because this thread has gone to rat shit with all kinds of rumors starting!!

We're driving UK to Oz in Jul 09, we have a Chinese guide lined, up mucho expense..... if anyone wants to join us they can but be quick we have to pay the deposit soon.

The China guide emailed our mate and said the Nepal - China border will be closed until Apr 09 and they would have to find an alternate route.

Either Krygystan - China
Pakistan - China - which again maybe closed.

So these guys have been approved to go over KKH into CHina, with more expense involved.

One of my group decided that Burma was the way forward and had heard about people doing it.... thread on here about 5 years ago! Anyway she's been talked out of it now.

The China guide has emailed me and said we should be fine to enter China from Nepal late August but will confirm in May.


So to recap we're crossing China late Aug 09 from Nepal to ?Vietnam. With a guide!



**** Pecha72 - have you been unable to get a forgien reg bike into Vietnam? I've read about some big issues there, is it worth avoiding?*****

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In December -06, I was with a group of 8, trying to enter Vietnam on 115cc scooters, with Thai plates, from Cambodia and Laos. Didn´t work. But maybe the size of our group also made it harder to succeed, we were pretty close many time (tried a total of 5 times on 4 different international border stations). It seems that they basically reject all foreign bikes, no matter if its 50 or 1500cc. I heard of someone, who made it with significant help from their embassy, but have no personal experience about that. The Vietnamese consulate in Phnom Penh certainly wasnt helpful at all.

I would imagine that crossing with your own vehicle from China to Vietnam could be even more complicated, as they´re less than friendly neighbours, and both have very strict customs regulations for vehicles, etc. But that´s just my assumption, could be wrong (and I think very few Westerners have tried crossing there, who knows if that´s actually good).

Maybe if you got time before you set off, trying to get some backup from your embassy could be worth trying. Very few authorities at the borders spoke any English (some spoke a little French, though!), so if you´re lucky enough to get some recommendation letter or anything on paper, make sure you´ll have it in Vietnamese, so they´ll be able to understand it.