So... Biking thru SE Asia?

[damo]

Has anyone done it? I'm looking at doing a tour next year for amonth or so, taking in india, vietnam, cambodia.. even a bit of india if I can.

any stories, recoomendations, tips, advice, horror stories etc>?

[Squiggles]

there are no road rules in india, give way to the cows.

[forkoil]

And if you DO have an accident in India, for gods sake dont hang around. Local custom says that if you werent there the accident wouldnt have happened, so youre history.....
Go to the next biggest town and report it there.

[Bartman10]

Has anyone done it? I'm looking at doing a tour next year for amonth or so, taking in india, vietnam, cambodia.. even a bit of india if I can.

any stories, recoomendations, tips, advice, horror stories etc>?

Ask youself some questions first...
Do you have a copy of Chris Scott's Adventure Motorcycling Handbook? If not get it. It's worth it's weight in gold.
Do you want to take your own bike? If so what do you know about import regulations? Nothing? Then find out...
How are you going to fund it?
What countries do you want to go to?
How much money have you got? How much do you need to save?
Have you signed up to www.horizonsunlimited.com yet?

Plenty of great stories and adventures to be had. Ignore the horror stories from arm-chair traverllers. Plenty of people have ridden and survived SE Asia. Just do it! Begin serious research and money saving now! Go to library. Read on the web. Most importantly seperate what you KNOW is FACT and what you think you know is fact.

And what other uninformed people tell you to be fact. E.g. the posts above.

Mark

[damo]

Holy crap.

Thats awesome, thanks a tonne for that, i'll have a closer look at home this weekend

[Hotchefnz]

Its great - brought a brand new gsxr750j and travelled from singapore through Malaysia into Thailand on numerous occasions.
The only problems I encountered were Thailand - Insurance, corrupt cops etc.. But if you take your time ( barring the Express ways where we were able to sit on 220 - 240 km/ph ) its a great experience.
Roads are in good condition - except the berms. Signage great, rain the only thing to be wary of.
Watch trucks, buses - and the boys on the 125/250cc - they love the racing.

[Black Bandit]

Go for something substantially larger than the local population ride. That way you have speed to burn to get out of tricky situations and can compete for road space more effectively with larger traffic.

[doc]

Has anyone done it? I'm looking at doing a tour next year for amonth or so, taking in india, vietnam, cambodia.. even a bit of india if I can.

any stories, recoomendations, tips, advice, horror stories etc>?

Bit out of date, long time since I was there (short time Jiggy Gig) does not mean they want to dance, as you may know it, make sure you have value for money in your insurance, live as the locals do, take a good drug kit (in original packaging) take plenty of photo's. Enjoy the food. for god sake don't mention the war

[forkoil]

And what other uninformed people tell you to be fact. E.g. the posts above.
Mark

Ummmm, I rode London to Australia, so I DO know what I'm talking about re my comment above about India, if that was meant at me....

[Jaxi]

Hiya,

We rode our bikes from UK to NZ 04/05. South East Asia was awesome....

If you are planning on shipping your own bike over, be aware that Vietnam will not let anyone in on a bike over 250cc. They used to let you in, but the rules changed a few years ago which is a bummer.

After riding through India, we had to fly our bikes from Kathmandu to Bangkok as Myanmar is also a no go (well, I know of one couple that almost managed it with lots of bribes). You can also ship from / to Bangladesh.

India is a very cool country to ride in.... I am saying that now having done it and survived! The day we rode across the Nepalese border after 4 months in India was a relief. In saying that though, we did almost 10000km, mostly incident free. For me, I couldn't wait to get out of there, but now I can't wait to go back.

India is much more fun on an Enfield, our bikes (BMWF650's) were a little too fast for the roads. You can buy Enfields pretty cheaply out there and then resell before you leave.

Thailand has some awesome roads.... check out http://www.gt-rider.com/ The Doi Pukka Loop is fantastic.

Cambodia and Laos are also cool. The roads in Cambodia are still a bit rough, the route we took mainly had us on red corrugated roads most of the time but that was our choice. The route we took in Laos was mainly tar seal and pretty good condition (two years ago now).

Anyways, If you would like some more info PM me and I can forward our trip reports from those areas if you like....

Here are a couple of pics too.... the first one is a very good road in India, and the second is in Cambodia, the third is the Doi Pukka Loop in Northern Thailand.

Cheers
Jaxi