The Golden Triangle Rider

[Tomwhiteford]

After a fustrating trip to Hanoi from bangj\kok via the usual tourist bus crawl my girlfrien and I are going to try to buy a Minsk here and see how far we can get by bike for the return leg. The big unanswered questions are how we will far with the legalities and corrupt(?) border guides will travelling on a Vietnamese registered bike with a locals name on the papers (supposibly it's not possible for a foreigner to be the registered owner of a motorbike in Vietnam). Then there's the small matter of my negilecting to to get an International drivers licence before leaving New Zealand as I was not seriously considering the possibilty of doing such a trip when I left.
Fairly set on giving a go and being resigned to the possiblity of having to walk away from the bike somewhere down the track, love to hear from anyone with experience of such venture and any words of advice as to the best way of getting as far as possible.
replies eagerly awaited.

Tom