Insurance requirements

Gary D

0
Apr 17, 2010
106
0
0
Hello All,

I am planning to bring over an Australian registered motorbike soon for an extended ride. I will have a carnet as i am shipping through Malaysia.
Question is can the GT group assist in any insurance needs that i should have. Intend to ride Malaysia, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia.
Any input would be appreciated.

thanks

Gary
 
Sep 22, 2008
199
0
0
one thing to remember is that Thailand do not honour the Carnet for the use that you want. They do it a different way. Backdoorphil should have more info as he has a SA registered bike here.
 
Jul 6, 2004
355
2
0
Hi Gary,
I have brought the same bike up to Thailand twice.
The first time was in 2004, I shipped the bike by container from Darwin to Singapore.
I did a lot of homework on Horizons Unlimited. com.
I did the right thing and got a Carnet, International Licence and arrived in Singapore. This story has been repeated endlessly on HU.
So check out the reports.
Malaysia was easy, stamped carnet and I was off for 4 weeks of riding in Malaysia. At the Thai/Malaysian border, still no problems. Got the Carnet stamped on both sides of the border. I bought 12 months of insurance on the Thai side for 500bht.
In one year I crossed numerous borders in SE Asia, didn't get far in Burma and a no entry in Vietnam.
Come home via Indonesia/East Timor 12 months later and arrived back in Darwin via Container. 38,000km later. With no problems with border crossings.

Move forward to 2008, done the same thing except shipped the bike to KL Malaysia, the only stuff up was a delay in Oz by a week, which stuffed up my trip to
the Malaysian GP on my bike.
Got to the Malaysian/Thai border, yep you guessed it Thailand no longer recognises a Carnet, best I got was one month.
As I live in Samui at the time it was a 700km round trip once a month.
Asking a high up customs officer why the change of policy, answer "not customs problem, police". I then asked him what if I don't do a border run. Answer "fine, 1000bht". I left with a smile and commenting that it is worth a 1000bht not to do the run.
Unfortunately the GFC hit late in 2008 and I ended up back in Oz with no bike. Left her in Samui for 12 months.
I am now in Chiang Mai with the same bike, very illegal on Qld Aussie plates.
I guess I'd better do a border run to Burma to keep her legal.
I wonder if I can send the bill to the American Government for putting me in the financial situation that they created.

Cheers
Tom
 

Gary D

0
Apr 17, 2010
106
0
0
Tom,

Thanks for the reply, mine also is QLD registered (BNE). I am flying it to KL so will need the carnet for Malaysia. So in 2010 and everyone taking the GFC hit can you only get a max of 1 month on the bike in LOS before renewing? Looking forward to getting up to Chiang Mai where i hope to base myself for a while, might need to get some info from you on accommodation.
What do you do or not do about medical insurance, quotes here are about $1000 pa.

Thanks

Gary
 
Jul 6, 2004
355
2
0
Hi Gary,
Health Insurance is up to you, if you troll through this site, David Unkovich has put some options together. Spend a few minutes and have a look, Plenty of info on this part of the world. I had overseas insurance tagged onto my platnum visa.
If you are up in Chiang Mai for any length of time, I used Veerachai Court as a base, payed monthly and rode around Northern Thailand. www.veerachaicourt.com
or try Johnadda Guest house, run by a Aussie and a fellow biker. His email is somewhere on this site.
Both are close to the centre of town near the moat.
Hopefully other GT riders will add their experience to this thread, as many know more about this area and the latest on temporary bike paperwork than I.
Look forward to seeing you up here.
Cheers
Tom