I met three other bikers in Pakistan and Ladakh, so we shared the horrendous cost of the mandatory organised tour through Tibet and China. 45 days, most of it in Tibet, which was great, although rather cold at times. We scraped over the last passes, riding on snow and ice, even pushing the bikes a few m. Yunnan is nice and warm, similar to N Laos, but the tour company misjudged the state of the roads and we lost so much time in road works, etc., we had no time to enjoy Yunnan any more, just had to ride through.
The others ride BMW R1150GS, R100GS and I have a Suzi DR650SE.
There is a new toll highway 213 under construction in Yunnan which should make travel much faster, though it may be off-limits to bikes, who knows? Alternatively, it will make riding on the old good highway even more pleasant, without trucks and buses spilling water all over the road from their water cooled brakes.
There is also a toll gate in Laos just South of the border, marked with a sign "no entry for bikes", but there was nobody home as we passed. My take is that bikes will pass on the side for free, as there is no alternative road there.
I'm in Luang Namtha right now, putting my feet up to recover from weeks of almost non-stop riding. But, having read here and in the LP guide that I need some kind of temp import docs for the bike I'm worried I may have probs when leaving Laos.
Border crossing info will be posted on HorizonsUnlimited, the trip report should appear soon on my web page
beddhist.googlepages.com.
I'm planning to be at the HU meeting in Chiang Mai.
Cheers,
Peter.
