My Greatest Escapade Yet

Feb 2, 2011
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Hello,

I'm from India and my visit to Cambodia will be part of a much larger, sponsored motorcycle journey that I am currently working on. There will be three motorcycles and four people travelling on them for nearly 50-60 days. The route I wish to take begins at Chiang Mai (Thailand) and takes us into Laos, Vietnam, back into Laos, back into Vietnam, into Cambodia, and finally back into Thailand (Bangkok). The estimate distance is around 11,000-12,000 Kilometres with a journey time of nearly 50 - 60 days.

Each of the riders have a riding experience of over 7 years and at least 15,000 Kilometres. All motorcycles will be Royal Enfield Bullet Standard/Electra 350.

I have chalked out my route up till Cambodia at the moment and I'm working on the last leg of my travel. I have used bits of the route that you guys follow on your travels and routes from various sources. As a rule of thumb, none of the riders on the trip wish to visit places of 'tourist importance' and the whole idea of motorcycling for us is to seek solace and hear the thump of our engines in complete silence. :)

As of now, I am yet to finish chalking out a concrete route for Cambodia - I have decided to use the Moc Bai border crossing and head toward Phnom Penh as the route takes us all the way down to Southern Vietnam and eventually to Ho Chi Minh city. I'm unable to decide as to the places I 'ought' to cover in Cambodia as a motorcycling enthusiast and a seeker of peace. I hope your views will be of some assistance here.

Any information that you can provide me in regard of making this trip happen would be tremendously helpful. Thanks a lot.

Regards,

Vishnu Shriram
 
Mar 11, 2008
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Curious what system of clearance will allow you to get the bikes into Vietnam ??

My contact tells me you will need a permit that not easy to obtain. There was a way last year, and various bikes do make it either randomly or with official tour groups and associated full time 'guide' / handler.. But its not just rock up at the border. Tho I assume you have to be aware of that ??
 
Feb 2, 2011
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I am still gathering information about the relevant permissions required for every border crossing that we plan to make. Overall, there will be 6 international border crossings that we'll be making here. As of now, in the present route they are Chiang Khong (Thailand - Laos), Tay Trang (Laos - Vietnam), Nam Can (Vietnam - Laos), Nam Phao (Laos - Vietnam), Moc Bai (Vietnam - Cambodia) and the final crossing from Cambodia - Thailand again is undecided.

Border crossings into Vietnam, I am aware will entail also obtaining visas before hand, and I am not yet fully aware of the travel documents required to enter into Vietnam apart from the regulars of insurance, registration & identification proofs. As you realise the route involves entering Vietnam from Laos, exiting back into Laos and Entering a second time and then also exiting Vietnam to enter Cambodia, which means a total of 4 border crossings involving the Vietnamese border officials.
Do you think this is too much? I have made such a route because of the geographical location of some places such as Vang Vieng (Laos), which is why I cut back into Laos. It would be more convenient this way distance and direction wise but if this would be a major hurdle then I can always reshape my route to cover all locations in Laos and then enter Vietnam once and exit into Cambodia later, making it two crossings lesser. But this would increase the distance of the overall route and the time considerably.

Any information regarding border crossings at any of these crossings will be greatly appreciated. Thanks a ton!
 
Jun 16, 2004
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Just curious if you are planning to send your Enfields from India to Chiang Mai? How will you do it?

I rode from Delhi to Ladakh and Kashmir last year on a rented Enfield Electra 350, fantastic bike! Good luck getting into Vietnam.
 
Feb 2, 2011
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I do not yet have an individual who can communicate and coordinate from one of these countries. I do know people in Thailand and soon I will send them some information and ask them to enquire about whom to contact and where I should get these permissions from. As I can gather the general sentiment from here, It seems to be like it is going to be difficult taking the motorcycles in vietnam! But I will certainly not give up so easily. I am still researching on the matter, any help from your side would be wonderful thank you!

@Auke: I will look into that post you have linked me to in detail this afternoon and post a reply on that.

@andy_bkk: Yes, Bullets are fantastic bikes:) The Electra is nice but that is still a modern CDI engine, I'm an old-school person through out and the Standard is the bike for me. That's my standard 350 in the picture, point-set engine with a curb weight of 189 kilograms :D