HI,
Normally you can not take a rental bike out of Thailand, the bike must be in your name or the owner must be present at the border. It may be possible to take a rental bike out of the country provided that the rental shop allow you and that they give a written permission in Thai together with some tax stamps. Anyhow in this case it is very unusual that a rental firm will give you the permission, especially to go to Cambodia and it will be up to the Thai immigration&custom official if they will let you out. You can never be sure in advance. Also remember that very often rental bikes are unregistered without any plate or waiting for registration with a red plate. In both cases the bikes can under no circumstances be taken out of Thailand.
Then you have the hassles with the passport. Some rental companies demand the passport as collateral, for some it is enough with a copy and the rental company know you well then you need nothing.
So forget about a rental bike.
Then if you decide that you will buy a bike pls take notice that 1) the bike must be registered with proper plate and registration book (green book) and the frame&engine numbers must match those that the bike had last time when tax was paid 2) the owner has put his name in advance on the right papers for transfer of ownership together with copy of his passport or ID paper 3) you have obtained an at least a 2 month non immigrant visa in advance in your home country 4) you have an address and documentation about it,in the same province, as where the bike is registered.
In this case a ownership transfer can with good luck be done in 1-2 days. If the bike is registered in another province you will need at least two weeks.
In any case you must first visit the immigration office where your address in Thailand will be and get an home address certificate and after you can go with the proper documentation to the Vehicle registration office and change the name of the owner in the registration book.
The procedure explained above can change slightly from place to place. The cost will be about 500 Baht if you do it yourself and about 2.500 Baht if you use an agent. Then you will still have to pay one year insurance (if it not paid already) which is 200-700 baht depending on the bike. If the bike is registered in another province than your address you will probably have to use an agent and the cost can go up to 5000 Baht depending on where the bike's home province is and how quickly you will need the book.
So it is not as easy as you may think and pls allow some time for the process. Don't believe that you fly in in the evening and leave with a new bike in the morning....
After this the border crossing is quite easy but time consuming when leaving Thailand and mostly very smooth in Cambodia and Laos. Vietnam you can forget, pls read my threads on "Vietnam with an under 175cc" from this year.
Remember that some "Tea money" given in a proper way ( for ex 100 Baht between the pages in the registration book) can smooth up the procedure. Improper proposals like "How much you want money from me" in a loud voice with anger will only cause problems. I know that many people on this site dislike the use of "Tea Money" because that is against western morality rules to pay "bribes". On the other side it is "Business as usual in Thailand, Cambodia and Laos", we have to remember that no government clerk, be they polices or custom clerks can live a decent life on their normal salary so they are dependent on these kind of "extra income". I will not be running in the front line for changing this, for us westerners very rude and easily corrupting system.
If You have any more questions I will be happy to answer them, but just to protect Your image on this site do some surfing on this web site in advance. I think that all the information I give above has been given before by me and other members. I fully understand that some members get angry to answer the same question again and again and drop their morning coffee on their trousers when doing some morning surfing as happened to Mikerust....
With Best Rgds
HIKO
