Hi We made it through Burma recently on an Africa Twin and a Transalp. We went from India to THailand.
Below are some of the admin obstacles that need completing to do it:
Burma, well the first challege you face is getting a special inner line permit from the INDIAN government to exit Burma to India!! There are two very unstable regions in India called Nagaland and Manipur. Check the UN website for current stability report.
Top tip for the Indian permit is APPLY in Calcutta, and you do need to show your marriage cert. (but this may have changed). Donot approach Delhi or a) you may be refused and b) will complicate things in Calcutta and Manipur.
Now to Burma, You will probably get a tourist visa easily. The challenge here is to get the all important ROAD PERMIT. To do this you will need to write a begging letter to the ambassador of Myanmar. You need to explain why you want to do the trip and, that you do NOT have any political objectives.
Once this is in you need to try for a face to face meeting to establish a
personal contact. This will probably be with the second secretary who really is the person who issues such a permit.
IF, you are persistant and REALLY want to get through, you will get a letter giving you permission and it will have the route you MUST follow on it. Here you need to check the route carefully as if it goes through Cheng Tung to Taunggyi they will probably insist you send your bike by truck for a 290 mile section and you and Wendy fly. THis is because of the Burmese army pursuing a policy of Genocide in this area!! I kid not! But you can try to get this changed if, a the trouble is "quiet" at the time of your application and its the height of dry season, as the road is often impassible and needs good off road skills and tyres! Do exlpain to the embassy the capability of your motorbike in terms of fuel range ( needs to be more than 300 miles) reliablility and ABILITY to take on a road such as this. THey only drive 125 scooters and have difficulty imagining a 1000 cc or 750 off-road bike!!
Do send them photos of your bike and off-road situations you have been in to prove the point! THEN they may, just may let you go! Which would make you the first to travel completely across by bike! We had to go by truck for this section VERY [}
]VERY frustrating and bloody expensive and VERY time consuming (15 days!!)
Well there you are - thats it - good luck
Below are some of the admin obstacles that need completing to do it:
Burma, well the first challege you face is getting a special inner line permit from the INDIAN government to exit Burma to India!! There are two very unstable regions in India called Nagaland and Manipur. Check the UN website for current stability report.
Top tip for the Indian permit is APPLY in Calcutta, and you do need to show your marriage cert. (but this may have changed). Donot approach Delhi or a) you may be refused and b) will complicate things in Calcutta and Manipur.
Now to Burma, You will probably get a tourist visa easily. The challenge here is to get the all important ROAD PERMIT. To do this you will need to write a begging letter to the ambassador of Myanmar. You need to explain why you want to do the trip and, that you do NOT have any political objectives.
Once this is in you need to try for a face to face meeting to establish a
personal contact. This will probably be with the second secretary who really is the person who issues such a permit.
IF, you are persistant and REALLY want to get through, you will get a letter giving you permission and it will have the route you MUST follow on it. Here you need to check the route carefully as if it goes through Cheng Tung to Taunggyi they will probably insist you send your bike by truck for a 290 mile section and you and Wendy fly. THis is because of the Burmese army pursuing a policy of Genocide in this area!! I kid not! But you can try to get this changed if, a the trouble is "quiet" at the time of your application and its the height of dry season, as the road is often impassible and needs good off road skills and tyres! Do exlpain to the embassy the capability of your motorbike in terms of fuel range ( needs to be more than 300 miles) reliablility and ABILITY to take on a road such as this. THey only drive 125 scooters and have difficulty imagining a 1000 cc or 750 off-road bike!!
Do send them photos of your bike and off-road situations you have been in to prove the point! THEN they may, just may let you go! Which would make you the first to travel completely across by bike! We had to go by truck for this section VERY [}
]VERY frustrating and bloody expensive and VERY time consuming (15 days!!)Well there you are - thats it - good luck
