The Silk Road had been on my list for a long time. Majestic mountain landscapes that look like the moon, endless dirt roads, starry nights in a tent or yurt, breathtaking Persian-style mosques, and remote cultures rarely discussed in the West—I knew I had to experience it one day. But despite having traveled to many countries, this region felt more challenging than Asia or South America, more akin to Africa. It didn’t seem like the kind of place where you could just show up at a hostel and figure things out. (Spoiler: I was wrong—you actually can!)
The biggest hurdle for me was transportation. Exploring the Pamir Highway and other highlights seemed difficult without my own vehicle, and crossing borders with one sounded like a bureaucratic nightmare. For a while, I considered cycling as a way to bypass the administrative hassle, even though I had never cycled seriously. But I quickly realized that I love photography too much to travel ultralight, so I scrapped that idea. Instead, I settled on a motorcycle and dove into researching possible routes, border crossings, and the logistics of exporting a bike from Thailand and importing it to Europe.
I wrote this article to help others in my position prepare for such a trip. While it won’t replace your own research, I hope it clears up some doubts, helps you get started, and maybe even inspires you to embark on your own adventure.
Crossing a country with a vehicule:
It is actually a bit simpler than I thought. As far as I know, there are 2 types of countries:
- The TIP countries: You show up at the border, clear immigration (like you would do in an airport) and then head to the customs office. They will ask for passport and registration document, and issue a Temporary Import Permit (TIP). As the name suggests, it is a paper that allows you to import your bike for a certain time (usually 30 days but sometimes longer) into the country. And that’s it, once you have it, you can ride in the country. When leaving the country, you give them the TIP so they can check that you didn’t exeed your allowed duration and they let you leave.
- Note: Some countries do not give you an actual paper, it’s all in their computer. But it works the same way.
- The Carnet countries: Those are countries that require you to have a Carnet de Passage (CDP). Basically a CDP is an expensive little book that you can buy from automobile clubs around the world for a fee (around 500-700usd) and a deposit (can varry greatly but usually between 100% and 250% of your bike value). It gives a guarantee to the countries that you are not going to import your bike without authorization (to sell it for example) and leave. Customs officer stamp in and out your CDP as you enter/exit the country. You only get your deposit back once you’re back home and that you have your carnet with all the correct stamps (crazy that we still use such an outdated system in 2025!).
Some important notes on Carnets:
- Carnets do not have to be purchased from the Automobile club of your country. If you’re French, you can get a carnet from the French club, but also any other club that is happy to issue one.
- From my experience, Swiss and Czech Republic clubs can issue carnets for most bikes – they were ok to do one for my Thai bike (for around 700usd + 100% deposit)
- When reading at the wording in a carnet, it sounds like you can get your deposit back as soon as you are out of a zone that requires a carnet (assuming you ship the carnet back to the club that issued it). However, after discussing with the Czech club, they told me it was not possible and the bike would have to be back in my home country to be able to get the deposit. So make sure you check that point if like me you don’t plan to bring back your bike to your departure country!
Insurance
After clearing immigration and customs, the next step at any border crossing is to get insurance. In most countries, there is usually a kiosk where you can buy it for relatively cheap (roughly 10usd for a month, with a few exceptions). The kiosks are usually indicated pretty accurately on iOverlander.
Important note on insurance:
Please note that the insurance you buy at the border is only to comply with the law, they are usually Third-Party insurances and I wouldn’t count on it in case anything happens. But be sure that you would get extra trouble if you have an accident without that insurance, and a fine everytime the police controls you. You have to get medical insurance too, in case something happens to you. As for the bike, there might be international insurance for it (in case of theft) but I can’t imagine the price of such a policy – that’s why I went with a cheap bike too, no need to insure it.
For medical insurance, BE CAREFUL! A lot of them are incredibly sneaky in their wording and I’ve seen riders not getting covered after they’ve had an accident. READ THE WHOLE CONTRACT, several times, make sure you understand every single sentence in here (if you don’t, ask for help from a friend). I’ve seen ridiculous exclusions like max engine displacement, passenger on the bike, off-road riding, etc. I’ve also seen incredibly vague contracts, like some extreme sports excluded with a list and this at the end: “but are in no way limited to the following list” – basically they can add anything if they need to.
Usually, if the US (and/or country of your insurance) recommendation is to reconsider travel in an area, you will not be covered in that area.
They also don’t usually cover you in your residence country (which you will likely cross if you go home like me).
I will hold off on making any recommendations for a company. I was quite disappointed in the contract and how blurry some items were (including the clarification emails they sent), but I just had to go with something. Don’t do like me and make sure you take A LOT of time to review more competitors and study the contracts. Or if not, that you are OK with the consequences.
Choosing a route to leave Thailand
From Thailand, Myanmar was not an option because of the civil war (incredibly dangerous to go there, assuming they even let you in at the land border, which I highly doubt).
I wasn’t really a fan of the Carnet de passage concept. Such an outdated process… and paying so much for a piece of paper, risking to lose my deposit if anything happens to that book… no thanks. But that meant that India / Pakistan / Nepal and Iran were not an option for me. The consequence of that choice is that I have to do a longer trip in China (to get all the way from Laos to Kyrgyzstan/Kazakhstan, instead of just going Laos to Nepal), which is very costly – so that’s something to keep in mind.
Note: For Iran, I found that there actually is a way. I’ve heard of fixers who can help you import your bike without a carnet (they do what they call a temporary carnet). But I don’t know what to think of these. I got quoted 1000$ for one, but a lot of people told me to be careful and that it’s a scam. However, none of these were able to provide evidence of scam (they were people who had a normal CDP). Obviously if you're also crossing India / Pakistan / Nepal, there is no point considering that - you already have a CDP, the cost for one extra country is null. But if Iran is your only CDP country, it's worth considering (1,000$ vs a 700$ CDP + Deposit). Best place to ask for that would be Facebook/Whatsapp groups on travelling to Iran.
Crossing China:
To cross China, you need a guide and most likely a visa.
For the visa, it was pretty straightforward. A lot of documents required, but the guide company will send you everything you need (detailed itineraries, hotel reservations etc.). Then it’s just a matter of making 2 appointments (10-15min each) to the Chinese embassy – I was able to get this done in Bangkok even though I had a French passport. No difficulties here.
I contacted a few companies for guiding, they are all expensive. The cost varies greatly based on a few factors:
- If you only go to Nepal, it’s a shorter trip than going all the way east, so it’s much cheaper
- The bigger your group, the cheaper it becomes
- The guide needs transportation. If a vehicule in your group is happy to transport the guide throughout the trip (leaving him at his hotel every night and picking him up in the morning), it will be cheaper. If that is not an option, an additional $4k+ is added to the bill to get a car and driver for the guide.
I ended up paying a little under $4,000 for 28 days in a very small group. I’ve heard people in bigger groups and shorter trips (to Nepal or Mongolia) paying something closer to $1,000 – if you’re flexible on your dates, you should be able to join a big group and keep the cost low.
Please note that you are basically paying a transit/admin fee – do not except a real guide that will explain a lot of things. I had a group of 2 vans and myself – the guide was in one of the other vans. Every day, the guide sends a location to reach at the end of the day, with some highlights to see on the way. You can leave whenever you want and organize your day – we do not ride together. The only exception was towards the end, in Xin’Jiang, where police controls were much more strict and expected us to cross the checkpoints together. In Xin’Jiang, you also cannot enter gas stations – the guide has to be there with you (usually we refuel in the morning or evening when we know we are all in the same city).
Yes, you really need the guide. From what I have seen, it would have been absolutely impossible to cross without him – you have 2 or 3 checkpoints every day, all of them at the bare minimum ask to call the guide and talk to him, some of them require his presence, and they aslo ask you for a piece of paper which basically lists all the group members, vehicules, guiding company etc. And even if you somehow manage to dodge those checkpoints, you can’t get fuel in Xin’Jiang for thousands of km. Lastly, the guide also helps with all the admin at the border and gets you a Chinese plate (it’s just a card you don’t have to attach it to your bike) and a Chinese driving license – I doubt you could get them on your own as a tourist.
Aside from the visa and the guide, China requires a little bit of prep that is not related to your vehicule:
- Payments: Just make sure to setup Wechat and Alipay for payments (you can ask on Reddit or Facebook for someone to send you a QR code so you can try to pay them $0.01 to make sure they both work – that’s your only payment method there, a lot of places don’t accept cash or credit cards).
- Download Amap (any other map app is completely useless, even offline).
- Download the Google offline translation for Chinese and a Chinese keyboard (voice will not work offline, so you want to be able to hand your phone to someone so they can type in Chinese on it) – 99% of the people I met did not speak a single word of English.
- Buy a VPN (I used letsVPN) if you want to access Google services (including Gmail / Youtube), or a lot of western websites (Instagram, Facebook, your favorite newspaper, etc.).
- (Optional) You can also get eSim that you setup and activate before arriving (I used Airalo) – they are slightly pricier than local sims, but you do not need a VPN to use google or western social media with them. And you have a sim as soon as you enter, no need to search for a sim shop and spend time to register it. NOTE: some smartphones (including Google pixel) do not work well on Chinese networks – if you have one of these phones, then eSim is definitely a good option.
From the Stans to Europe
Another issue on the route is once you get to the pamir highway – how to get to Turkey? There are basically 3 options and you will see a lot of people debating those 3 options on motorcycle/overlanding groups:
- Blue route – Through Russia: You need to get a Russian visa, which takes a bit of time to get (seen a lot of people stuck for a few weeks in a city waiting for it) and costs quite a lot (I heard 160$ at the time). Other than that, I heard good things about this route – friendly people and pretty mountainous landscapes in Dagestan.
- Red route – Turkmenistan / Iran or Afghanistan / Iran:
- Requires a visa and a CDP or Temporary CDP. Never heard a traveller say a bad thing about Iran – friendliest people, super cheap, super pretty (both landscapes and cultural monuments / cities).
- Afghanistan has an expensive visa ($100+) and requires some additional security permits to cross each region. Seen a few people who did it once I was in Tadjikistan, they only said good things about the country.
- Turkmenistan is almost like China, most people need a tour guide to cross the country, which costs a lot ($1,000 for a 3 day crossing). I heard of some lucky people who managed to cross on their own with a transit visa, but most people get rejected (worth trying).
- Orange route (the one I took) – Take the ferry from Aktau (Kazakstan) to Baku (Azerbaijan): Sounds straightforward, but it isn’t.
- You need an e-visa for Azerbaijan (that part is easy and only takes a few days)
- You cannot get on the ferry yourself, because land borders are closed in Azerbaijan. You have to put your bike on the ferry in Aktau, give the keys to the captain, then fly from Aktau to Baku and go to the harbour to collect your bike and clear customs. A big administrative mess that takes many hours on both sides (25h in total for me).
- The ferry crossing times are random – you have to go there and wait. Sometimes wait a lot because of bad weather. I wouldn’t recommend this if you’re on a tight schedule.
Note on safety: Notice how I did not mention safety for any of those 3 routes? That’s because I’ve been incredibly shocked by many travellers and the way they think about safety and their behavior, and I got to realize that we all have a different tolerance, a different way to assess risk. Everyone I’ve met who crossed Russia, Iran, Afghanistan or Turkmenistan said it was “fine” and “safe”. But as you probably know, there are some people who spend years in jail for nothing and some who even got killed. Yes, people got killed in developped “safe” countries too. So I’m not gonna tell you where to go or not go – just do you own research and assessment on the geopolitical situation.
Exporting a bike form Thailand / importing to Europe:
Sorry to disappoint, but I never managed to get a clear answer on these ones. I tried to message different agencies on both sides, but I always end up getting blurry responses. So I can tell you what happens when you cross the borders, but not what to do / how to do it as I don’t want this to be considered legal advice. I recommend contacting an advisor for this.
For Thailand, if you leave the country with your Thai motorcycle, they will give you a 30 day export document that says that there’s a heavy fine if come back to the country later with the bike.
For Europe, you do not get any paper. I crossed the border, they just looked at the registration document, did not even check the plate on my bike and let me in.
Please note this is not legal advice – I can’t be held responsible for whatever you end up doing with regards to exporting / importing your bike. I strongly encourage everyone to respect regulation.
The only advice I can give with this regard is in favor of a cheap bike. Since import / export are usually about duties and taxes, the less your bike is worth, the less you would have to pay.