Riding 2Up

Sent 17 Feb 2009

Riding2up News update from Northern Laos - Tuesday February 17 2009
 
Welcome to the latest update from Oudomxay in Northern Laos. This bustling industrial town is the gateway to northern Laos and the very mountainous regions of the area. There is much to do here from treks, elephant rides, whitewater rafting, tubing, mountain biking, boat tours, swimming in gorgeous waterfalls or just relaxing by a river somewhere. It's a very scenic area of the world and well worth a visit before it gets entirely overrun by tourists.
 
We've been enjoying the windy roads on motorbike, which is great because even if the road gets bad or potholed we can skirt the worst of it, something you can't do in a car or bus. The worse the road the better really.
 
We visited the 3rd annual Elephant festival in Sayaboury which was a long day trip. The return ride was only 240kms but it was a dusty and very busy road that had a ferry crossing that caused an immense traffic bottle-neck. Luckily as a bike we were able to squeeze past all the traffic which was queued for over 4hours and jump right on the first ferry. Otherwise a day trip would've been impossible. The festival itself was chaotic and felt very unorganised with nothing sticking to the printed schedule. After walking around for a few hours and observing elephants dressed in ornate cloths with elephant jewlery being ridden by Thais and Laos alike we had to take refuge from the heat. The most impressive thing we saw was when the elephants came back from their duties and were stripped of their apparatus they were feed by their Mahouts bannana palms, not the leaves but the actual thick stems. The elephants squashed the palms with their feet and whilst holding the palm grabed an end with their trunk and stripped the white juicy flesh from the middle of the stem and lifted it to their mouthes. It was an impressive sight of the dexterity of an elephant trunk.
 
We also met another Australian couple, Maggie and Mark traveling by BMW R1150GS to Switzerland! What a small world indeed.
 
 
China time
 
Well it's crunch time now, we're almost at the Chinese border and we don't like our chances of getting into China. Why is it so difficult you ask?
 
When we asked at the Chinese Embassy about motorcycle travel into China they responded with the following letter written very vaguely and in no certain terms. It didn't even have a letterhead or stamp to say it was from the Embassy, so far all our dealings with Chinese officidum have been pretty useless.
 
NB. that the words "and bicycle" seem to have been crossed out but I'm not sure because it is a poor photocopy.
 
"Travelers with their own automobiles, motorcycles and bicycles to China should ask a local travel agency to contact with an international travel agency of China and provide the latter with such information as the name of traveler, travel itinerary (including port of entry, date of entry, travel route and planned activity) and details of their means of transportation with them. Only with the permission from certain organizations of China can the travelers enter China with their automobiles, motorcycles and bicycles.
China welcomes tourists from all over the world. However, there are special regulations for foreign tourists with special tourist programs."
 
The hypocrisy of it all
 
As a tourist your are free to hire a car or motorcycle in China.
As a tourist you can even ride a motorcycle unlicensed in China.
As a tourist you can enter and or leave China on a bicycle.
It seems that all is possible once in China, the difficulties are getting into China with a foreign registered vehicle, and not just any foreign registered vehicle as it doesn't apply to vehicles registered in Vietnam, Laos or Myanmar which freely cross the borders for trade purposes.
 
As a traveller with a foreign registered vehicle if you listen to the Chinese travel agencies that organise self-drive tours then you need a very long list of paper work that takes 3months to organise and a guide to accompany you in China for the duration of the trip at your expense, USD$200 per day. To cross China with a tour guide and the official paper work would take over 3months of organisation route planning, and paper work and if traveling alone the price is not cheaper than USD$18,000 for 25 days. That's right, its not a typo. To add insult to injury we can't join another group because we're a motorcycle and self-drive car tours wont' accept motorcycles because they aren't allowed on motorways or freeways in China.
 
This leave us with no alternative then to try to transit China with our motorcycle on the back of a truck. As far as I'm aware if we don't ride Francois on public land in China then we don't risk any of the following except for illegal importation, but we'll just argue that the bike is in transit.
 
The risks we're taking as fugitives by riding Francois illegally in China are:
 
Chinese may imprison Pascal for up to 14 days for driving without a Chinese licence and possibly more for riding an unregistered motorcycle.
Chinese may confiscate our motorcycle.
The Chinese may forcefully eject us from their country and ban us for 1 year or more from re-entry.
Chinese may shot us on the spot (probably not but it feels like they would according to their attitudes)
Embassies won't want anything to do with us if we have broken the law.

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