Equipment, Visa & Planning
Visa and Vaccinations
All up we are going to travel through 18 countries, all of which have different visa requirements. Some countries require a formal application beforehand at one of their embassies (for example, India and Iran), others allow a visa upon arrival (for example, Nepal and Syria). We are grateful for the latter, and have no problems with the former as these countries are represented with their embassies in the neighbouring countries we are going through. However, we are most anxious about the countries which don't give any information about visa at all, like Vietnam, Myanmar and China. With these c ountries, information is not available on official websites and stories from other travellers on the net (www.horionsunlimited.com or Lonely Planet's "Thorntree") vary from "easy" to "impossible" or "very expensive". To make things worse, most travellers who post notes on the net and share information are backpackers. We are travelling on our own bike, registered in NZ (and Germany). Whereas entering a country on your own is usually not a problem, even if you are asked to hire a guide and join an organised tour for your stay (China), travelling through with your own vehicle is a different story altogether.
For decades now independent travellers with their own vehicles have been using a "Carnet des passages", which is a kind of travel passport for your vehicle. It shows the details of ownership and the unique identifiers of the bike, plus is a guarantee that the automobile association of the issuing country will pay the import tax to the relevant country should the bike remain there for whatever reason (the most common being theft). The Carnet is intended to facilitate independent travel and to prevent unauthorised vehicle selling and trading. And so far, it has worked very well throughout the world.
We will, of course, have a Carnet and don't expect to run into any problems with it, except for the aforementioned countries. Myanmar seems to be off limits, ie, till today we were not able to get any verified information about travellers having entered the country with their own vehicle on a Carnet. China allows independent travel, but the fees are allegedly horrendous – we heard stories of payments between $2,000 and $10,000 (US)...!
Border hassles are in general nothing new and part and parcel of every long distance trip. Our situation is different, though, in that in order to get to India we have to pass through either Myanmar or China and if we can't, we are stuck. There's no way to go except to turn around and go back. Nice prospect.
As for the vaccinations, at least that's something certain and determinable. The list of possible and recommended vaccinations makes you dizzy, though: Diptheria, Tetanus, Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Polio, Hepatitis A+B, Japanese Encephalitis, Meningitis, Rabies, Typhoid, Yellow Fever... and we are not even sure if that's all.
Fortunately, there is an institution called "The Travel Doctor", which has a branch in Wellington. They are apparently experts when it comes to foreign travel and should be able to take care of all of that for us. More reassuring, too, the costs don't seem to be overly high, around $500 all up for each of us.
Interesting that to prepare us for the trip only costs a fraction of the amount needed to make the bike, our horse, fit for the journey...