Day 288 Bangkok (Thailand) / motorbike GS Dakar RTW overland adventure traveller

Left 9.30am
19th January 2015
Miles rode 53 (85km)

Heiko and I are staying on the outskirts of Bangkok and visited ‘Touratech Thailand’ in the morning, later I rode into central Bangkok to the Thai customs office to try and get a long extension to enable me to leave my motorbike here for up to 3 months.

Plans change, my plans continually change. My son Olly will visit and travel with me for the whole month of March and ideally I would leave my motorbike in Thailand whilst we ‘backpack’ in Cambodia & Vietnam but currently I have to take my motorbike out of Thailand after 30 days. I can get a 30 day extension easy but I want nearly 3 months as Olly leaves Thailand around the end of March and I will then ride south to Malaysia so, I not only need the extended time period but also authorisation to leave Thailand without my bike!

So I went to the customs offices, a vast place with many buildings and so many people and eventually was escorted to the right office and a German couple were there getting an extension for their camper van. They told me it had been hard to get but they had it! Over the next 40 minutes I told my story to the customs officials and they said ‘no’ many times, I persevered and looked them in the eye and embellished the story, I haven’t seen my son for 9 months…

In the end they came up with a plan for me to leave my bike as I want. Let’s see if they do grant me what I want?

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2 Responses

  1. Hi Guy,
    Guess we will meet up when you are back in Siem Reap
    Just had my phone stolen so have a new number
    My number in Siem Reap is 0718 447 967

    Found a guy who told me you can take all sizes of bikes into Vietnam at only one border

    HA – THIEN

    See you soon

    julian (we met outside the hostel who will look after your bike, Sok San Road)