Traveling by car within ASEAN

[sawadee1947]

I intend to travel (with my Thai wife)   by car from CM to all ASEAN countries. Does anybody knows it's possible and how the visa situation is at present? Is there someone who did it before? Advice appreciated

[samran]

The only countries you can go easily are:

 

-Laos with a ‘car passport’ obtained from the DLT

 

- Malaysia with a letter translating your number plates to Roman letters.

 

- Singapore is apparently possible, but check with them. 

 

- Cambodia you can only really enter easily in two places - Osamarch and down on Trat. The latter is a bit more bureacratic and requires you to pay 100 baht per day for every day you intend to be in the country. Technically you are also supposed to only travel on koh Kong province if you cross there. 

 

Vietnam won’t let thai cars enter individually, but offical caravan tours have been known to go there. Same with Myanmar. 

 

In in all cases you need to own the car outright and have the blue book in possession. 

[samran]

I should add, that for Malaysia to letter is also obtainable from the DLT. 

[HAKAPALITA]

If you have dark Tinted Widows Malaysia make you scrape the gunge off.

[PoorSucker]

1 hour ago, HAKAPALITA said:

If you have dark Tinted Widows Malaysia make you scrape the gunge off.

 

http://www.tnp.sg/news/singapore/singaporeans-unfazed-malaysian-rules-tinted-car-windows

[Old York]

You missed out Indonesia

[fertilizer]

Can you enter Laos in a car with dark tinted windows?

[Brunolem]

3 hours ago, samran said:

The only countries you can go easily are:

 

-Laos with a ‘car passport’ obtained from the DLT

 

- Malaysia with a letter translating your number plates to Roman letters.

 

- Singapore is apparently possible, but check with them. 

 

- Cambodia you can only really enter easily in two places - Osamarch and down on Trat. The latter is a bit more bureacratic and requires you to pay 100 baht per day for every day you intend to be in the country. Technically you are also supposed to only travel on koh Kong province if you cross there. 

 

Vietnam won’t let thai cars enter individually, but offical caravan tours have been known to go there. Same with Myanmar. 

 

In in all cases you need to own the car outright and have the blue book in possession. 

That is, of course, if you are ready to drive on the other side of the road in a number of these countries.

 

Also, some ASEAN countries, such as Indonesia or Brunei, may be difficult to reach by car...just sayin'...

 

All in all, you are likely to spend much more time "enjoying" administrative troubles of all kinds, than enjoying the countries you intend to visit...

 

[Telly]

Singapore not an issue.

Bring your blue book yadda yadda yadda.

Be prepared to pay and pay.

Go in after 2pm if you want free entry.

[sawadee1947]

Thank you everybody for advice 

[HAKAPALITA]

1 hour ago, PoorSucker said:

 

http://www.tnp.sg/news/singapore/singaporeans-unfazed-malaysian-rules-tinted-car-windows

Unfortunately the Border Security have their Rules .I had to scrape the muck off because i was away when i bought the car,useless visability at night, my fault...

[samran]

1 hour ago, Telly said:

Singapore not an issue.

Bring your blue book yadda yadda yadda.

Be prepared to pay and pay.

Go in after 2pm if you want free entry.

Would be interesting to hear your experience - would like to drive down there in the next 12 months. 

[DJ54]

  I’ve heard crossing into some countries you have to have export then import papers. Of course all at a fee. Be very careful and get information from the country if not they might keep your car. 

[Brunolem]

5 hours ago, sawadee1947 said:

Thank you everybody for advice 

While I have seen a (very) few Lao cars in provinces along the border (Mukdahan, Ubon), I can't remember having ever seen a Thai car in Laos, which I have visited often...

[samran]

57 minutes ago, DJ54 said:

  I’ve heard crossing into some countries you have to have export then import papers. Of course all at a fee. Be very careful and get information from the country if not they might keep your car. 

No need to scaremonger. You simply won’t be able to enter and entry can only happen if there is a bilateral agreement in place.

 

They are standard temporary export forms. All very standard and the fees are nominal. You need to be the owner of the car and have the blue ownership book with you when you cross.

 

thai customs takes the details from that and populates the form. You keep half and let them know where you’ll be re-entering Thailand and off you go. 

 

Each country will have their equivalent process, including purchasing insurance (except Cambodia which doesn’t offer it).

Edited March 27, 2018 by samran

[DJ54]

Samran very good information. Appreciated. Now as I remember the guy crossed in where no check point which created more issues 

[LongTimeLurker]

On 3/27/2018 at 8:18 AM, Old York said:

You missed out Indonesia

And Philippines

And Brunei

[HAKAPALITA]

On 3/27/2018 at 11:32 AM, HAKAPALITA said:

Unfortunately the Border Security have their Rules .I had to scrape the muck off because i was away when i bought the car,useless visability at night, my fault...

What part of Muck do you find a puzzle.?. i had to buy Crystaline clear stuff when i got back here.!!

[samran]

17 hours ago, LongTimeLurker said:

And Philippines

And Brunei

I'd like to drive down to Australia one day.

 

You'd need a carnet and even then, Indonesia doesn't recognise them.

 

Nevertheless, here is an old thread on it.

 

 

[jimster]

On 3/27/2018 at 4:25 PM, Brunolem said:

While I have seen a (very) few Lao cars in provinces along the border (Mukdahan, Ubon), I can't remember having ever seen a Thai car in Laos, which I have visited often...

There are tons of Thai cars driving in Laos, more than cars from any other neighboring country (though Chinese are a close second). Check the number plates carefully - they look similar to Lao ones. Main differences are that private vehicles in Thailand have white plates, in Laos they are yellow. Business/commercial plates in Thailand are yellow, in Laos white. Provinces are at the bottom of Thai plates, at the top for Lao plates. My guess is they did this to avoid confusion between Thai and Lao plates as they often cross each other's border.

[jimster]

Malaysia apparently requires Thai cars to have an RFID chip in their cars. This is available through the JPJ bureau I believe. I have not read anyone mentioning this here, but according to various Thai and English language media, this requirement has been in place since June 2017, though perhaps it isn't being enforced?

 

 

[keeniau96]

Good luck re Brunei Dar-es-salaam.

[HiSoLowSoNoSo]

On ‎3‎/‎27‎/‎2018 at 8:37 AM, HAKAPALITA said:

If you have dark Tinted Widows Malaysia make you scrape the gunge off.

40% tinted is allowed, but after driving around in Malaysia for years and seeing all the local cars with almost black windows I think this is not often enforced. I have been asked to show a 3rd party insurance for Malaysia a couple of times when stopped by the police, so don't forget to buy one at the border, cost 1000 THB per month. Otherwise the traffic and the roads are much better compared to Thailand, but the toll ways have become more expensive the last couple of years, but there are smaller roads as alternative but they take longer time.

[HAKAPALITA]

Just now, HiSoLowSoNoSo said:

40% tinted is allowed, but after driving around in Malaysia for years and seeing all the local cars with almost black windows I think this is not often enforced. I have been asked to show a 3rd party insurance for Malaysia a couple of times when stopped by the police, so don't forget to buy one at the border, cost 1000 THB per month. Otherwise the traffic and the roads are much better compared to Thailand, but the toll ways have become more expensive the last couple of years, but there are smaller roads as alternative but they take longer time.

No Argument with that, but the Thai  BorderCheckpoint are not tolerant one bit on entering Malaysia. 

[HiSoLowSoNoSo]

17 minutes ago, HAKAPALITA said:

No Argument with that, but the Thai  BorderCheckpoint are not tolerant one bit on entering Malaysia. 

I have been there 2 times this year already without any problems, I got 40% tinted windows in my SUV, I left from the Danok border check point south of Sadao.