are thai citzen allowed to drive from bangkok to dawei?

[andreas islinger]

my wife who is thai and myself (australian) want to travel in our own 4x4 to dawei...

are we allowed to take a thai registered vehicle to myanmar at the border crossing near kanachnaburi?

does my wife need a visa?

can i obtain visa on arrival at this border crossing?

thanks so much for any help

[ICECOOL]

My knowledge is a 3 years old but as I understand it foreigners cannot drive in Myanmar unless you are part of a tour and have a Myanmar guide. I wanted to do the same when I visited and that's what I was told by people working in the tourist industry there.

[Tomtomtom69]

My knowledge is a 3 years old but as I understand it foreigners cannot drive in Myanmar unless you are part of a tour and have a Myanmar guide. I wanted to do the same when I visited and that's what I was told by people working in the tourist industry there.

It's not so much about that but rather that foreign registered vehicles (as opposed to merely being a tourist driving a Myanmar registered vehicle) are not allowed to enter Myanmar, except if staying within the border areas. So a Thai registered vehicle can travel only as far as the Htee Khee border checkpoint if coming from Phu Nam Ron in order to pickup/dropoff goods and passengers. The nationality of the driver is irrelevant, Thai vehicles aren't allowed to go more than about 5-10km inside the country and only on day trips.

For further travel inside the country, a guide from the government's Ministry of Hotel and Tourism (MTT) must travel with you and in order to arrange the permits and permission a travel agency must be contacted. The only reliable travel agency that can help is Diethelm Travel. Based on my proposed itinerary with them using the Mae Sot/Myawady crossing and possibly leaving through the Dawei/Htee Khee crossing to Phu Nam Ron and Kanchanaburi I was quoted a figure of around about US$2000ish for a 7-8 day trip excluding hotel costs.

A bit steep but that's the way it is for now, and considering there are still some lingering security concerns in places (my original itinerary had me heading back to Mae Sot on July 4 if using the new road or July 5 using the old one, with the new one unlikely to have been given permission to be used given it's not yet officially open) I would have been unable to cross back there given the current skirmishes that have occurred in that border area in the last few days. So I would have been required to exit at Phu Nam Ron anyway.

[Tomtomtom69]

Wife, if Thai needs a visa. Having said that, there may be exceptions for travel only as far as Dawei and back, but if you don't want to be inconvenienced and to travel further than Dawei, a visa is definitely required for Thais as well as other foreigners.

[andreas islinger]

well thank you for clarifying that for us....well i hope this all changes soon.... i want to go with my motorbike...

[phuketrichard]

thais need visas

strange but Cambodians dont for up to 14 days

you can rent motorcycles and cars in Mandalay but the cars are not cheap

u can rent with driver. or monthly if ur living there as an expat

Zach has them now, http://www.mandalaymotorbike.com/p/car-and-truck-rental.html

There have been a few trips with Motorcycles into Myanmar with groups and advance permission, I think next tour is mid Nov,

Check gt riders, http://www.gt-rider.com/thailand-motorcycle-forum/forumdisplay.php/129-Myanmar-General-Discussion-Forum

this is a video of the last tour,

I did 5 days with my friend last july, on 125 Chinese copies of honda dreams

http://www.gt-rider.com/thailand-motorcycle-forum/showthread.php/40288-Mandalay-Hsipaw-Mogok-Mandalay

[Tomtomtom69]

well thank you for clarifying that for us....well i hope this all changes soon.... i want to go with my motorbike...

It may change after AEC 2015, but the main reason for these restrictions in the first place are security concerns. As I mentioned in my last post, fighting broke out along both roads between Kawkareik and MYawady, the main border crossing for overland travel between Thailand and Myanmar. So imagine if they already allowed independent travel and then all of a sudden you are caught in a warzone. I would have had a guide, but would have been required to drive south to Htee Khee to exit the country for Kanchanaburi.

You can indeed go by motorcycle now, many tours have gone into Myanmar but do ask what the costs are via Diethelm Travel Myanmar. Lilly Saxer, the managing director will help you out. At this stage I would recommend going in only via the Phu Nam Ron/Htee Khee crossing.

[Tomtomtom69]

thais need visas

strange but Cambodians dont for up to 14 days

you can rent motorcycles and cars in Mandalay but the cars are not cheap

u can rent with driver. or monthly if ur living there as an expat

Zach has them now, http://www.mandalaymotorbike.com/p/car-and-truck-rental.html

There have been a few trips with Motorcycles into Myanmar with groups and advance permission, I think next tour is mid Nov,

Check gt riders, http://www.gt-rider.com/thailand-motorcycle-forum/forumdisplay.php/129-Myanmar-General-Discussion-Forum

this is a video of the last tour,

I did 5 days with my friend last july, on 125 Chinese copies of honda dreams

http://www.gt-rider.com/thailand-motorcycle-forum/showthread.php/40288-Mandalay-Hsipaw-Mogok-Mandalay

There are a couple of nationalities that get visa exemptions now, including Cambodians, Vietnamese and Bruneians as well as Filipinos I think.

However, right now nobody can travel to the interior of Myanmar via Mae Sot/Myawady due to fighting along both roads that connect the border town of Myawady with the rest of the country. Incidentally, most car and motorcycle tours enter and exit via this crossing but until the end of this month at least, the furthest you will be able to go is the border area, as used to be the case until the borders opened up on Aug 28, 2013. If there were any tours taking place in the near future, they will be forced to either cancel, postpone or choose a different crossing for entering and exiting the country as there is no way they can pass now, not even local travellers are being allowed across as the DKBA rebel army has instensified its fight with the Burma army in the area. Please see my post on this topic in the Myanmar visas section and also the Myanmar news section for further information.

Your reports on hiring a motorcycle and riding around northern Myanmar starting from Mandalay are a good option for most travellers looking to ride themselves in Myanmar.

[Tomtomtom69]

Lao citizens can also get 14 days visa free.

However, at Mae Sot/Myawady only day passes are being issued to all foreigners (including Thais) now restricting you to about 15-17km from the border due to fighting along both roads across the Dawna range as I have already mentioned.

Hopefully the situation will soon stablilize allowing the usual entry procedures to be re-instated at this crossing but with no way across the mountain range right now, Myanmar immigration is left with little choice but to restrict traveller's movements for now. My personal feeling is that any crossings into Myanmar at this crossing will be restricted to day passes for at least the rest of the month, maybe longer.

Bangkok to Dawei via Phu Nam Ron is of course not affected.