Since we decided to start this project at full blast we also started to make some research on the things necessary for our journey. We obtained interesting contacts and information. First of all I would like to thank one guy directly to Vietnam. It is a Czech man, living currently in Saigon and thanks to him we have lot of interesting information about trying to arrange something as a foreigner in Vietnam.
First interesting finding is, that all of it maybe isn't worth the problems. And so we will leave it and we don't give a quit on it. Or rather not :o) We won't give up so easily.
So there are some interesting things which can somebody find useful
- in Vietnam is valid only and exclusively Vietnamese driver's license. It can be obtained after getting through some tests and tons of paperwork. Article with detailed description can be found here http://jeffkozloff.wordpress.com/2013/04/08/driver-license-in-vietnam/
- some countries demands so called "carnet CPD" -it is customs bond, which guarantee, that the thing on which you arrived to that country won't stay there(or as in our case, they will have the money to dispose of the wreckage :o). This document is obtained in the country, which issued a registration document of your vehicle. It works the way that you pay for the bond(ca 6000kč=300$) and then you buy a certain number of the documents. In every country, which demands that carnet you leave then one. Thanks to this you don't need to pay customs bond in every such country. The bond you will get back after coming back to the country where it was issued. So in our case it is never or on another expedition, which can lead the opposite direction :o)
- Myanmar opened lot of new border crossings, but unfortunately official communication is at standstill somehow and so we have no idea whether is is possible for us to pass. Although Vespa's are equipped with tin plating on the front, which according to official sources serves also as a protection against the pieces falling off the borderline bar. So all it takes is to duck and accelerate :o)
There is more of the findings, but they are not so interesting, so I will leave it for the next time.
cheerio to Vespas Martin
