Quote Originally Posted by prince666 View Post
Hi Lao Jia Hou

Please may I ask why do you think you could have a problem with other country border crossing Even if you have a letter of permission from the owner to take the bike out of China !
The reson I ask it that I am very soon doing that ! Taking "my" bike, but is in my wife name out of china and into Laos / Thailand I will have a letter from my wife giving permission to leave china with the bike , the letter is in chineses and English . For the life of me I can't think why other border crossing would ask to see the letter , not unless there can read Chinese and see from the blue book it is not in my name !! I could be wronge I hope I am not ! Your thinking behind your point would be helpfull in my up and coming trip
Laos/Thailand (and Cambodia) aren't really a problem, especially if you have the proper permission letter also written in English, copies of her ID Card, etc. Those borders are comparatively easy crossings, with many travelers on bike and in cars doing it every day. In fact, I know that many illegal bikes with fake paperwork commonly cross.

Mongolia is also doable, at predetermined crossings, although the Mongolian Embassy strongly recommends that one has an "official translation" of each of the registration documents and permission letter (done by the Embassy, of course, for $50 US per document).

Where it gets tricky is when you get further afield. Speaking from experience, border guards have tremendous discretion - if they want to make your life difficult, because they had a fight with their wife, or because they didn't get their coffee break, they will.

There are reports over on HUBB about people getting stranded in no-man's land (that common stretch of a km, or two found between many border crossings), where the entering country said "nope, can't come in" and the exiting country saying "nope, can't come back". I can't recall which forum/blog I read it on, but two Chinese bikes heading into Mongolia were caught in this mess, and they were forced to sell their bikes to the "kind & considerate" border guards who offered them 10 cents on the dollar.

Then again, other crossing reports say "they didn't even ask to see my DL or registration".