Tour Name: Asian Overland | Darwin to Beijing

Tour ID: 11376

Tour type: Scheduled

Duration: 105 days

Distance: 20,000 km

Best Season: Throughout the year

Brief info about the tour:

Darwin, Australia to Beijing, China: An extraordinary, unique and challenging motorcycle journey offering some of the finest landscapes on earth

Australia, Timor Leste, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos and China: From lush impenetrable verdant forests to the towering snow-capped peaks of the Himalaya, remote empty highways to vibrant megacities, hill tribes to beach dwellers and world-renowned UNESCO listed sites to unknown antiquities, this ride truly highlights the amazing diversity of Asia across two hemispheres.

Starting off we visit one of the worlds newest countries of Timor Leste, VERY new to the tourist trade before island hopping across some of the 17,000 islands that make up the amazing destination that is Indonesia. Smouldering volcanoes, impossibly green rice paddies, multicoloured lakes, stunning coastlines, Buddhist & Hindu antiquities and amazing wildlife encounters make up this archipelago that straddles the Equator. Malaysia offers a surprise with superb eating and stunning coastal scenery and Thailand offers some of the most extraordinary coastal scenery on earth with legendary towering limestone Karsts that populate sheltered coves dotting the coastline. We visit the famous “Bridge of the River Kwai” before riding north where we visit the legendary hillside tribes around Chang Mai, as well as riding some extraordinary roads. We spend a week in French-influenced Laos and visit one of Asia’s most stunning temple complexes at Luang Prabang on the Mekong. We enter one of the world’s biggest countries of China, home to some of the earth’s most remarkable civilizations, the world’s highest mountain peaks, stupendous scenery, most amazing roller coaster high altitude remote highways, 1000-year-old villages and some of mankind’s greatest antiquities. As soon as we enter China we experience what is the quintessential Chinese scenery of ancient rice terraces that cling to the hillsides seemingly with every inch under cultivation. We soon enter the high altitude region of Tibet and visit the capital of Lhasa with its world-renowned Potala Palace. The riding, across the roof of the world, is absolutely incredible and the view from Everest Base Camp offers staggering views of Mount Everest. Descending via three 5000 m passes we reach Xian, home to the amazing Terracotta Army and we visit villages that give us a glimpse of the “Old China” with their ancient city walls and narrow alleyways jammed with vendors. Riding triumphantly into Beijing after travelling over 20,000 km across two hemispheres we visit the Great Wall and Forbidden City before enjoying a celebratory meal and a few well-earned drinks at the completion of what has been one of the worlds greatest long distance rides.