What's included in an ASIAN MOTORCYCLE ADVENTURES tour.

THE TOUR PACKAGE

The price of every A.M.A motorcycle tour covers all the essentials: your motorcycle, hotel accommodations in your own private room, 3 meals per day with non-alcoholic beverages, petrol, tolls, and all entrance fees. You may not have to put your hand in your pocket the entire trip!

Hotel lodging for our 10-day and longer motorcycle tours start the night before the trip begins at our selected lodging facilities, and of course every night thereafter. If you like, A.M.A can arrange hotel lodgings for you before and after your motorcycle tour. Not included in an A.M.A tour price are airfares, alcoholic beverages, snacks, rest-day lunches, and optional activities not specifically mentioned in the itinerary.

It is highly recommended, imperative even, to arrive in Asia at least 2 or 3 days before your tour begins so you can recuperate from jet-lag, a condition no person is immune to. Many participants like to spend these first few days sightseeing in Bangkok, the gateway city most people fly into, before heading up to Chiang Mai. Flights into Chiang Mai are frequent, inexpensive, and short---about an hour.
The afternoon before departure is the participants' briefing. Over complimentary cocktails and snacks, you will meet your fellow travelers. Our discussion will cover: the types of roads and road surfaces we will encounter; local traffic regulations; tips for handling the Asian style of driving; and typical road hazards, which include wild elephant avoidance strategies! Safety is emphasized because nothing on this trip is PARAMOUNT to getting you back home safe and sound.

Thai people love to party. Thailand motorcycle tour.

    The first day's driving is usually an easy one, allowing everyone to limber up and get familiar with the bikes and the roads. You travel light: Each bike is equipped with a rear trunk and tank bag, and our 4WD support vehicle will carry your luggage and your shopping purchases. It can also carry you and your bike if you need a break.
    Our support vehicle is driven by our mechanic. His job is to make sure your bike is running perfectly and to assist you in any way possible. Also accompanying every tour is a local tour guide who will impart to you his knowledge of the local culture, history, fauna, flora, geography, and anything else you express an interest in.
    An early departure each morning allows plenty of time to take frequent breaks and to enjoy the points of interest en route. We try to arrive early at each day's final destination so you can relax after many miles in the saddle and enjoy the facilities and ambience of a new town, take a dip in the pool or the sea, or unkink with a massage. Night driving is never scheduled.

Monk wearing loads of amulets, Southern Thailand Motorcycle Tour.

Each hotel is superior in quality and chosen to reflect the culture and charms of an area. All have an overall high standard of comfort. Occasionally A.M.A may head into an enchanting but remote area where basic amenities like electricity or running water may not be available. In these instances A.M.A makes sure the accommodations are the cleanest and best in the locality. These basic lodgings are often the most enjoyable and memorable on the entire trip. This is when the feeling of being in a far-off land hits hard. The small sacrifice in personal comfort is only for a single evening and is well worth the immense pleasure of being able to stay in such a hard to get to and remarkable environment. It is part of the fun, part of the excitement, and an integral part of adventure travel.

If there is a highlight on our tours besides the motorcycling, it has to be the food. Start dieting now, and bring along a looser change of clothes. Each meal is a joy, but dinners are no-holds-barred feasts.

Lunch stops are usually in medium-sized towns along our route. Occasionally we will drive far out of our way just to sample an especially delicious example of a region's cuisine.
Evening is when time is ample to savor the culinary delights of Asia at a leisurely pace. Local delicacies are cooked to perfection and eaten in neighborhood establishments rubbing elbows with the citizenry. You will soon be eating like a native. Asian fruits are a story unto themselves. No fast food allowed! Hotel coffee shops are strictly for breakfast.

The hardest part of designing each of the longer A.M.A tours is choosing the rest-day location. All stops on our itineraries have something inherently unique about them. It is a shame there isn't enough time to pay each one an in-depth visitation. This is simply not possible considering the amount of ground we cover––3,400+ kilometers (2,000+ miles) on certain tours. Some of the A.M.A selected rest-day locales are:

• An underwater national park surrounding an island in the South China Sea.
• Luxurious jungle lodges reached after a long river or bike ride through the oldest rainforests on earth.
• A floating bungalow resort on perhaps the most beautiful lake in the world.
• A Dayak longhouse on the banks of a wild Borneo river.
• A day-visit to a wild border town in Burma.
• The most notoriously hedonistic island in Thailand. Be especially careful here––you may never return home! Their full moon parties are legendary.

Here's just a partial list of available rest-day activities that will keep you plenty busy:

scuba, snorkeling, river tubing, sea canoes, board sailing, deep sea fishing,sea cruises, golf, bungy jumps,

Or just laze around. Catch some rays. Catch some fish. Catch some Z's. The choice is yours.

Ancient City of Jiohe. Silk Road Motorcycle Tour.

Some of our motorcycle tours have on their schedule a couple of segments of off-road motorcycle riding to keep the bikes in fighting trim. The easier off-road segments are not especially long or difficult. If you have zero experience on the dirt, don't worry––it's not difficult, and we will teach you how. Most people find riding dirt roads a lot more fun and interesting than riding on asphalt.

Our LAOS, ANGKOR WAT, and ONE MONTH THAI-LAOS EXPEDITION motorcycle tours are another story altogether. These trips are for experienced off-road motorcyclists in good physical condition. Long segments go through jungle and mountains and over roads so bad they have a lot of nerve even calling themselves a road. No beginners allowed!

Our motorcycles are fully insured for third party damage only. (NOTE: No insurance is available in Laos, Cambodia, Burma, or on the one-monthThai-Laos Expedition.). Our motorcycles have a damage deductible of US$500. This means the limit of any rider's responsibility in case of damage is $500. A cash deposit of US$500 to cover this deductible is required before Hat vendor. Burma Motorcycle Tour.

the tour departs. It will be refunded in full at the completion of the tour provided no damage has occurred to the motorcycle. If damage has occurred and repair costs are less than US$500, then the difference between the repair cost and the deposit will be refunded.
A.M.A ignores normal wear and tear on the bikes. But if a rider breaks items like mirrors, foot pegs, turn signals, lights, cracked plastic, etc., out of negligence or due to an fall, the price of a replacement part will be deducted from your deposit. A.M.A carries a parts price list of most parts for your perusal.

A.M.A does not want to have to withhold one penny of your deposit money, and it will be our greatest pleasure to return every penny of it to you at the the completion of your tour. So please, be careful.

Insurance in the above-mentioned areas does not exist due to the lack of any economic framework. For the above mentioned tours, we have to self-insure ourselves. Click to read about our SELF-INSURANCE PLAN.

There is no medical insurance coverage for injury to the rider and/or pillion is available for purchase in Asia for visiting foreigners-- you! All participants must cover themselves in their home countries before the tour. A call to your insurance agent is usually enough to obtain such coverage. However, the Tourism Authority of Thailand, on tours within their own borders, does provide a very basic Crowded pickup bus. Burma Motorcycle Tour.

Crowded pickup bus. Burma Motorcycle Tour.

policy that minimally covers visitors participating on a tour. This insurance is only for a modest amount of money, but it does adequately cover simple emergency room procedures and treatments. Any injuries more serious than this usually requires additional payment.

It is highly recommended that participants take out a personal insurance policy at home, at their own expense, before they leave on an A.M.A tour, to cover such things as tour and travel cancellation / interruption, personal accident, health and medical, hospitalization, property loss, etc.

For your own well-being and protection, you might want to consider taking out an evacuation insurance policy prior to an A.M.A tour (especially if you sign up for a tour in Laos, Burma, Angkor Wat, or our 30-Day Expedition. This is usually easily accomplished with a phone call to your insurance agent.

As avid bikers, you are all familiar with assuming and managing risk. Every time you climb onto a bike you are accepting some element of danger. The same holds true on an A.M.A motorcycle tour in Asia.

Our biggest safety hazard are the other Asian drivers. No one ever described them as disciplined. Driving regulation and enforcement here is lax. Oldsters drive like mummies. Bus drivers drive like rhinos on steroids.
Riding through a hill tribe village. Laos Motorcycle Tour.

Riding through a hill tribe village. Laos Motorcycle Tour.

This road-sharing problem is alleviated a great deal by the dearth of traffic on the majority of A.M.A routes, and we purposely avoid commercial arteries. In many places we won't see more than a few cars every hour. Some route segments are nearly deserted––the whole road feels like it's ours alone.

Asia has some fine, world-class hospitals, but outside of the major cities they are below Western standards. We don't want to visit any. Above all else we drive safe and under control at all times. The risks are just not worth it.
Pay attention, keep you eyes open, keep plenty of cushioning space, expect the unexpected, and you'll do fine.

These are the tropics. It is hot: Humid too. On some A.M.A tours during the height of the dry season, day-time temperatures hover near 90F (32C). Mornings, evenings, and nights, however, are usually cool and pleasant. The heat is absolutely not a problem while we are moving. It is when we stop that one feels it. Shed your jacket ASAP. When standing around, stay in the shade, which is always cool and comfortable. But being the tropics, this weather is what's responsible for much of the beauty and lushness of our surroundings.

Finally, just so there are no misconception, A.M.A is a guided motorcycle tour. This means we ride in a convoy and the group must stick together. Solo riding is not possible except on certain segments that are specifically spelled out during each tour's morning briefing.

Believe us when we tell you that this is for your own protection. You would not want to be lost in the middle of Asia, incapable of deciphering a barbed-wire-script road sign, unable to speak the language, not knowing the lay of the land, not knowing anything at all.

We want all potential participants informed about all aspects of an ASIAN MOTORCYCLE ADVENTURES tour before you sign up so there will be no surprises or disappointments after our trips begin.
Think about this: I do not know of a single biker who was not chomping at the bit for a return drive after their first taste of Asian motorcycle touring.