According to my travel plan to Thailand by land I am going to my final destination passing Russia, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos.
In all of these countries (except China), for russians is not required a special visas. Tourist visas can be obtained at the border. This type of visa is called VOA (visa on arrival).

Visa to China

To enter the territory of the PRC is still required to make a visa in advance. Tourist visas to China are divided by the duration of the trip and the number of entries in the territory of the country. I got a “single entrance” tourist visa for stay in China up to 28 days and 3 months of entry corridor.

Visa to Myanmar

Mysterious country Myanmar – may be also will part of the route. Authorities in Myanmar belongs to the military, and perhaps for this reason for acrossing the border Russians need to get special visa in advance.
I did not mark Myanmar as part of the route, because you can get here only by air travel trought Yangon city or Mandalay city. Overland border crossings for tourists is not possible at the moment. This is contrary to idea of the project. I am going to visit Myanmar after I will come to Thailand by land.
You can get visa to Myanmar in Myanmar embassy in Moscow by yourself. The cost of a tourist visa for 28 days – $ 20 USD . The processing time – 4 days.

International Driving License

Everybody in Southeast Asia moved on scooters and motorcycles. My russians driver license permit me to drive only car (category “B”). I think is not good idea to get International driver license in this case, because:
a) most of tourists in Asia drive motorbike without any license
b) international driver license “B” category does not permit to drive two-wheeled vehicles (purchase or rental car not in my plans).

I just remembered the curious case happened to me in 2010 in Cambodia.

The police catched me to verify my driver license. I show them the Russian driver’s license “B” category. I lied that in Russia the category “B” means “bike”.

It works! To be honest, I paid some fees. According to Cambodian traffic rules it`s prohibited to drive with front lights at the daytime (opposed to Russia where is prohibited to drive motorbikes if your front lights turned off). Fine – $ 2 USD.

You can find more information about visas by this link.

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