Thanks to the Vietnamese prime minister, the first India-ASEAN car rally has easily overcome some bureaucratic bottlenecks.

After travelling 3,000 km through some of the most hazardous routes in Southeast Asia, bumping through steep mountain slopes and splashing through rivers, drivers of the first India-ASEAN car rally were to get a driving lesson here - and new license plates.

However, they managed to avoid it with the intervention of none other than Prime Minister Phan Van Khai.

"The prime minister himself intervened so that the drivers were allowed to enter without a driving lesson and without Vietnam license plates," N. Ravi, India's ambassador to Vietnam, told IANS.

"The (authorities) needed details of chassis number and registration number of each vehicle, which we gave them in advance. We also explained that the Indian license plates were absolutely foolproof and through them any vehicle can be traced.

"In Vietnam, right hand drives are banned. It is an evidence of the friendship between the two countries that so many right hand drive vehicles are being allowed without any extra requirements."

The Vietnam leg of the 20-day rally would see the 60-car convoy spend three days in the country, where it arrived Wednesday, and then head off to Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, ending at Batam, Indonesia, Dec 11.

Before this, the rally covered more than 2,000 km through the jungles and hills of Myanmar, bumping through dirt tracks, raising dust storms that blinded drivers, and roared through mud paths, streams and rivers in areas where there were virtually no roads.

Wherever it goes, the rally is opening a new land route through Southeast Asia connecting the countries of ASEAN with India.

Only the Philippines, among the 10-member ASEAN, is not participating in the rally that is tracing an 8,000-km route through eight ASEAN countries and India.

The Vietnam portion of the rally stretches for 1,312 km. "The rally in Vietnam will reinforce the friendship between the countries for a new generation of Vietnamese," said Ravi.

--Indo-Asian News Service