Shipments done by Travellers

same same as everybody
eagle eyes knows what he is doing
it s clear, quick and good value, transparency
the crate was well done

the bike left ktm 4-5 days after the agreement made with eagle eyes,
the airline was thai airways,
the agent and thai airways did their best to make it quick but this is nepal, maybe all the planes were overloaded.
i did this shippng with bernd and heidi, eagle eyes told us it was not possible to put the 3 bikes in a single crate (it would have been cheaper for the 3 of us).
why ? is eagle eyes making more money like this or the airline companies or customs or ... ??? we did not check ...

we tried to claim at thai cargo in bkk because the shipping was 4-5 days delaied compared to the original agreement, but nothing happened

the plane passenger ticket was around 200 usd

If you are looking for a more "adventurous" way to get your motorcycle from South to Central America tie it to the main mast of the sailboat "Melody".

Its owner Mark, an American, makes his living by taking people from Cartagena, Colombia, to Colon, Panama. He does several trips a year, depending on the weather.

It's a good idea to contact him some time in advance to find out when exactly he is going.

The journey itself takes about 6 days and can be rough, for the sailboat is small and the waves are big.

Your motorcycle will be protected from the salt water by plastic sheets. Getting the motorcycle on the boat is an adventure in itself!

His Colombian wife who is a wonderful cook provides the food. Usually, Mark catches some big fish on the way.

The highlight of the trip is the Coconut Islands of San Blas. They say that there are 365 islands, one for every day. Their white sandy beaches are littered with shells surrounded by the turquoise waters of the Caribbean.

Mark anchors for one day in a sheltered bay and you can go and explore the underwater world (snorkelling).

The Kuna Indians still live in their traditional ways. They will come up to the sailboat in their dugouts and try to sell coconuts, shells or their arts.

For this is an open sea voyage take pills against seasickness, before! the boat leaves Cartagena. We ignored this advice and spent the first two days feeding the fish.

The best thing is:
You don't have to worry about getting involved in dodgy drug business. You can trust Mark a 100%.

Paperwork:

In Cartagena, you will get an exit stamp for yourself at the immigration office, but none for your bike at customs, because you don't leave from an "official cargo port".

In Panama, you have to get a temporary import form for your motorcycle from the customs office in Zona Franca. This is important for when you want to leave the country.
Then, you have to get this form stamped at the customs office at the port when you are leaving the marina with your bike.
They didn't care about the non-existing exit stamp from Colombia in our case.

We recommend to take a taxi to get from A to B in Colon.
Colon is one of the ugliest cities we have ever been to. There is a potential risk of getting robbed!

We made sure we contacted this company in good time - allow 2 weeks.
Gabriela was great, helped us organise fumigation of the crates and even helped when we had problems in Melbourne.
The price was good because we put 2 bikes in one crate and made it as small as possible. The crate was 3.6 cubic metres.
We paid approx US$60 for the truck to take the crate to the harbour and another US$25 to get the crate fumigated.
Getting the bikes out in Melbourne was more difficult and expensive than it could have been. We were not in the country and the bikes were permanently imported. Total cost AUS$900. For a normal shipment using a carnet you will be looking at around AUS$300.

I looked to ship my bike to North America to start a trip through Mexico and South America. The air freight seemed to be way more expensive than the sea freight if you use this company. Wallenius Wilhelmson use roll on roll off car ferries for regular shipments (2 or 3 per month) on fixed routes so there is no danger (hohoho) of the ship getting diverted to West Africa en
route. I guess this is as reliable as shipping gets.

The journey takes 21 days and you need to have the bike at Southampton 3 working days prior to sailing. The only paperwork you need is the vehicle registration document. 2 or 3 days before the ship docks, a notice is sent out to the address you provide in the US to advise of the arrival date. Then all you do is go and pick up the bike. At this stage, you must pay the port tax (about $50 US) and clear customs.

This whole shipping procedure was so simple given the miles of text written on this subject. Another advantage over air freighting is that the bike does not need to be crated. In addition to the $498 basic shipping cost, I paid $50 marine insurance to cover the bike.

Shipping to the west coast of the US is only marginally more than the east coast. The cost was $20 cheaper to ship to Galveston, Texas. However, flying to Los Angeles is far cheaper ($299 return) than to Houston or Dallas and the access to the docks at Port Huaneme is much simpler.