Shipments done by Travellers

Business Intour Service has the monopoly, there is no other way to get your bike from Vlad to Japan. The Ferry "RUS" or "Michail Solokov" goes every Monday.

The bike is 90$, one person 210$, Students are 190$

To organise the tickets for us and the bikes was very easy and done in 10 Minutes. BUT IT TOOKS THREE WEEKS TO GET THE BIKES THROUGH THE CUSTOMS!! Ed. Refers to Russian customs.

Here a little description:

Since this year, they have a new custom building, new forms and new custom officers. Nobody was interested to fill out and stamp the forms we needed. We spent 5 days just to get the ONE form to bring the bikes to the custom box in the harbour.

Then the bikes where two weeks in the custom box and nothing happened. Every day we, and some people from the shipping company and members of the local MC Club "Iron Tigers" ran from Office to Office to get the right forms to bring the bikes from the box to the ship. At the end, the ship was gone without us and the bikes. So we waited another week for the next ship. In this time the Iron Tigers asked for the "payment" and finally we paid the customs, the key keeper for the custom box and the dockworkers (50 $ all).

Without the help of the Tigers and the shipping company it was almost impossible to get out of Russia. They said Vladivostok is the worst place in Russia to get something through the custom, even for them it takes more then a month to import a Japanese bike.

The shipping was pretty smooth, but getting the bike back in Ecuador was a pain. In Panama all I had to do was take out most of the gas, disconnect the battery and deflate the tires, no box was needed which saved me about $100.

I didn't have a carnet and the custom agents at the airport in Guayaquil made a big fuss. I had to do a little bribing and it still took four days of paperwork before I got it back. I also had to be escorted to the Peruvian border by one of their agents who sat on the back of the bike. The bike weighed 230kg.

We flew two motorcycles (BMW R100GS and F650ST). Made appointment to meet Dangerous Goods specialist at Air Canada Cargo to fill out form and disconnect battery.
Dropped bikes off on Thursday afternoon and picked them up on Monday after going to ADAC in Frankfurt to get the Green Card insurance.
Price was calculated on weight so we minimized weight by taking as much as possible with us on our flight.

"Volume was a BMW-standard crate: 224x114x95=404 Volume kg
Weight was including full paniers two new tyres and the crate 348kg.

404 THB MDC (1THB/day) - storage/ handling Kathmandu
808 THB CSC (2THB/day) - storage/handling BKK
40 THB DC - ???
100 THB TC - ???
12 THB Duty stamp
10 THB Administration fee
23028 THB transport fee - (57 THB/kg - but because of the UNICEF-campaign I got 250kg reduction)
1800 THB Dangerous goods declaration
122 THB Terminal Charge
150 THB Overtime booked
60 THB Custom book
25 NPR Paper for cutoms clearing
200 NPR Customs clearing (Agent), incl. copy of passport
350 NPR Customs handling fee (1 NPR/kg)
Costs all together converted in US$: 287.43 USD

Remark, that Thai Airways Cargo sponsored 250kg for the www.2-mad.com Global Polio Awareness Campaign. This saved using their rates 351USD - thank you very much again Thai Airways cargo. I also did not count the taxi to and from the airport.

No problems on either side. Presenting the crate and leaving it with all the paperwork was about 3h in Bangkok. Releasing the motorcycle in Kathmandu was besides the world championships on TV (there was a match on and almost everybody was watching) also only a 3h task.

Thai Airways Cargo has a rate of 57 THB/kg some other shipping agents offer rates around 49 THB/kg. This might be an alternative. But I was very satisfied with the extremly good service and efficiency."

We had the information from Rob and Dafne about shipping the bikes from Japan to Russia. But some things are changed.

We contacted Mr. Funaki from FKK travel agency and he made the reservations for us to go by ferry from Toyama (exactly Fushiki port in Tadaoka, 15 km south of Toyama) to Vladivostok in Russia.

We paid Mr. Funaki USD 210/person, USD 130/bike and USD 40 of handling fees. we sent the money in special money envelopes by mail, this is common in Japan and safe. When we arrived at the Fushiki port in Tadaoka, we met Mr. Funaki.

He received the money by mail and took us to the captain of the Mikhail Sholokhov. There he paid the captain, but we never got a ticket. The captain wanted our passports and our invitation letter. We never saw our invitation letter because it was sent to the Russian embassy in Tokyo and they kept it there. So Mr. Funaki called the embassy and there they could not find our invitation letter. But we had our visa and after a long discussion the captain accepted us and we got a room.

When all the cars were loaded on deck and in the ferry, we could ride our bikes in the ferry. The Russian shippers are friendly and helpful and secured our bikes. On board we got 3 good meals a day. The next morning we arrive at Zarubino in Russia where everybody has to leave the ship and go to customs. They check 3 times the passports and when everybodies passport is checked and stamped we all go on board and sail for 6 hours more to Vladivostok.

The 'cruise' takes 48 hours and the second day a shipper made our 'bill of lading' for USD 5. When we arrive in Vladivostok we are free to go, because we went already through customs. The steward that speaks English tells us that the ferry is unloaded the next day and then we could collect our bikes.

So we went to hotel Vladivostok (USD65/room). Bloody expensive! They registered our visas and the next morning we walked back to the ferry in the port. We were sent to the Business Intour Service (BIS office) in the customs building. This building was in July 2002 under construction. A lady from BIS, that speaks good English, is 'responsible' for us and helps us to get our bikes through customs. Immediately she tells us that it will cost USD 50 per person, we agree.

She takes us to temporary custom office buildings, 15 minutes by car from the port, where she makes copies of our papers (no carnet necessary) and get inline. After a dozen of desks and 2 days we pay 30 Rubles tax (USD 2), she has all the required documents and takes us to the custom zone at the port where our bikes are waiting. There she pays USD 50 at the last custom officer and he releases the bikes.

We are in Russia! We drove to the Iron Tigers club house 'The Box', where we stayed 2 days and worked on our bikes. They helped us also to get the invitation letter required for the visa. We emailed copies of our passport and info of our itinerary to vlad...@mail.primorye.ru (fax + 7 4232 461160).

They took this to Primcore Invest (PKI) that made our invitations for visa. PKI faxed our invitation letter to the Russian embassy in Tokyo where we got our visa (cost YEN 1000 (USD 8)/pick up after 1 month) and YEN 3100 (USD 28) for consulate fees.