Shipments done by Travellers

I got good service with shipping my bike to Bangkok. The man of shiping company just make it easier though I had myself done the packing and bike in crate i.e take the front wheel off and other accessories of bike which make the size of he box smaller.

This is the only ferry crossing the Persian gulf, and it's ro-ro, so you can just drive in, no crating. But that's where the convenience stops, because for all the red tape they handle this just like cargo, which means we spent the whole day (8AM - 9PM) at the port figuring out and chasing the pieces of paper and various signatures needed. We had sorted out the tickets with the shipping agent the day before, but theoretically you may just be able to do it in the morning, the ship leaving out late in the evening. Remember the long lunch break between 12 and 4, and don't expect them to work too hard.

It's difficult to know if there are fixed scheduled services, I understood there were 3 round trips per week.

Cost break-down:

Passenger Ticket: 100$
Bike ticket (fixed price whatever the size): 200$. Note: for a car its 500$!
Bill of loading: 50$
Discharge: 130'000 Rials (13$).

This is done at the Valfjar-8 offices, AKA ""South Way"" (this is what is written on the office building off the coastal road a few clicks from downtown, N27 09' 55''.0 E56 13' 46''.0). There's a bank downstairs, where you're supposed to change your dollars to rials, deposit it and come back with a receipt. This is Iran, so only cash in dollars is accepted, forget about any credit cards, or other currencies.

The port of Bahonar is further down the road, N27 09' 16''.8 E56 12' 21''.3, where you have to show up the morning of departure (the trip is overnight), early enough that you can clear up most of the procedure before the 1PM lunch break where everything goes to a halt. At the end (or near the end) of the procedure the port officials came with a bill for another 55$ (for 2 bikes), for the various paperworks, even though we did everything ourselves. There's no bribing involved here, it's just bureaucracy as its best, and a strong desire not to facilitate the tourism.

Carnet was stamped out without problem as the very last step. Customs didn't care about the bike or what we carried, really easy.

The ship itself is OK, the crew is willing to help to tie the bike down to the deck, but they're just clueless so it's better you oversee it or do it yourself. Hopefully the sea was calm. The trip was overnight, there's no bunks or cabins, just a big sitting room with benches (women and men segregated of course, this being Iran). We managed to crash down on the floor between benches on our mats, so that was not too bad. Food is served, so no need to bring it, except for water. It took about 12h (not sure, I fell asleep before it left).

We arrived in Sharjah (UAE, a few kms from Dubai) late, because the ferry was delayed by a few hours, so we had to scramble to finish all paperwork before the offices close at 8PM. We barely made it, it took 3 or 4 hours between the wait at the immigration, the customs, the clearing of the freight, the carnet to stamp in, etc.. and they charged us something like 130 DHS (about 35$). No visa feed for us, no checking of the baggage by the customs. No insurance required.

Total cost for shipping one bike was therefore a bit over 300$, excluding the passenger ticket. It's not a difficult procedure, Iranians are great dudes and they're willing to help and please. Emiratis are another story. It's just long and expensive, but straightforward.

SHIPPED MY v.STROM TO USA FROM SOUTHAMPTON TO NEWARK , PICKED UP BIKE AND DID A GREAT TRIP ACROSS STATES , MILEAGE 7,000. RETURNED FROM LONG BEACH CAL.TO SOUTHAMPTON AND COLLECTED BIKE FROM DOCKS 8-12-10.

HIGHLY RECOMEND WW. AND THIER AGENTS IN THE US. WHO ARRANGED CUSTOMS CLEARANCE AND DOCK FACILITIES AS REQUIRED. BIKE NOT CRATED OR CONTAINERISED BUT EMPTY OF PERSONAL LUGGAGE AND WITH A LITTLE FUEL FOR ONWARD JOURNEY.

2 WEEKS FOR OUTWARD JOURNEY, 6 WEEKS FOR RETURN JOURNEY.

GREAT TRIP AND AM PLANNING ANOTHER, RIDE SAFE

Shipped a small 125cc from Seoul, down to Busan and across to San Fran. Shipping took total of 3 weeks, including making of wooden crate (cost included in the above) and shipping down to the South Korean port of Busan on the south of the peninsula.

As I recall Joo was quite confident that making the package smaller wouldn't save money so went as far as leaving everything on the bike, including panniers.

These guys could easily arrange shipment from USA and onward to Vladivostok, via Seokcho.

Joo has fluent English and was usually pretty quick to respond.

For a fee they will also take care of customs, and can forward to your own address. I decided to forego this in the interests of saving money as it was an additional $750. Though he did take care of the ISF 10+2 filing, at a cost to himself of around $90.

Any queries you can get in touch with me. http://www.talesfromthesaddle.com

I highly recommend Joo at CIL, I think he was pretty honest and gave an honest price, reducing it even when it came to pay.

US customs was zero charge, temporary import, and warehouse holding charges look set to be $80.

I ship over from Oz to NZ with Mondiale too,
very good information and handling,and prices
you can do everything by email.
You contact Katie Speck from Mondiale
she send you a booking confirmation,
after this, you bring your bike in a crate, don't use wood, (must be fulmigatetd for Southamerica)to the delivery warehouse: Tapper Freight Station, 373 Neilson Street,
Onehunga, 20Km north from Airport,Gps East 174* 48.845,South 36* 55.300,
your crate have to be cling-wrapped and with your consignee, on all 4 sides,
they enload the crate their,with two forklifts,

Katie will send you per email a bill, after paying the bill,online or per kreditcard, she will send you per email the ""Bill of Loading""

also when you have a carnet de passage,postage it to katie by courier mail,5 days before shipping, and katie will do the carnet clearance with the customs for you to, and she postage the carnet per couriermail back to the place where you stay,
always a nice company to deal with,easy helpfull working per email contact,
all the best, hold your mirrows up,fredontour