From Auckland, New Zealand to Kathmandu, Nepal - September, 2014

After recommendation I decided to go with Go Air Land Sea and although it did not go as smooth as I had hoped, this was not really the shippers fault.

Problems I had:

Crate turned out bigger than I had first foreseen. This was a problem, because Kathmandu is a small airport and only small planes fly to KTM. My crate was too big for the intended Malaysia Airlines flight and had to be rebooked on a Thai Airways flight. This was not a biggie, but Thai Airways rate was 2 NZD more than MH (6.30 NZD/KG).

Also, we had problems with getting the bike from the placed where I crated it, to the warehouse. We transporter we used could not find my address on Friday afternoon and so the bike was only picked up Monday, and It took them about a week to get it to Auckland, whereas this should only have been 3 days.

In the end, it took two weeks, because there where weekends on very unfortunate moments, also regarding transferring money and such.

But Jack was very prompt on the email and they were easily the cheapest from all the shipping companies I had asked for a quote.

Recommended.

Once the bike was finally in Kathmandu, things were easy and it cost 130 dollar and nothing more. Including a litre of petrol to get to the nearest petrolstation (that was empty :)).

Nepal for import: Eagle Export

My bike was send from New Zealand, but before it was send, I was already in Nepal. I had to wait some time before the biked arrived in Kathmandu, this had to do with some problems in New Zealand, some things had gone wrong but end the end it arrived in Kathmandu.
I went with Suraj to the airport and we first went to Thai Airways office and after that to the cargo division to deal with customs. I did not have to do anything. I had written two short letter that I had authorized Suraj to take care of everything. Suraj knows his way and handed over the papers. Then we had to wait, because they said the system was down. According to Suraj the system was not down, but they just said that so people get un patient and will pay some bribe money. But in the mean time I read my book and we went for a refreshing drink. When we came back, the bike was taken by a forkloader from behind the gate and dropped in front of us. The frame and engine number was checked and the carnet de passage signed. We pushed the crate outside and I took the bike out of the crate and put the bike together. There were quite some people watching the whole time I was putting the bike together, but they did not come to close. I just concentrated on putting the bike together and after two hours I pushed the button and the engine came alive.

If you are considering flying your bike to Kathmandu, I would recommend to inquire at Suraj, Eagle Export in Thamel. On top of that he cleared my bike for the in advance approved costs (130 US dollar) he also invited my at his home, where I enjoyed some real Nepali hospitality! Local cuisine, some beers and some interesting discussions… For me starting my big adventure, riding my motorbike home to the Netherlands from Nepal, it was really nice that I had a ‘home’ to start from, and somebody who knows the deal in Nepal.