Shipments done by Travellers

...G'day, I shipped a bike from Sydney to London last year, using Worldwide Shipping, who were very helpful. If you're in Sydney, ask for Arthur when you call. He's the man...

Just to give you an idea, the UK journey took 6 weeks, nothing was broken except where I'd packed a few things in the way of the forklifts' prongs! And the cost was only $684Aus including 9000dollars worth of insurance. Give them a go if you have the time to go by sea, otherwise DHL can get it there in a couple of days by air. To Europe the price I know was about $2800Aus. Hope this is of some help. Enjoy NZ!

Grant's note: Not sure if the Europe price was DHL via air, but if by sea, certainly makes it worth shipping to London then riding it to Europe.

From nepal I wanted to fly the bike to mongolia - over Seoul. 3000USD only for the bike. I ended up flying the bike from Delhi to Almaty in Kasakstan - Air Kazakhstan about 300USD + 500 USD Customs bribes. See the ezine for more details, or my website. But if you would go from Almaty to Delhi (one flight a week) maybe you would pay in Delhi 500 Rupees to get the bikes out. my website: www.weltreise-motorrad.de for more - sorry most of it in German

Andy White, UK, in Bangkok, flying bikes from Kathmandu to Bangkok:

"Warning for all planning to fly from Kathmandu to Bangkok. Myself, and 5 other riders have just done so, and all have encountered problems. Firstly we all used the Eagleeyes agency, which had already flown 4 others bikes smoothly. Upon arrival in Bangkok, we found this agency had not booked our bikes on the same plane, as we were told, or on any flight. The crate sizes were also too large, and this cost us on average $150 extra. Also, because the crate were in storage for 2 weeks at Kathmandu, when the crates eventually arrived, they had been vandalised, and items stolen - over $1200 of equipment from one crate. Only 3 bikes have arrived so far.

If you are thinking of flying from Kathmandu, be warned to deal only with the airline, and that the storage at the airport is not secure. Also I would advise giving Mr. Dakahl at Eagle Eyes Exports a wide berth."

Ed. See Chris & Erin Ratay's entry for a completely different viewpoint.

No problem to get a free crate from bikeshop in California

...how we sent our bikes from Panama to Guayaquil...

Cost US$150 per bike (weight not important). However, only take CASH. Shipped as loose freight in a container with other stuff. Need to arrive in Colon with bike and complete paper work day. Give yourself a full day to complete everything. Boat leaves usually on Sundays at about 5 p.m. Takes 2.5 days to arrive in Guayaquil.

See Mr. Campbell in Colon....VERY HELPFUL...Will take you to container and get you through customs immediately (we gave him a tip of 6 US dollars). Will let you push your bike into the container and let you see that it is secured properly.

Pick up contact in Guayaquil:
Monica Jordan de Cervantes
email: mjor...@bonita.com
tel:593 4 481 447 or 481 439
fax:593 4 481 449

Did all paper work for us. Very nice lady. Speaks English. Went out of her way to help us. Processing fees were about 15 US dollars per bike. Also, we had to get a letter of transit from the American Embassy (US$50)...getting the bikes out of the container and customs will probably take 3 days in Guayaquil (that is what it took us, anyway...maybe longer in other cases).

Update from Chris Bright post on bulletin board - Dec 2000

VERY "IMPORTANT: for and shipping (and flying???): make sure your 'bill of lading' has the magic words 'for temporany importation only' written on it. Also, if you are shipping, there is some sort of special code that should be written on it, which allows you to drive your vehicle out of Guayaquil port. if you don't have this, you will have to pay a trucker ($30) to drive your closed container out of the dock gates and somebody else to remove the container from the truck, so that you can unload it.

...you WILL need a letter from your embassy / consulate saying you are a tourist and in transit. (There is a line in the customs book that says precisely that!) We heard that the British and Dutch consulates in Guayaquil are very helpful, but the American consulate requires hard work: the Californian couple we spoke to refused to leave the lady's office until she produced the letter. They were there 3 hours!"

Grant's comment: Recent information (Feb 2001) is that Ecuador requires a carnet if shipping by air, does not require if entering by land, and by sea is variable. It is officially required, but land border guards ignore it.