DBS has got the system working, where it takes only one day to discharge the vehicles vs three days.
It was just confirmed by the bikers and Yurl.

Someplace along the way we did not pick up a crucial piece of knowledge and now get to spend an extra week in Vladivostok. All vehicles must be presented to Russian customs at least 48 hours before the scheduled DBS ferry departure. Unfortunately neither our tickets, nor our e-mails from DBS nor the English language DBS ferry website has that key bit of information. Ironically we arrived in Vlad in time and watched the ferry dock.
For those planning on taking the DBS ferry with a vehicle you will probably end up working with Yuri. We had the impression that DBS would arrange everything, but they just called Yuri to arrange it for us. You can save time by contacting Yuri ahead of time.

Ouch.
Earlier post shows you.. how to book DBS from Russia .

To Book DBS from Vladivostok to Korea

http://www.olgatour.ru/ticket/eastern_dream/

Let Google translate do the work.

Hi SeoulJoe,
I did look at that website and translated it and it did not include the critical 48 hour information regarding customs.
I'm not all that happy with DBS right now. I contacted them months in advance and booked, and then confirmed, but did not hear from them until it was too late. That info should be transmitted to their customers.

I feel terrible about you being stuck in Vladivostok, for a week.

This also is news to me as well. I also thought you just show up like any ferry and save a few hundred dollars by not using Yuri. In fact never heard of Korean riders mentioning it all. Nor, when we leave Korea ,,this is not required.

Yuri could not pull any strings at all?

I can suggest to get hold of my buddy at Iron Angels,, go for a weekend ride with them,, Nakhodka is not far away. Automobile museum is interesting,,go for a walk downtown,, find the Yul Brynner's house. Take Yuri out to dinner and go to a karaoke. Try to enjoy it,,
We once had BushmanUK and Strimstrum stuck in Vladivostok, for three months. Not funny.
We will get pissed, when you come to Korea!


SPOKE TO DBS 2014. 07. 31 THEY WILL POST ENGLISH , RUSSIAN AND KOREAN NOTICE FOR PRE 48 HOURS RUSSIAN CUSTOMS INSPECTION.
HE ALSO INSISTS DBS VLADIVOSTOK ISSSUES SUCH WARNING AT THE TIME OF BOOKING.

Hi SeoulJoe,

Vladivostok reminds me of my hometown of San Francisco and we are already planning on doing some touristy stuff and thank you for the suggestions!

Since we had planned one week of touring Korea on the bikes before shipping them back to the States and now that week will be spent in Russia, we are shipping the bikes next week to Vancouver with Yuri. The price was about the same as out of Korea. Unfortunately our nonchangeable flights leave from Seoul less than a day after our delayed arrival on the ferry. We will be going straight from the ferry to Seoul, will spend the night and then fly out.

You can always take the direct flight to Seoul via KAL, if you are fed up with Vladivostok.
You should get a full refund from DBS. Enjoy both Vlad and Seoul.

I lived on Russian Hill ,, 1991 - 1992 while stationed there, for my company.
Also at U of Berkeley in 1974 ,, summer thing ,, stayed at a frat house.
I bought an old 1956 MGA for 400 bucks ,, went to Sausalito on a Friday night ,, as I was lonely ,, short on English and money ,, had no friends. There were three beautiful girls hitch hiking ,,came to a screeching stop,,, two white and one black... all tall and beautiful. I had ten dollars in my pocket ,, went to a restaurant by the water,,,built by a well known hippie,, a massive wooden thing ,, the parking was 2 bucks,, pass,,,I went up the side street on a hill ,, they got out ,, they had door open,, I got out ,, car rolled back ,, my passenger side door catches the curve,, fell off ,, as I picked it up my pants gets ripped on the broken hinge.. 10 inch L shape tear in the ass showing my underwear,,, with a painful nonchalant smile,, put the door in the trunk ,, went for the food. In those days I got drunk on one . Had two frozen ,, had din din ,, we shared ,, I had 50 cents left in my pocket,, drove back to the city over the Golden Gate ,, it was a glorious night ,, feeling good ,, music was right ,,three beautiful girls in my open car ,, with wind rushing in from the no door side.
We went to the North Shore ,, a poets bar , Ferlinghetti ,, girls bought me drinks ,,, soon a bunch of long hairs crashed our table, They were the famous Commander Cody band ,, they were hustling the girls to go back to their house on the hills of Sausalito ,, with a pool ,, tons of grass ,,
Me with 50 cents ,, I bowed out gracefully as much as I could handle ,, walked out ,, I went for my MGA to go over the Bay Bridge,, then there was a tab on my shoulder,, her name was Ford ,, the youngest one and the prettiest one. When I woke up next day ,, I realised what a beautiful little flat she had. Russian Hill.
That summer will stay with me forever.

I felt Ford again,, when I saw Vladivostok for the first time.

DBS Cruise Ferry

1.OCEAN FREIGHT FOR MOTORBIKE

ROUTE ONE-WAY ROUND
UNDER 500c OVER 500cc UNDER 500c OVER 500cc
DONGHAE ↔ SAKAIMINATO $400 $500 $600 $800
DONGHAE ↔ VLADIVOSTOK $500 $600 $800 $1000
SAKAIMINATO ↔ VLADIVOSTOK $600 $700 $1000 $1200
▶ Supplementary Expenses : Car Inspection Fee($10/Unit), BAF($10/Unit)
▶ In case of round, you should pay all cost before departure and the Supplementary Expenses will be paid two times.

2.OCEAN FREIGHT FOR CAR

ROUTE ONE-WAY ROUND
COMPACT SUV/RV VAN COMPACT SUV/RV VAN
DONGHAE ↔ SAKAIMINATO $500 $600 $700 $800 $1000 $1200
DONGHAE ↔ VLADIVOSTOK $600 $700 $800 $1000 $1200 $1400
SAKAIMINATO ↔ VLADIVOSTOK $700 $800 $900 $1200 $1400 $1600
▶ Supplementary Expenses : Car Inspection Fee($10/Unit), BAF(COMPACT:$10/UNIT, SUV,RV:$20/UNIT, VAN:$30/UNIT)
▶ In case of round, you should pay all cost before departure and the Supplementary Expenses will be paid two times.

SEOUL OFFICE
TEL : 82-2-548-5557/5502, 82-2-714-5506/7
FAX : 82-2-548-5503
I.P : 070-7730-5592/5593

Address
2F.Intops bldg., 617, Bongeunsa-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Korea

Deputy General Manager
Beom Seok, Ko

M.P : 010-4598-6197

vsugi@dbsferry.com


DONGHAE OFFICE
TEL : 82-33-531-5611/30
FAX : 2-33-531-5612
I.P : 070-7730-3765,5597

Address Annex of Donghae Int'l Passenger Terminal, 1147, Songjeong-dong, Gangwon-do, Korea
Manager
Seung Min, Kang
M.P: 82-10-8893-5930

smkang@dbsferry.com
Assistant
Mun Hyun, Kim

M.P: 82-10-3335-4643

kmh7011@dbsferry.com
Staff
Min Hyun.Park

M.P: 82-10-9057-0566

star1730@dbsferry.com



DBS
Cruise Ferry
(Vladivostok) OFFICE
TEL : 7-4232-30-2704, 2664
FAX : 7-4232-30-26-64
I.P : 070-7730-5596/ 070-7725-6690

Address Morskoy Vogzal Room No.239, Nigne-portovaya str.1, Vladivostok, 660090
Branch Office President
seung-won, Yun

M.P : 7-4232-72-0067

yswn1311@dbsferry.com

Staff
MS. Olga

M.P : 7-4232-71-1889

olga@dbsferry.com

Storm Marine
(Partner) OFFICE TEL : 7-4232-61-0105/6/7
Address
Morskoy Vogzal Room No.239, Nigne-portovaya str.1, Vladivostok, 660090


DBS
Cruise Ferry
(Sakaiminato) OFFICE
TEL : 81-859-30-2332
FAX : 81-859-30-2313
I.P : 070-7725-5583/ 070-7730-5591

Address 9-23, SHOUWA-MACHI, SAKAIMINATO-CITY, TOTTORI, JAPAN
Branch Office President
Jun-Man, Lee

M.P : 81-80-3058-3159 js_kikaku@dbsferry.com
Assistant Manager
Sung-hyuk, Kim

M.P : 81-90-8295-5823

ksh0858@dbsferry.com
Staff
MS. Tanya

M.P : 81-80-6337-2939

tatiana@dbsferryjp.gmail.com
Kamikumi
(Partner) OFFICE
EL : 81-859-45-8707
FAX : 81-859-45-7182

Address
76 Takenouchi danchi Skaiminato-City, Tottori, Japan

If you want your bike out of the port next day of the arrival at Vlad,,
Send the following info to Olga at DBS Vladivostok or contact Yuri.
Olga will call Yuri any way. Understand Olga speaks perfect English ,,, so does Yuri's assistant Svetslana.
Also read the English section of the DBS website carefully, on the procedure.
DBS Cruise Ferry

Following is Yuri's paperwork recently done on a Korean biker.
http://links-ltd.com/shipping-services/

When I went through last time ,, a motorcycle safety certificate was mentioned by the Russian insurance companies,, it seems now days ,, it is not required. Still have a copy of your MOT, with you. In US such a document is non existent so look into it.

Still there must be a way to avoid this USD 150 handling charge by Yuri ,,some how,, as no such charge exists, when you arrive in Korea by ferry. It's just daunting to run around the Russian port and the customs. Where else ,, Svetlana picks you up at your hotel ,,, drives you around in her Honda.

Attached Thumbnails

 

 

Now that we are back home and have had a chance to reflect, a few thoughts emerge:

- HE ALSO INSISTS DBS VLADIVOSTOK ISSSUES SUCH WARNING AT THE TIME OF BOOKING.
He might insist that, but we double-checked all the messages we received from DBS and Wendy. No such notice. In fact, the DBS agent in Vlad, "Olga Travel" also double-checked and said they did not find that we were informed and basically said that we fell through the cracks. They felt guilty enough to upgrade us from a 2nd Class cabin to a Junior Suite and charged us only half price for a 2nd Class cabin. Note that we were in Vlad in plenty of time to check the bikes in and had sent them a note asking about check in procedures and they did not reply until it was too late. Note that since you don't pay for your DBS ticket until the day of departure they have the right to raise the price since you booked.

Yuri and Svetlana were really great to work with however and I think they were worth the $150 for each bike!

Why do you need a cargo broker in Vlad but not Korea? Perhaps for the same reason that you don't need a cargo broker when taking a car ferry from Estonia to St. Petersburg and that it takes a day or two to clear the bike going in or out of Vlad. The local Customs group in Vlad treats the "car ferry" as a "cargo ship" to have greater control. They don't want to deal directly with the vehicle owner or clear at the docks.

Why did Stena Lines quit when the ferries were supposedly full? My gut feeling is that they did not want to play the Vlad Russian officials' game.

SeoulJoe, you were right about the ferry; it is a nice ship and the food was excellent! We were quite hungry and went for the buffet for dinner and breakfast but on hindsight if we did it again we would go for the ala carte in the bar.

There was an interesting cultural moment getting off the ferry in Donghae. All the passengers were lined up and before we started disembarking the crew directed all the foreigners to stand aside while the Korean nationals disembarked first. Some moved slowly and were passed walking from the ship to customs and the routine was repeated in the customs line. My wife asked why and was told that it takes less time to process the Koreans. Not sure about that reason but we timed it anyway; no noticeable time difference between the two groups. I'm quite used to seeing two lines at airports for nationals (or EU) and non-nationals, but don't recall seeing such a system. Ironically there were two sets of booths at customs labeled for Koreans and Foreigners, but they were not used as such.

The bus ride to Seoul took about three hours and was a short walk/bus ride from the ferry terminal. It was a really nice bus but was kind of sad to see how beautiful Korea was and that we were not going to ride it. Maybe another trip!

On a side note regarding Russian motorcycle insurance; if you are going to Europe after Russia you might consider contacting Stefan Knopf. He sells insurance that covers both Russia, the EU and the non-aligned European countries. Although it may seem his price is high, when you add all the different policies together he was cheaper for us. In Mongolia you will need to buy insurance at the border. As we went through the road was quickly blocked in front of us by official-looking men who were trying to sell us insurance. There were at least two different companies and they were only about a dollar difference. We also heard you could buy it from the police but we can't confirm that.

Yes .. you saved a Korean rider,, coming back from Baikal.. I insisted that he had to check with Yuri three days before the ferry sailing ,, He was also under impression and was told by DBS to be at the customs a day before.

Dividing between foreigners and Koreans , perhaps a revenge towards Russian immigration, at Vladivostok?
When you arrive , Russians gets off first ,, then tourists, with three days fixed program ,, lastly foreigners ,,, takes about two hours of wait for foreigners when getting off the ferry.

At all airports, in Korea ,, the lines separate foreigners and locals as any where else, in the world.

Missing the ride in Korea,, yes I thought of you guys too as I rode recently ,, was thinking ,, too bad Boatdoc missed this,,, make sure you guys come back.
You did a great service, to rest of the bikers hitting DBS, from Vladivostok.

Met with a Frenchman ,,, Francoise, who just arrived from Vladivostok,,,
He needs to send a Yamaha Tenere, from Korea to Buenos Aires.
He called Wendy ,, I spoke to her as well.
As I have stated ,, Wendy is a fine lady , but she is only US and Canada ,, when it comes to other region or other transport methodology ,, she is still learning. She is though great for import and export documentation.
Call Korea Express ,, with offices in major cities. And due to theit sheer volume,, better rate?

Wendy quoted him USD 2,500 , shipment via Los Angeles, though agents ,, agents.
Another company quoted me USD 1,400.

I got Francoise ,, USD 820 ,, including packing via Korea Express,, basis LCL househod.
Now air freight quote was USD 5,000 !
Ocean trsnsit time is 38 days FYI.

So ,, for USA and Canada ,, call Wendy ,, for any other region ,, Europe, S. America or Africa,, Korea Express.
CJ korea express

PS. I do not have any personal or business relations with any of the above companies.,, never had a free lunch from any one of them.

Hi Joe

After living and riding in Korea since earlier this year I fully support your notes and advice.

For riders coming to Korea, stick to Joe's recommendations and riding can be safe and very enjoyable in Korea. There are some wonderful rides and gorgeous scenery, I love it

If anyone is coming near Busan or Geoje Island, please get in contact and we can catch up for a ride , a chat and a

Cheers Daz

Thanks buddy ,,
Years ago 1987,, ,, when Korean heavy industry was taking off ,, as the Asia manager for Mammoet BV, Nedlloyd,, using special submersible ships.. I used to go to Geojaedo ,, Dae Woo and Sam Sung shipyards ,, for transporting heavy modules and finished structures ,, to Anacortes , North Sea and Gulf of Mexico.

Used to fly in on a private helicopter,,
Love the place,, sea every where,,, beautiful sunsets... now , it is over,, as you have noticed,, Workers in Geojae and Ulsan ,, GDP is USD 68,000 per head ,, far higher than USD 55,000, for USA.
Not bad for a war torn country,, screwed by Japanese,, for 40 years ,, size of Deleware,, dwindling population due to old age,,, importing foreign workes en masse.

The most Harley Davidson at USD 35,000 per pop ,, sold in Korea are in Geojae and Ulsan FYI.

Make sure you look me up when you come upto Seoul.

Sure will Joe, should be up there in Seoul before the end of the year. I'll be in touch.