South Korea: shipping, customs, riding
 

Hi everyone

Ok, after a lot of research, phone calls and thinking we've decided to ship our bikes to South Korea and take the ferry to Vlad, rather than shipping straight to Vlad.

Does anyone know of any good shipping brokers at the Korean end? Has anyone had much experience with customs in Korea and how much clearance is likely to cost?

We then have to decide whether to ride our bikes up the peninsula to the ferry, or whether to put them on a truck.

Does anyone know the costs involved in trucking?

Are we able to bike in Korea, and is there much involved re insurance etc? Do we have to register our bikes or anything?

Cheers!
Rob

51st Traverse

Rob,

I looked into this a couple of years ago and hassled everyone I possibly could, however could never get a straight answer. I read stories of people doing it, and my feeling is if you turn up you can make it happen, but finding out concrete info beforehand is impossible.

Ben

Its simple, if you fly your bikes in it will be via Incheon ~ Seoul.

If you stick it on a cargo ship it will arrive in Busan. or Incheon but most likely Busan. (RoRo arrives in Incheon)

The easy way is to phone Wendy Choi, who will get her contact in Busan or Incheon to ship it on the back of a flatbed pickup truck to Sokcho it will go on the ship, there is no need to get registration or insurance. Easy as pie cost will be $200 US shipping fee though more from Busan as the distance is greater. But you won't get to see Korea and you don't get an import document as it is transited it is deposited into the clearance zone of Sokcho from Incheon or Busan clearance zone.

The harder way is this, if it arrives in Busan you will most likely fly into Seoul, get the KTX to Busan 2 hours from Seoul about $20 US, phone wendy choi who will phone Derick Choi in Busan he will do all the paperwork to get it out for you, will cost about 125000KRW, which includes insurance and promise documents, They will phone around and buy insurance for you so try to get the bikes to arrive on a weekday. This involves lots of waiting around (ensure you have the cash ready non Korean cards only work in international ATMs there is one at the airport and one near the bank centre)

You will be asked to sign a couple of promises to ship the bike out by the time limit agreed, you will be given a big yellow sticker that you are supposed to put on the bike but its made of paper thus put into your pocket and must surrender when you get on the ferry at Sokcho and an insurance document, they will inspect your bike and test the brakes and lights and go through your luggage, you will be charged a fee for the disposal of the box if it came in a box $40. You can now ride through Korea.
DO NOT lose the yellow sticker there is a $200 penalty for losing it.


You will not be allowed on the Motorway though. there is ONE exception to this in that the road from Incheon to Seoul is a motorway you are allowed to ride on it regardless.


Ride to Sokcho and make sure you bring some Roubles as you will have to buy insurance at Zarubino, there is a campsite on the beach in the first town you come across.


Be warned Korean driving is extemely agressive, and riding is very stop start think of it this way look at the distance between Seoul and Busan, took me 2.5 days to do that distance. However take your time, hug the southern coast until you get to the west coast its a nice ride, you can camp on the beaches all the way to Seoul. Wendy's favourite beer is Hite, and she likes the 21% Soju not to 19.5% Soju. The direct route up on the east coast it boring there is nothing to see.

Wendy Choi is the best contact in sth. Korea .
I flew my bike to Incheon last july , rode around and took the (very old) ferry to Vlad.
Wendys great, send her my regards.

just check with her to make sure your driving license is valid there.

awesome, thanks for the info guys. out of interest, did you have carnets for your bikes? we seem to be hitting quite a few problems due to our lack of carnets (we chose a route based on countries that do not require carnets) and the south korean contacts our shipping company is using seem to be saying that we will be faced with a US2,500 customs duty fee if we try and clear our bikes through south korean customs without a carnet. it sounds like this may apply whether or not we truck our bikes directly to the ferry to Vlad or not. has any one encountered this before?

cheers
rob

S Korea doesn't need a Carnet, as said Wendy Choi's contacts will handle it for you theere is no longer a $1000 bond, I thought there would be too but thought sack it and went ahead anyway, they charged me a customs handling fee made me buy road tax and thats it the customs handling fee was pretty low but then again I didn't crate my bike either. (in wards).

Quite frankly I could have abandoned the bike at Sokcho and walked out of the ferry port, or just walked to one side started the bike and ridden off as Korea seems to rely greatly on trust these days.

You will be asked to sign a declaration and promise to remove the bike by a certain date though I didn't see any penalties attached to it. BTW Germans are not allowed to ride in S Korea, all other signatories of the international driving permit convention are allowed.

but as above say Annyeonghasseyo to Wendy for me! if you visit Seoul (traffic is horrendous) and don't stay at Kim's either!

Hi all.
Wendy is the one then for shipping ect great,does anybody have her contact details?
Thanks alot Coxy.

W Choi
 

Opps meant to send it as a PM

I'll add to this thread since it already has good info.

My bike was air-freighted to Incheon. Before I could get it released from customs I needed the aforementioned temporary tags and insurance. I was able to get both at the governmental district office, three subway connections from the airport train station. The subway system is very easy to navigate, with announcements and station signs in Korean and English. (I was originally sent to Incheon City Hall, which does not handle this type of matter.)

My customs clearance agent informed me that I would need to post a cash deposit of about US$2000 (on a DR650), but he was able to have them use the carnet instead. In so many words he intimated that the CAA-issued carnet was usually not accepted, but the customs clerk was new and didn't quite know that. :innocent:

I was able to uncrate at the customs warehouse (as entertainment for anyone taking a smoke break) and dispose of the metal-frame crate alongside the building for no cost.

There is another way to get from from the island of Incheon to the mainland if you have trouble using the expressways. There is a car/passenger ferry that can be taken from the docks at the east end of the island. From customs, go to the main airport highway and follow the signs for Yeong Jong dock. Cost was about US$6 (motorcycle), trip was about 20 minutes. You are let off at Wolmido docks on the mainland.

This is from a holder of a US passport, on a US-registered bike, in August 2010.

Cheers
Sean

Already clear from thread that Wendy Choi is the right contact, but I too cannot find the actual contact details etc. Any help would be much
appreciated.

Chris

Terry apparently did the same thing flying his bike in from the UK in 2009, IIRC he said he didn't have to pay any deposit, AND it was OK for him to ride from the expressway from the airport into the city.... I've been on the express ways a few times as the A and B roads in Korea are not pleasant to ride on!

wendy's email is wendychoi2 [<AT>] gmail [<DOOTT>] com

she is very helpful & nice. Really a great girl. I hope to meet her again.

I went into S Kor in 06 with my indian, & had to post a 400.00 deposit at the border (took ferry from RU)

Last year, I came to Busan from Japan on my harley, no deposit, but had to pay 130 usd or so for some tax?

Wendy handled the air export to the US last year, including crating, customs, etc.
She offered to have it trucked to Seoul, but whats the fun in that?

besides, it probably ends up costing the same.

Hope that helps

Doug

Sokcho - Zarabino Ferry Cost
 

Hallo,

I want to use the Dong Chun ferry to transport myself and a bike from Sokcho to Zarabino next year. For budgetting purposes can anyone give me the rough costs for the bike (I can find the passenger costs on the ferry web-site but not the bike costs)?

I've called Dong Chun just now. They tell me USD 250 + 50 for documentation, for motorcycle.

Wendy Choi
 

Yes indeed. She is a great person. Just had EM exchanges with her and she was so helpful

Although I came the other direction, attached is invoice I had from September of this year. They wanted it all in U.S. $ too.

Cost of getting bike from Seoul airport to Vladivostok
 

Thanks Seouljoe and Flid.

Wendy Choi has emailed me to say she can arrange to move the bike from customs at Seoul airport to the ferry terminal and the cost will be US$600-700. This means taking this option the total cost from Seoul Airport to Vladivostok is ~US$1000.

From what I see on Flids receipt it seems the option of paying the customs guarantee of 160,000 won (for a 650cc bike) and weeks insurance 92,000 won (~US$250) might be a better / cheaper bet (as long as I survive Korean traffic).

Can anyone tell me if the customs fee is a refundable bond or a straight fee?

I didnt get my money back, but i didnt expect to. The Korean traffic like the people is respectful of laws and other people. Bikes can't use the motoways, so you get to use the roads the trucks don't. Its a lovely country to bike around. Signs in English even.

Korean traffic is nuts, there is virtually zero enforcement and everybody cars bikes etc scrabble for space. Seoul is pretty nuts, problem is there are only a couple of ways into and out of Seoul without using the motorway!

Btw there are some motorways bikes are allowed onto, the motorway bridge from Seoul airport (Incheon) is legal for bikes. Terry in 2008 managed it.

I went onto the motorways too outside Busan after getting sick of Korean A roads which have traffic lights every 100 metres.

But enjoy the scenery, Korea is nice...... btw it is 100% legal to camp on beaches and river banks, the law considers this to be common ground and thus can be used for anything. If anything I'd probably make a gigantic lap of the coast.

The only exit I found via A roads btw was via Guru and Ansan all other roads appear to lead to the motorways.... trust me on this I was lost in Seoul for 3 days. Though this was actually a nice surprise as I stayed in a shanty town for a couple of days and the locals there were quite welcoming

Wendy
 

I am, at this very moment, sitting with Wendy in one of the two camper vans (Earthcircuit - Home Page). In the World Cup Stadium car park in Seoul. She is very happy to read all your positive comments.

For the record - she's not too much into Soju and will drink any beer.

Have fun, two wheelers!

Rob, why have you decided to go through Korea? From what I am learning, it works out to be more expensive and more hassle than shipping directly to Vladivostok. Where are you shipping from?
Cheers.
Jaaty

Oh, did not notice the date of your post before. Where DID you ship from?