I found a PDF of the full Carnet des Passages en Douanes. This one is blank, but (I think) is identical to the official document.

The question is, how savvy are the Libyan, Egyptial, Syrian and Jordanian border guards? Am currently discussing cost and insurance position with the RAC here in the UK.

http://www.unece.org/trans/conventn/triptiq1.pdf

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My XR650L Pan-Med Expedition Site!

Hello POB, and anyone else reading,

Presumably you are thinking of forging/faking a carnet.

Do you think this will be easy to do convincingly?

What sort of internal checking of carnets goes on in a country? For example, do you recon that anyone in Iran say would be able to check that a carnet apparentlly issued in another country is valid? Would they give them a ring? Or is there an international database of carnet's issued?

What process would a country go through to get money of an auto assoc if you do not have your motorbike when you are leaving a country? How long do they leave it before claiming some money off someone?

Regards,

Viking

Oh, and good work too on posting the pdf of a carnet. I am downloading Acrobat now so I can have a look at it.

VK.

elsewhere on this site, you'll find comments suggesting that once one country has accepted the fake, others will follow suit. if that's true, how about faking the first stamp so the other countries accept it because they think its been accepted elsewhere? frankly, I'd rather have a legit doc, but I'm somewhat concerned about the consequential cost of losing the bike legitimately. ie the carnet is then cashed in and I'm skint!

The PDF looks pretty good to me, but I'm with Rich on this one. What are the consequences of having a fake carnet and getting busted in, say, Libya? Although if I'm going to crash / lose / sell the bike somewhere I'd much rather have the fake. Same goes for it being stolen.

For my £1200 XT600 3AJ (at least that's what I'm claiming it's worth!) I was told yesterday that I'm looking at a £300 insurance premium + costs of arounf £75 from the RAC. They've been very helpful.

The breakdown is:

Import duty @ 500% (Egypt) = £6000
Insurance Premium of 10% = £600
50% reimbursement on return = -£300
Sundries and admin = ~£100 ish.

The RAC are referring all Middle Eastern travellers to their insurers at the moment, so don't expect this price to hold if war breaks out! The above was based on single bike + rider travelling through E.Europe to Turkey, Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Libya, Algeria, and Tunisia.

HTH - who was the contact for the fake carnets discussed elsewhere? Whoever you are, could you email me please? And does anyone have a real carnet in London that I could look at? (Is it watermarked special paper, for example?)

In the scale of my trip costs, 300 notes doesn't seem like a lot to pay for peace of mind....

HTH

__________________
=-=-= ON THE EDGE! =-=-=
My XR650L Pan-Med Expedition Site!

Hi POB/London and Rich

You can't just print the PDF on any old paper, it has to be on special paper, it is watermarked, and there are special stamps.

Definitely have a look at these two threads, they are very informative!

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb...ML/000422.html about 'dodgy carnets'.

AND http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb...ML/000451.html
for some discussion on the risks:

From Sam Rutherford: From Kevin: Kevin later clarified he is referring to possession of a FORGED carnet being illegal, not possession of a legitimate carnet.

'Mr. Carnet' was asking £300 for the 'dodgy carnet' at last report, so in your case, perhaps not any cheaper than the legit one!

Susan

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Susan Johnson

Inspiring, Informing and Connecting travellers since 1997
www.HorizonsUnlimited.com

Hello Lewis,
I received my Carnet from RAC this week.
I put the value of my bike in as £800 (1988 3AJ). My bike no longer has a book value, the 1989 Tenere has a book value of £800 with the AA. So you could probably get away with less for your 1VJ.
Here is the breakdown of my Carnet costs:
25 page carnet (incl Egypt) £90
RL Davison Insurance Premium (50% refundable)
£400
Insurance premium tax £20
Refundable cash deposit £250

Total £760
Actual cost after refunds: £310

You are welcome to have a look at my Carnet, although you would have to get yourself to WImbledon before the 2nd March, when I leave.

BTW, thanks for recommending X-bikes, Chris did a good job on my engine.

Geoff


[This message has been edited by Geoff van de Merwe (edited 22 February 2003).]