I just did a calculation on a bike worth $4000, skipping Iran and Egypt. The minimum guarentee that CAA will accept is $5000. Based on that, if you put up the cash, this works out to around $550, a little more reasonable i guess. Ekke, thanx for the explanation, it puts things more into perspective, although i still think that even at the cheapest option its still pretty expensive for a guy who budgets $50 a day. Forking out an extra $5550 would require some careful planning, but is much more manageable than the previous numbers. Reguarding the "Pay to Play" comment, i think the point was missed. Who are we paying to ride into these carnet countries? Does CAA send a cut to Iran for their share of the Carnet fee? If i come up with $5000, the cheapest option available, i'm paying someone $550 to hold onto it for me and write a piece of paper saying so, where as the bank pays me a small percentage for providing nearly the same service. Also, in this day of easy, fast and reliable communication, how much does it cost to do the communications and paperwork for a carnet for a trip around the world?
In Mexico, you pay around $32-$36 (can't remember now) for your permit, and then put down a deposit of $400 in either cash, or on your credit card. Your card isn't charged unless you don't leave within the alloted time. You can NEVER enter the country with another vehicle until you leave with your permitted vehicle and cancel your permit. I prefer this system to the carnet system as you pay per country, and the visited country gets the money, not a third party. There is enough incentive to leave with your vehicle, and if you do sell it. you can only ever do it once, making it hardly worth it. Maybe i should get into the carnet business to fund my travells
...although, if i could afford a $120k Unimog (WTF is a Unimog??), i wouldn't be worrying about all this trivial rubish, would i
BTW... i couldn't find that post i mentioned earlier about travelling in Africa without a carnet, sorry.

I wasn't going to stick my nose into this thread again, but your preferred "system" is the nightmare the carnet system is designed to avoid. Imagine forking over the value of your vehicle to customs people in a remote border post, and praying you will promptly get it back when you leave on the opposite side of the country, which maybe isn't blessed with "fast and easy communications". More likely, if you do get the money back, it will be a check to your home address - months or a year or two later.
Repeat the same process at the next border.
10 countries (100% duty- try Egypt!) - $5000 bike or vehicle - you might be out $50000 and waiting a long time for 10 checks.
I'd rather pay the duty bond money once, to the CAA, to be deposited in a bank in Ottawa.

Charlie

__________________
Unimog U500 w/Unicat

Charlie, i think you need to review what i wrote. In Mexico, you don't fork over the value of your vehicle, you either pay $400 cash, or put it on your credit card, which doesn't get charged unless you pass your permited time, at which time they charge your card. The reality is, you guarentee a small fee against your credit card and in essence, unless you don't cancel your permit, pay nothing more than the fee when you enter the country. this is fair and it works, where the current carnet system seems both excessive and exploitive.
i just calculated how much it would cost you to drive your $120,000 vehicle through Africa, avoiding Egypt. Using the indemnity option, your cost would be $15,410 ... ouch! This is unless you happen to have an extra $120,000 laying around, in which you would only pay a mer $650. Or you can mortguage your house, etc... i think you get the point. If your happy with this, so be it, to each their own. But i am not happy with forking over thousands of dollars more than my bike is worth for the privlage of riding through another country although it looks like i won't have a choice.
BTW, i googled Unimog. Wow, that thing is cool!

Yes Mexico is easy.
But many countries aren't easy.
If you have just 2 choices:
1) put up a bond with the CAA once for your trip and reliably get the money back at the end of travel thru the bond-requiring countries
2) Wheel and deal at each and every border, being required to put up a bond at who-knows-where giving lots of money to who-knows-who in a uniform and trying to get it back 3 weeks later

Which would you choose?
Wishing it weren't so won't work faced with a guy in a uniform with an AK47.
Where one gets the money for the bond depends on one's circumstances.
You can come up with it in cash, "hypothetically" borrow it (with a letter of credit), or buy an insurance policy for it (indemnity option). The latter is of course the biggest rip-off. But the villain isn't the CAA; it's the insurance companies.
You might argue that the guy with the $120K vehicle should pay >$550 and the guy with the $1000 old bike should pay <$550. But the amount of Suzanne Danis' time doing paperwork is the same.
[url=http://www.unicat.net/en/pics/TC49compact-2.html]UNICAT

I admire the bravery and audacity of you guys taking off on a rtw trip with what you can carry on the back of a bike. It's easy for me to pontificate with flush toilet, hot shower, kitchen, comfy bed...
These expenses for pieces of paper must be aggravating and painful when travelling on a "shoestring".

__________________
Unimog U500 w/Unicat

Bingo! The thread just came up!
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...rn-route-44089
It's a good read and recently updated. All my suspicions on the carnet system being an unnecesary, exploitive rip-off are slowly being confirmed. Now, i would like to know if Asia is possible without a carnet?