Janyary 6th, 2008, we freighted our Vstrom by air Chennai-Bangkok, on Malaysia Airlines (MASKargo), so it went via Kuala Lumpur. The price was roughly about 600 euros total, and the shipping agent in Chennai was Shell Air. Would have cost a bit less to KL I think. Customs at the Indian end were a hassle, but still everything went quite well, and the bike arrived in BKK on schedule, and in good condition. BKK customs werent a problem (but we did have a thai-speaking person assisting us).
For reasons unknown to me, Thai Airways refused to transport the bike... but I think several people have sent between Kathmandu-BKK using Thai, dont know why India seems to be different.
I was also in contact with some seafreight companies, but surprisingly their offers were nearly the same price. I´d pay 200-300 maximum to freight it by sea, and wouldnt use Bangkok´s seaport, as Ive heard many warnings about it. I´d probably try to get it to Port Klang (KL) or Butterworth (Penang). Very good, fast road connecting Bangkok with Penang and KL.
Also heard about some problems / some kind of strike at Chennai seaport at the time, which might have affected transit time considerably. Even without any strikes, it wouldve taken a total of some 2-3 weeks to get it done by sea, depend on when the ships will sail. Flying is much quicker, and handling at the airport much smoother. Also, if you can send 2 bikes as one shipment, that´ll make it a bit cheaper per bike.
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