Biking Saudi Arabia as a woman
 

Hi mates,
as far as I know, women are not allowed to drive cars in Saudi Arabia. Does anyone know wether female tourists are allowed to ride motorbikes?

Randy Whorton, are you still following the board? May you help us with an invitation to Saudi?

Thanks a lot for your replies!

Dirk


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Motorradkarawne

I'm afriad that's not possible.

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A.B.

OasisPhoto.com – Images from the Magical Sahara.
ShortWheelbase.com – Jeep preparations.

Hi Ahmed,
thanks and shokran for your reply. We've been afraid, that it won't be possible...

We're now after a shipping connection from Iran to UAE.

Good pictures on your website ;-)

Dirk

That shouldn't be difficult. There is loads of shipping between the UAE and Iran. The main Iranian port is Bandar Abbas but Bandar Lengeh also has crossings.

I will dig out my shipping documents from last summer and give you the details if I can find them.

When do you expect to be in the UAE?
Stephano

Hi Stephano,
that would be great!
We're going to leave Germay in October 03, speed a bit, to avoid winter in Eastern Turkey and Northertn Iran. Hmmm, might be early December to reach UAE.

I'll be happy to hear from you

Dirk

The company I shipped from Dubai to Bandar Lengeh with was Valfajre-8.

Have a look at these links:
http://www.vesc.net/
http://www.iran-export.com/exporter/company/shipping/

They have an e-mail address on the website.

Let me know when you arrive in the UAE, you should be here for the best weather.

I'm heading the other way tomorrow via Jordan & Syria. Have a good trip.
Stephano

Thank you for the information.

Have a safe trip as well

Dirk
www.motorradkarawane.de

Benka Pulko was apparently the first and only woman that travelled U.A.E. on her motorcycle...

Benka Pulko - 1 Woman, 1 Motorcycle, 1 World

Cool trip, although the UAE is not Saudi Arabia. There are no issues concerning women riding bikes in the UAE - although local women would get strange looks!

Hi Guys,
Just a little update: Benka crossed the Red Sea from Port Sudan to Jeddah, and rode her bike up to Jordan, disguised as a man. Only at the Jordanian border did they discover, who was hiding under the chador. How and where she received her Saudi visa I don't know, probably in Khartoum.

I just rode from Jordan to Jeddah, across to Riyadh and exit to UAE. I must say that I'm not keen on going back. People generally don't like people from the west was our impression, although the western part (from Riyadh to UAE) was a lot more friendly than the rest. Sandstorms were plenty and fierce (me bike got statically electrically loaded and I kept getting electric shocks from the grips...)

We also used Valfarje to ship bikes from UAE to Iran. Everything went smooth except for importing the bikes into Iran. That took us 8 hours in the harbour, including police men trying to steal money from us. I bet it's easier when you ship TO UAE than the other way.

If you need any more info, let me know.
Erik

Erik
Sorry about your bad experience in the Iranian harbour but I'd like to offer the other side of the coin.

I found leaving Dubai’s port for Iran was unnecessarily expensive when I did it in 2002. For the services provided, the official charges were excessive (and someone even tried to relieve us of 140 dollars each for ‘helping’ with paperwork for half an hour).

These high fees are now replicated at Dubai Airport where you currently pay 130 US dollars in tax to use the airport. These are not all fuel and security surcharges. Abu Dhabi is currently charging 55 US dollars.

On the other hand, from the time we disembarked in Bandar Lengeh in the south to when we left at the Turkish border, we paid nothing to anybody; and no one ever asked us for anything.

Stephan