Air transport to Europe: Less hassles from Nepal or India?
 

Fellow travelers,

While planning the historic overland trip to India, I'm wondering how to return my bike back to Europe (The Netherlands).
I've red horror story's in this webside about the paperwork involved in shipping/flying out from a bike from India. Perhaps the customs hassles will be less from Nepal?
Anyone with experiance? My nightmare is to be in the hands of money-smelling custom officers of India.
I will be traveling alone, and therefore a willing victom of all kind of tricks. Not a pleasant end of a (hopefully) lovely trip.
any advice would be appreciated,

See you on route

Guido
Africa Twin

Guido

Suggest you use a large shipping company out of Nepal for your shipment home. Das Worldwide Freight has been recommended by Andy Miller out of Kathmandu to Australia - see his shipment entry.

Also, check the Shippers page for international shipping companies, and look on their websites for companies that have offices in Nepal and/or India (though India is probably more hassle).

Good luck and let us know how you go.

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Susan Johnson

"It matters not what goal you seek
Its secret here reposes:
You've got to dig from week to week
To get Results or Roses."
Edgar Guest

'One world, two wheels'
www.HorizonsUnlimited.com

Guido, Susan:

Something that is not obvious, but must be kept in mind when planning an air shipment, is the question "What kind of airplanes fly the route"?

Unless your motorcycle is really small (250cc or less) or you have taken it apart and crated it tightly, you can only put it inside a wide body passenger aircraft, such as a 767, L-1011, A-330 or A-340, DC-10 or MD-11.

The problem with other, smaller aircraft such as 757's (what Royal Air Nepal uses to Frankfurt), MD-80's, or A-320's is that the underfloor cargo compartment is not high enough to accept a motorcycle, unless is is almost fully disassembled.

If you are not sure about what kind of aircraft is used, or what the size limitations are, check with the airline, they will let you know.

Have a look at the picture below - this is a LD6 container that fits into a widebody, obviously a can like this won't fit into a narrowbody. FYI, if the aircraft has two passenger aisles, it's considered a widebody, if it only has a single passenger aisle in the middle, it's considered a narrowbody.

PanEuropean

http://www.micapeak.com/tmp/mmoore/C...rXinXParis.jpg

Hi Guido,

Very interested in this route / option of return to UK. Please let me know how you got on - I see you message was in May! I'd be interested to hear from anyone with experience in this area. Thought it might be a well tried and trusted route for Europeans with limited time. Look forward to any tips/suggestions



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Guido,
Kathmandu will be easier, maybe quicker, but almost certainly more expensive, so it depends on whether time or money means more to you. Delhi is not a complete nightmare, but not as straightforward as Kathmandu.
If you choose to fly from Kathmandu, I strongly recommend Ishowar Battar (details on the shipping page or on our website). We found DAS Worldwide to be far more expensive and didn't really like the guy, whereas Ishowar took great care making sure that we were happy with what was going on.
If you choose Delhi, get in touch with us, we live about 15km from the airport.
Harvey

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no pipe, no slippers
www.chasingthesun.org