Better to fly or ship bikes Korea to Malaysia?

[Sheonagh]

We are in Korea with 2 bikes. Wendy Choi is worried we will have problems with customs in Malaysia. We have carnets. We will either fly bikes to Kuala Lumpur or ship to Port Klang. She says it is much cheaper by sea - we await quotation from her. She says it takes 2 weeks by sea which is ok by us. 2 small bikes will be in one crate (no problem with this so far!)

1. Is Port Klang customs ok or difficult if you have a carnet?
2. Is it expensive to get out of customs?
3. Is Kuala Lumpur airport difficult with carnet?
4. Do we need an agent at airport or port to get the bikes out or can we do
it on our own? We have always done it on our own before.

She says we can leave all our Korean paperwork with her (yellow sticker etc) and she will clear Korean customs without us. She says it would be ok for us to leave bikes with her, go home to England for 2 weeks, fly direct to Malaysia to meet bikes.

You all rate her very highly so I am inclined to believe her but we've never left the country before the bikes before. Has anybody done this in Korea? (I would not do it in most other parts of the world!)

Appreciate your advice! Many thanks!

[dave ett]

I have no experience of shipping, but having read the site info on this, it seems that shipping isn't that much cheaper most of the time as there are port fees at the other end. Something to bear in mind...

[nicolasrapp]

Shenagh,
What did you end up doing? Did you use an agent if you chose the Port klang option? If yes do you have a contact?
Thanks!

[Sheonagh]

Hi Nicola, sorry only just seen this post. Yes we did use the Port Klang option - we went through Wendy Choi in Seoul and shipped out from Busan Port which took about 10 days. Just make sure you control the crate size at time of building as we got caught out with a huge crate.

We did not use an agent in Port Klang - it was all very straightforward However everything is very spread out and we were very lucky to have local help driving us hither and thither. Customs was open till 4.30 on a Friday for the paper clearance and we managed to get the bikes out of the port on the Saturday morning - they shut around 1200 or 1300.

1. Make sure you get your Malaysian insurance from the MAA (Malaysian Automobile Association) in Klang (the city not the port) in advance of collecting your bikes as customs will demand this before clearance.... I dont think any other insurance company will cover foreign bikes...

2. You also need an ICP (International Circulation Permit) before clearance and you get this in Putajaya a city south of KL. We were given 3 months free which coincided with our visa length. You need to get your insurance BEFORE you do this. The only other place you can get this is way up in the north near the Thai border.

Will get the addresses for you tomorrow.....