From Port Klang, Malaysia to Perth, Australia - April, 2001

We promised to send you some information about freighting bikes from KL to Perth. When we got to KL we made enquiries with Multimodal Freight Sdn Bhd (details below) about putting the bike on a ship but, for us, the timescale was too long. Going to Sydney is quite quick (15 days) but Perth or Darwin takes at least 30 days. Sydney was by the far the cheapest shipping option (we think about 250 sterling basic freight cost). However, as we didn't want to go to the east coast first we opted to fly the bike with Malaysia Airways and it travelled on the same flight as us. The particular agent we used no longer wishes to airfreight bikes but we're sure there must be others in KL. Mr Murele at Multimodal is incredibly friendly and helpful and might be a good place to start.

As to the costs they were as follows (it's in Malaysian ringits [RM] - when we paid there were about 5.3RM to the pound): Basic freight: 6.37RM p/kg Fuel Surcharge: 0.38RM p/kg Agent's Handling Charge: 250RM Terminal Charge: 79.20RM Dangerous Goods Fee: 100RM Crate: 300RM Fumigation: 120RM

The fumigation was an Australian customs requirement (we're not sure if the crate was actually fumigated - we were given several copies of the certificate which were collected direct from a printers (!) - in any event it satisfied Australian customs!). Our flights cost 1315RM per person. People should be aware that Australian customs require bikes to be spotlessly clean. Before you can retrieve a bike it must be inspected by quarantine officials (fee $80AUS) and passed fit. Ours passed with no problem but we did spend a considerable time in KL cleaning it up. Mud is the thing they're really concerned about and they do check bikes over thoroughly. The only other charges we incurred at Australia customs was a $27.50AUS customs tax and $65AUS handling charge. Australian law also requires that you temporarily register an imported foreign bike at a Transport Licensing Centre. We had to get a temporary licence before we could drive the bike out of the customs shed but a stamped carnet is required to obtain the licence. Basically it involves a bit of tooing and froing from customs to the Department of Transport - time consuming but the officials are all very helpful. A Dept of Transport inspection (a mini MOT costing $60AUS) is required before the final licence can be issued and on top of that there is the obligatory rego/3rd party insurance (in our case approx $50AUS for three months). Hope this information is useful. Chris Jagger and Sara Down (UK - RTW on R100GS and, for the OZ leg only, Sara is riding a Honda Dominator).