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12 Aug 2018
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Location: RTW, From Vancouver BC 2012
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As I said up at 5 am, walk over to KLIA 2 terminal, take the train (you can pre purchase tickets as we did yesterday and is 2R per person) to KLIA / M terminal, check in to Thai air flight to Bangkok, pass thru primary baggage X-ray, take the train to C terminal, check in at gate, take the bus out to the plane, and then a bumpy ride for 2 hours = in Bangkok .
 Screen Shot 2018-07-21 at 10.56.38 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
Then we had just a 2.5 hour layover before our 11 hour flight to Frankfurt.
 Screen Shot 2018-07-21 at 10.57.03 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
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12 Aug 2018
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Contributing Member
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Arriving to the Schengen immigration there were hundreds of people lined up for 4 agent and it took almost an hour to get thru. We were barely able to drag ourselves over to the hotel shuttle area where we had a 25 min wait for the bus. At the hotel they unloaded an entire bus load of 60 plus people to check in… WOW we are tired it has been 20 hours since we left the hotel in KL.
We are following the tracking of the bikes and they did arrive to Amsterdam this evening. They were supposed to be trucked here and arrive by 5 am tomorrow, but they did not get here until 10 am. Swiss Port said to call back at noon, but when we did that the guys said “ the truck just arrived and we have lots of cargo so call back tonight” We told him we know the truck did not just arrive and that we are supposed to have the bikes to Air Canada by 6 pm…he said you might get hem in the morning tomorrow!
Luckily we have a spare day on our hands. We have jet lag and after getting to sleep at 8 pm we were up at 4 am. The hotel in in the middle of no where, but they have a shuttle to the terminal and there is a huge mall there. Back in the land of good treats!
 IMG_3214 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 IMG_3212 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 IMG_3213 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
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13 Aug 2018
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Contributing Member
Veteran HUBBer
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We walked the 1.8 km over to Swissport Cargo Services and arrived at 7 am and checked in at the import desk. This is inside the “airport zone”. The guy at the desk processed our request, but told us we needed to go to customs and this is a 2.3 km walk as no bus passed us on our route (we did figure out its route for the return). We were stoked to find the Swissport fee for handling was a mere 25 E each!!!
 Screen Shot 2018-08-12 at 19.51.06 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
Back story here is that we should not need to go to customs as these are Canadian registered bikes entering the EU. We should be just able to drive away with our green card insurance with no question same as when we arrived to Madrid. What can you do thought as they have the bikes and insist we see customs.
There is an airport staff bus on a loop, but we did not see one on the 25 min walk to customs. We arrived to the Zoll and immediately knew we were going to have a problem. Daniel usually starts these kind of discussions in foreign countries with “ i’m sorry I only speak English.” Today he forgot and when he said instead to the agent “Hello we were sent here from Swissport as we have arrived from Malaysia with 2 motorcycles” The guy got his back up immediately and angrily said how rude he was not to ask first if he even spoke English”. Well that did not start well. Then there was much discussion about the bikes and their arrival to Germany, why had we not hired a professional to do this, why are we trying to do this with no car in an airport a big as Frankfurt, why we might need to pay the import tax and duty on the bikes…. That this was an unusual situation…. Basically he had no idea what he was talking about. There should just be a rubber stamp for us on the paperwork and off we go.
 Screen Shot 2018-08-12 at 19.53.47 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
The fact that he did not know what he was talking about caused a massive cascade of problems and that wasted 3 hours of our time. He decided on this first visit that we should go back to Swissport and ask them to sign a transfer pass. He said private persons do not have the authority to move cargo inside the airport and Swissport will probably not agree to this. I will point out that (he agreed as well) that if we just arrived for a holiday and picked up the bikes we could just ride away. So how does this make any sense!!!??? How is this different from us picking up the bikes and riding 8 km over to the north cargo terminal???
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13 Aug 2018
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Contributing Member
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We managed to sort out the bus route and could take this directly back to Swissport. Here we handed over the transit request. After some confusion and a few phone calls our only option they say now that we can not ride the bikes is that we pay for a truck to take the bikes to Air Canada. Nothing we can do as we have a flight to make tomorrow. This is especially frustrating since there should be no customs issues here at all!
After another 45 min with and a lot of work by the Swissport agent he managed to be the voice of reason with the customs guy. The story now is we can ride the bikes to AC, but we have to go back to Customs for some paperwork. The Swissport agent was so apologetic and he fixed the massive problem the customs guy caused.
Well at least we know the bus route now. Back at customs the guy put on a big show about how he was not overstepping his authority, but stretching it to allow us to do this. How we have to promise only to ride on the airport roads or we will get arrested if we go on the highway (not true as we have green cards). He told a few tall tales and tried to blame Swissport for the problems to cover the fact that he screwed up big time. Well at least he decided to fix his mistake even if he would not admit it.
He then made a big deal to tell us we had to go over to north customs and report immediately to customs there. (We are not sure why as there should be no reason). We are told they close at 330 and it is now noon). So with said paper in hand we managed to get back on the same bus on its loop past us again.
At Swissport they handed over the release papers for the bikes and we walked over to the import office. Here there was a super nice guy who knew we did not speak German, so he communicated in Italian with us. That worked pretty well. He is also a biker with a 1200 GS. He directed us around the side of the warehouse and said he would meet us there. Here the door opened and he drove out the forklift with a bike on a palate. While we set to the unwrapping of the bikes he had one of the warehouse workers deliver us two hot coffee and 2 bottles of cold sparkling water! We had to unwrap and unstrap the bikes, connect the batteries, and replace the windscreens.
 Frankfurt by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
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15 Aug 2018
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Then we were off the 8 km on the internal airport roads to the other side of the airport to the North Cargo Terminal. Here you enter at gate 26 and check in with the security kiosk just to the right before the gates. They will then let you in thru the security gates.
 Screen Shot 2018-08-12 at 19.58.47 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE1101 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
Just after we rode in we finally saw the Air Canada Cargo office!!! Just past here and to the left we saw the customs/Zoll building. Daniel went in and spoke to them and was there for quite a while. They were confused about why we were even there as “there is no reason” for importation. They did however kindly do the papers we needed to do after the visit to Air Canada so that we did not need to come back. While Sara was waiting outside she was chatting with a few of the customs and DHL agents who were out smoking. One of the agents went in and came back out to offer her bottles of cold water and some “New Zealand apples”! Super kind!
FINALLY we arrived to Air Canada Cargo after a long and frustrating day.
 FILE1108 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Frankfurt-2 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Frankfurt-3 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
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15 Aug 2018
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They warmly greeted us and the service was totally smooth and super organized. You go into the office and sign some papers and then ride around to the back and into the warehouse.
 FILE1114 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE1122 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
Here they have set up 2 metal airline palates for the bikes. The agent fills in a security/safety check. This includes checking the bike for hazardous goods and damage. They require that the bags are searched or xrayed. Xray is much easier of course and they are pretty thorough. The whole thing took about 45 min from start to finish. Best experience with shipping agent ever!
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15 Aug 2018
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The airport staff bus arrived just as we left and so we could get back to terminal 1 where we could get the hotel shuttle. It is now 330 and the day we thought we had for sightseeing is half over. After cleaning up at the hotel we did get the shuttle back to the airport and then took the metro to the city in the Aldtstad or old town. So nice to wander the streets, sit and watch the people while enjoying a  , and eating some local fare. We are still pretty jet lagged and by 8 we had to head back to the hotel and to bed.
 Frankfurt-5 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Frankfurt-6 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
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15 Aug 2018
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We left Canada last May 1 2017 and we are headed back finally today July 24, 2018. The flight from Frankfurt to Toronto left over an hour late.
 IMG_3215 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
We then had to circle the Toronto airport for 45 minutes during a storm surge that stopped the take offs and landings. When we did land it was at the remote terminal 5. We had 35 min until out flight to Montreal boarded. Here just after unloading we had a passport check and then had to get on a bus for transfer 2 km to the main terminal. Here of course there was a formal passport check. There were a lot of self serve kiosks, but of course only one of the passport would scan and we still had to see an agent. This was fairly quick and we were on our way to “connecting flights” and the West Jet agent took our boarding passes and said yes you guys are good, just go out this door and thru security!
So we went out the door and found a massive line up snaking to the security check. After 40 min we finally made it thru and to a screen to check for our gate number. Our flight as well as several others had been cancelled because of the storm delay. That meant hundreds of passengers in line ups to get re-booked. By the time we got to the front of the line we had landed 2 hours ago. The Condor agents had automatically re-booked us without our knowledge for the 630 am flight the next day. This is great and sucks as it is now after 8 pm and “2 am for us), we have a paid hotel in Montreal, and now we have no baggage and no place to stay.
We were told to go get our bags at “domestic” arrivals as they would be transferred there since the flight was cancelled. After another hour of waiting for them the agent said that it could be hours and did we really need them. He said he tagged them for our 630 flight and we headed to the Airport hotel = $$$.
Not much else we can do at 10 pm when we have to get up at 430. We slept well and thought we had the plan well in hand. Fly to Montreal, taxi to Air Canada cargo, discharge carnet at customs, ride to USA border and then to Max BMW after 500 km. Our friends Rich and Karlene were to pick us up there and take us back to their place for a couple of days while the bikes have their service.
We had boarding passes and there was a pretty short security line and we made the gate well before boarding. They assured us our bags were on the plane.
 Screen Shot 2018-07-28 at 17.03.24 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
Last edited by saralou; 17 Aug 2018 at 02:19.
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15 Aug 2018
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It was a bit of a bumpy ride to Montreal and when we landed we had to wait 15 min as our gate was occupied. We arrived to the baggage carousel and waited and waited, but no bags arrived. The agent assured us that he would locate the bags and come over and get us, but that it could take a few hours. After 2 hours and 2 more Toronto flights arrived and our bags did not we rechecked with him. He said “ oh yeah they never called back” OMG! it has been 2.5 hours.
He called someone else told them the whole story, and they said they would go look for the bags. It is amazing that with the luggage tags they have absolutely no idea where the bags are! At noon after another 45 minutes we had good news that they had found the bags, but that they would not arrive until the 1430 flight.
We had called Air Canada this morning and they said they probably would not charge us to store the bikes as long as we picked them up today. We left messages for our friends that were picking us up at BMW at 4 pm today that it would be 4 pm tomorrow! Last we had to talk to Max BMW as the bikes were to be dropped off today before 5 for service tomorrow and this will totally screw this up and they may now not be able to do the work and finish by Saturday end of day and then we will not be done until Tuesday. It is just that easy another week behind schedule.
We grabbed a cab the 10 km to the north cargo terminal and Air Canada. They were really nice and helpful. You have to line up and then pay your airport handling fee 90$ per bike, then go upstairs to Canadian Customs for a rubber stamp for “import”, and then we also had them discharge our Carnet de Passage so we can send it back to the Swiss Motoring agency to get our bond money back.
 IMG_3229 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
Then you go to the warehouse and the fork lift driver fetched our bikes. They did the unwrap and unstrap and then we just put on the mirrors and sorted our bags. It was raining again now and at least we have our rain gear if not our riding gear. The hotel is only 5 km away and we just arrived there when it really started to pour. The luggage finally arrived at 830 pm!!!
 Montreal-2 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Montreal-4 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Montreal by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
Last edited by saralou; 17 Aug 2018 at 02:22.
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18 Aug 2018
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It has been pouring all night, but at 8 am it was dry out finally. We are trying to get 500 km to Max BMW in New Hampshire before they close at 6 pm today. That way they will have the bikes for first thing Friday for the valves.
 Screen Shot 2018-07-28 at 15.45.53 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
The first step is to get the 89 km to the USA border. This is usually not a busy border and should only take a few minutes, but we are a bit concerned that they will make a huge deal out of our Iran visas. We have a riding friend that was detained 4 hours when he landed in the USA after riding thru Iran. We made good time to the border and in fact there was only a 15 min wait.
Dan was up first and the first question was where are you going “Ben and Jerry’s headquarters of course”. The agent then asked Dan right away about why we had Iran visas, but was totally reasonable and was interested in the trip. He did spend 10 minutes asking him questions. The only question he asked me was what flavour I was going to get.
We then set off on the interstate south, but decided to take the time to go on the back roads to Waterbury Vermont via Stowe. This is a curvy road thru to the ski village. The rain started shortly after this.
 New England by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 New England-2 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
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20 Aug 2018
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Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Riverside California
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Welcome to America, after that great trip around the world  I hope you two still intend on traveling since your my go-to lunch time read.
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23 Aug 2018
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MilesofSmiles
Welcome to America, after that great trip around the world I hope you two still intend on traveling since your my go-to lunch time read. |
Well we have to get these bikes home to BC, but then we need a rest. We plan to take a break for 12-18 months. Time to spend some time with our families after 6 1/2 years. Next adventure TBD! Sara
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23 Aug 2018
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It is now raining harder and we headed for the Interstate again. We hit several back ups for construction, but finally pulled into Max at 415 after 501 km. They were super welcoming and immediately went over the list Dan had emailed and discussed our other concerns. The 650 had had no issues with oil since we left the severe heat in Borneo.
In fact they had Lulu up on the lift and had started the work before 5. We are getting the fluids all changed, new tires, valve check (will be terrible), battery check and likely change, brake pads and plugs, new rear sprockets, and also replacing all the screws we are now missing.
The guys at Motowerks Technica in Kuala Lumpur said they did the valve check and we paid for it, but they did not. I am surprised we made it here with out blowing up an engine. We also found out later just how many things they messed up on.
 New England-10 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
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23 Aug 2018
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We have been lucky to be invited to the home of Rich and Karlene the pedal bikers we met in Costa Rica in 2012 and in New Zealand in 2018. They live an hour from Max and came to pick us up. We are so happy to have a few down days and to be so relaxed with our friends. The 800 has a broken cam shaft end cap (Motowerks again) and the part did not arrive from Fedex on Saturday and so we are imposing on our friends for a few more days until they reopen on Tuesday. We managed to get a lot of rest, get in a big hike, spend an afternoon in Concord, and shared a lot of tales of adventure.
 New England-13 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 New England-18 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 New England-21 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 New England-22 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
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Check the RAW segments; Grant, your HU host is on every month!
Episodes below to listen to while you, err, pretend to do something or other...
2020 Edition of Chris Scott's Adventure Motorcycling Handbook.
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Ripcord travel protection is now available for ALL nationalities, and travel is covered on motorcycles of all sizes!
What others say about HU...
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Lots more comments here!
Diaries of a compulsive traveller
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Back Road Map Books and Backroad GPS Maps for all of Canada - a must have!
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