Tricky Question! Shipping to anywhere in SE Asia or Australia but...
 

Hi all,

I'm in a predicament.
I have a UK registered bike in South Korea.
I'd like to fly the bike to somewhere in SE Asia or Australia.

BUT...

I'd like to fly to Nepal and rent/buy dirt bikes and ride all the way to wherever my UK registered bike is and take 8 months doing it.

So, my question is... can I fly my bike to say, Cambodia, leave it with customs unofficially imported, crated up etc and pay to have them store it for eight months until I arrive?

The same question applies to countries like Malaysia and Australia etc. Or if because they require a carnet would that be impossible?

Side note:
The reason I don't want to fly my bike to Nepal and ride it to Australia is because I'll need two years from Nepal to Oz and that would cost me £2000 for carnets. If i ship somewhere and pick the bike up after eight months i'd only need one carnet, and save a load of money on the guide and import fees for Myanmar, Thailand etc...

Thanks in advance,

Andy

Your bike is currently in South Korea and allowed to stay there?

Why not put it in a warehouse right now, go to Nepal etc., then have a freight forwarder in SK collect it and ship it to wherever you want to pick it up?

hey mate,

Unfortunately that's not possible. Your vehicle needs to be insured in South Korea, whether it's being used or not. Customs in SK has advised that it'd be near impossible and extremely expensive. Bummer.

Thanks though!

very tricky question, indeed.
 

hey there,

saw your ride report here on the forum, so you are on a rtw with your yamaha.

what you want to do (go somewhere else between different stages of the trip), I also wanted to do on my rtw (between Oz and South America) ...

... I could not, because it would have been far too expensive to leave the bike for a few months in storage in Oz or at the airport in BsAs.

for you there is the option to fly to Oz or to Malaysia, both are carnet countries. You could fly there with the bike, import it and than leave the country to go to Nepal for a few months.

If storing it in South Korea is not possible ... than I see very little other options without paying for the carnet.

After Oz, are you planing to go to the Americas? As you wont need a carnet there ... you could fly/ship your bike there, put it in storage and than go to Nepal, South East Asia, Oz on different bikes bought localy.

Good luck.

Keep on posting your ride reports :D

mika :scooter:

Hey Mika!

Thanks for your reply!
I understand what you're saying, and the US option is a good idea. But I also need to fly home soon, and would like to use my bike in Oz and New Zealand so it wouldn't work.

I'm now considering shipping it to Cambodia. It's not a carnet country and the customs department would keep it for me for eight months, for a charge of course. I could then ride to Cambodia on rental bikes from Nepal, pick up the bike from Cambodia and pay for one year's carnet to ride through Malaysia, Indonesia, Oz, Nz. And then ship to the States.

Haha it's all so confusing!

Andy

Couple of crazy thoughts:

1) Put the bike into a container heading out from Busan the wrong way, have it bum around the Seven Seas while you do other stuff. Probably can't stretch it to eight months though...

2) Put the bike on the DBS ferry to Vladivostok, store it there? It's a non-Carnet country. I'm a bit unclear on whether you can leave the country without the vehicle you brought in and pick it up later, but I know for a fact that some people entered Russia with bikes overland, sold them to a local dealer in Vlad, and flew out with no problems.

3) Find someone interested in doing a Long Way Down via Vlad/Mongolia/China/Laos/Thailand/Malaysia/Indonesia, sell them the bike, buy it back from them in East Timor?

We just put our car in a bonded warehouse so it is exported but has not left the country yet. This is only for 6 days or so. But cant you research if that is an option in South Korea and then for months?
Probably you would have to pay for the storage of course.

AnTyx
Hey Antyx, thanks so much for your reply! Much appreciated :)
1. We'd need it to stretch to eight months
2. Good point, we could send it back to Vladivostok but we'd need to be with it because DBS is a ferry service and not cargo. That would mean we'd need to get another Russian visa, which is a pain. And then it'd mean we'd have to ship it again onto Australia or SE Asia at a later date.
3. Interesting plan! But time is running out and we need to be flying in February haha!

Lovetheworld
Are you saying you put your vehicle in a bonded warehouse in South Korea? Because as far as we're aware, we can't do that there. For our vehicle to be in SK it'd need insurance, and for 8 months that's incredibly expensive when you add on the import tax.

Thanks!

No in Japan. But it is about the concept of a bonded warehouse. You can put stuff in there that, on paper, already left the country. So no further obligations like insurance then.
However, try to find a company that will allow you to store it in a bonded warehouse for 8 months will be very hard and maybe also costly then.
What does insurance cost in South Korea?

Hey!
Sorry, I understand what you're saying.
Yeah, the South Korean fixer we've been speaking to has said that it'd be very costly. Insurance would be close to 1000USD. Plus, we'd have to pay for the storage, then pay for shipping. Instead of having it shipped and stored in a cheaper country like Cambodia.

Hope you enjoyed Japan. We're still in Japan, staying for Christmas. Amazing country, but expensive!

Andy

Well, ask your South Korean fixer if it is possible to export it already and put it in a bonded warehouse. That would at least save you the insurance costs.

Yeah Japan was great, we fly out tomorrow. We camped around for more than two months with our van. Great and easy.

Hello

On every shipping (air,sea,roro) I had to pay a fee for not picking up the bike within a few days.
So it should be possible to leave the bike with the shipping company for some time.
But I don't know if 8 months are possible and $10-20 per day might cost a lot.
I guess cambodia might have the lowest rates, try to ask there.


sushi

We didnt have to pay for warehouse but that is just before shipping, so different situation. Of course I would think you would need to pay for 8 months.
But I just wanted to point out the bonded warehouse thing, so you dont have obligations in the country anymore like the insurance.