The paperwork is done
Updated: Apr 30, 2022
Most of the preparation goes into arranging all the paperwork in advance, at least all the paperwork that is possible to arrange in advance.
This includes visas for:
Azerbaijan
Iran
Tajikistan
Russia
Mongolia
In addition, for both Iran and Russia, you still need a letter from your health insurance that you have coverage in those countries. Of course, after that the Covid.19 vaccination certificates are (still) needed.
In several foreign countries an international driver's license is required, so we also went to the ANWB office.
Other vaccinations were done via thuisvaccinatie.nl. Very convenient to get the vaccinations at home in one evening, without travelling and without extra costs. Thanks for the tip Jan!
The boat trip from Italy to Greece is booked, we have 4 days from departure on May 1 to get to the port of Ancona. What didn't work out :-( Well, there are still countries closed to tourists because of Covid-19 measures.
As a result, we unfortunately can't travel through Turkmenistan, although we still have a little hope that we can arrange that along the way. This means that from Iran we head northwest again to Azerbaijan and just below Baku take the ferry to Kazakhstan. The detour is about 1,600 km of driving, just waiting to see when a ferry leaves there. More on that during the trip.
China is also still closed to tourists because of Covid-19. Although it was already our intention not to travel through China because of the extensive requirements when traveling with your own motorcycle:
The motorcycle has to be temporarily imported at the border, where you have to pay a deposit of about € 3,000. How easily you get that back when you ship the bike by boat remains to be seen.
You are required to hire a guide during your trip through China, which of course includes renting a car. This too would cost a good portion of the budget.
You and the guide have to keep drowsy behind the guide's car, which is not allowed on the highways. Bah.
When exporting the motorcycle in a container (via water), only goods that have been temporarily imported may be in that container. Specifically, this means a container for us alone, and with the current container prices, we'd be better off with the motorcycle by the side of the road .....
What is also not possible or very expensive is to get a motorcycle insurance with world coverage and a mobile subscription with world coverage.
The motorcycle insurance you can apparently arrange at the border with the countries where you are not insured. (thanks for the tip Bart)
As for the mobile subscription, we take an extra phone with us for which we buy a prepaid sim card at the border. Via hotspot on that phone we can then both make use of the internet in a simple way.
This was our update for this time, the next update will be about the final preparations.
