So after seeing Sarah off at the Fukuoka Airport I jumped on a subway train and headed to the Ferry Terminal, it’s getting a little easier to get around in Japan which is convenient seeing I’m leaving today. Here they have vending machines for everything and every second street corner has a cluster of drink machines so you can stop and buy drinks, now this is an idea we need to take up.
Then it was down to the Port to catch the Ferry to Busan South Korea and just because its Japan you need to pay your fuel tax of 500 yen not to the girl at the counter like the ticket but at a vending machine just before you board the Ferry….
The trip across the Sea of Japan took around 3 hours and I arrived in the bustling Port of Busan.
Then it was off to find the Sum Guesthouse (Hostel) where I would spend the following two nights until I could free my Motorcycle from the port and finally get on the road.
The next day I found that the shipping company had trucked my bike to their warehouse which was over 100 kilometres away but Customs could not clear it there and it had to come back to the Busan Port. Wendy Choi is the shipping agent who organises these types of imports into Korea and she is very good but I could only communicate by email as my Australian Pre Paid SIM has not worked since I left Australia, so after many emails back and forward she arranged for my bike to be trucked back to Busan (at extra cost) for clearance the following day, another comfortable night spent at the Sum Guesthouse.
The next day I headed down to the Customs Office as I was told to be there at 1 p.m. to start the process, sounds easy enough but they sent me to the wrong Customs Office and no one there could understand English. After 15 or so minutes, a phone call and a lot of Google Translate a nice Customs girl and her Manager took me to the right office in their car, can’t ask for better service than that.
So after around 2 hours of completing paperwork and spending money I was taken to a warehouse out the back and shown this;
That’s after I put the bike back together (I had to remove the front wheel and screen to ship). Then it was time for my first ride in South Korea……to the Petrol Station 500 metres down the road, (must have less than 1 litre of fuel to ship).
After fuel it was time to head back to the Guesthouse and find somewhere to park the bike securely.
Livinthedreamtoo 