Vladivostok
By admin. Filed in Adventure Motorcycling, London to Sydney, motorcycle touring, Russia |
Snow at the Rail Station - Vladivostok
After a relaxing night in the Hotel we woke early with the intention of getting our package from DHL which included our Carnets (bike passports/permits required for entering Japan).. at the same time we would need to organise our ferry tickets for that night.. It was all going to be a HUGE rush but it was possible given that the Ferry was scheduled to leave at 10pm that night. First stop was breakfast then we went to the port to organise tickets.. The office said that it opened at 10am.. we waited there ringing the door bell until at least 10:30 before anyone was able to assist us.. Heather got the information first and ran down to me while I was trying to get a mobile top up card.. “helllllpppppp no ferrrryyyyyyyyy”.. Ferry Cancelled.. panic mode had set in for Heather and I went back to the office and asked.. The web page said you have a ferry that sails today and yet you say its cancelled.. when is the next one.. The next one is on Sunday 1st of November. Bugger that means we will need to stay in Vladivostok for another 6 nights.. there is no way that we could afford the hotel for 6 nights so we would have to down grade to a proper soviet era quality shack… At least that gave us some additional time to organise everything which was a blessing in disguise but a huge pain in the arse.. Now that we wouldn’t arrive in Japan we would miss the next two ferries from Japan to Australia… That means the next ferry would probably be on the 26th of November.. ARGHHH… it was all becoming a big mess.. too much of a mess but we had to get home and this was the only (affordable) way.. To make matters worse the ferry company had dramatically increased the cost of the ferry tickets by no longer providing availability for non-cabin tickets (e.g. just get a seat on one of the floors) making it now cost 3 times more than we had planned.. bugger.. and they only accepted cash on boarding.. plus they didn’t help us at all with trying to clear the customs paper work required.. they gave us the address for customs and went there with the hope that it was as easy as every other time.. we would have to go there the next day.. we had to find new accommodation and fast.. after searching around we found a place and managed to get a special discount for staying 6 nights.. it was a huge relief and we had sea views and a verandah too!. Totally sweet..
The sea in Vladivostok - Russia
The next morning we set out to sort out the customs stuff.. only after walking for 45minutes in the freezing gale force winds did we find out that nobody at customs knew what we needed to do.. it seems shipping motorcycles is not something that people do very often…. After going back and forwards between different people and getting the assistance of a lovely English speaking lady named Tamara, we managed to get the name of a company that could help us… we walked all the way back to the other side of the harbour to find the company… once we found them they told us that their services would be out of our price range.. they wanted 10,000 roubles for each bike to clear customs.. what a rip off there was no way but they did give us the contact details of someone else who could help us for a more reasonable rate which we paid 1,500 roubles per bike…
Yuri Melnikov
ph +7(4232) 220 887
Mobile +7 (902) 5243447
Snow - Vladivostok
We arranged to meet up with him the following morning and organise the customs paper work.. The next day everything went really smoothly and we had all the bikes put into the secure customs area. The process was so easy.. It turns out the building that we got given the details for the other day was completely the wrong place. With Yuri we went to a different building and got the stuff sorted almost instantly. It just goes to show that the shipping company Bisintour is terrible. That day it started the saga of trying to get enough money out to pay for the ferries. For some unknown reason we have never been able to withdraw the right amount of money using the ATM cards.. it always seems that they limit us to around £150 which would make it take many days to get our funds sorted for the ferry which we did not have. In the end we spoke to HSBC and they said to go around to numerous ATM’s from MANY banks and take out our daily limit at each one.. we did this and got the necessary funds… finding unique banks is a tough job there seems to be only 4 banks in Russia that accept HSBC Maestro cards… bugger and we didn’t want to cash advance our credit cards. At least we got it all sorted eventually and now had the time to relax, check out the sights until Sunday when our Ferry was “scheduled” to leave… lets hope it leaves this time.. we can not afford to spend another week in Vladivostok.. its already been a month later than we had planned to get here and the snow was forecast to start on the coming weekend… That afternoon we met a Dutch Cyclist who had ridden across Russia to Vladivostok… on a bicycle.. madness I say.. he was stranded and needed to find some affordable accommodation. We helped him out with some basic directions for the only hostel in Vladivostok.. Thankfully he found it okay and we organised to meet up for beers the following night.
World War 2 Submarine Torpedo's - Vladivostok
The next day was all about finally doing tourist things. We went to check out a World War 2 submarine and some other sites around Vladivostok. It was all pretty chilled out and that evening went out for drinks. It was nice to catch up with some other travellers again and break our cycle of sleeping early that we had got from camping so long in the cold (the warmest place being our sleeping bags).. all up it was a nice evening.
The next morning our bikes got put on the ferry.. lets hope it actually leaves the port this weekend.. with one day until the snow is scheduled its all going to be an interesting few days. Thankfully we had organised everything in advance and hopefully we would be more prepared for the ferry than we would have been the previous time arriving from Turkey.
Ferry to Fushi - Vladivostok
Saturday morning we woke to heavy snow fall and it was still snowing.. joy we could actually take advantage of the snow without needing to ride anywhere.. which was especially important given that we didn’t need to pack our bikes or do anything important.. so we went out to take photos and have a few beers for lunch as a farewell to Russia (premature of course).. (HL: on the way back to the Hotel James stacked it on the ice feel on his bum hehe didnt have the camera handy though :-P)…. It was a lazy evening after a big lunch watching movies and relaxing before we had our ferry trip to Japan.. On Sunday we woke to a beautiful sunny day that was nice and still… Perfect for our route to Japan.. We had breakfast and made it on board. Thankfully the boat actually set sail and we started our trip to Japan… Only delayed by another 7 days..