The Nepalese porter of my hotel in downtown Kuala Lumpur gives me a warm, almost touching, hug as I leave. I will miss our daily chats and would have loved to stay longer in this cosmopolitan city, but my return journey home is imminent.
BMW Motorrad Che is located in a suburb of Kuala Lumpur. They still have dozens of crates in which new engines are delivered and they let me have one for free and use a workshop to adapt it to my engine.
The hotel where I stay is on the highway, around the corner from the BMW showroom. Apart from a few furniture stores, a gas station and a McDonalds there is nothing interesting to do, but that doesn't matter because I have work to do. New motorcycles are shipped completely in the BMW crates, but by removing the front wheel of my motorcycle and making the crate 15 cm lower, I save a lot of freight costs. With air freight you pay per cubic cm or per kg, whichever is the most. After 5 hours of toil and sweat in the humid heat, my bike is packed and ready to be taken by truck to the airport 25 km away the next day.
When we arrive at the airport, we are first referred to customs, where they have to stamp the Carnet de Passage of the motorcycle and check the motorcycle and luggage. The customs officer does not want to climb on the truck to look in the transport box and asks if I have any photos. If he has seen three, he agrees and we can go again. This was the easiest customs check ever!
At the transport company, the box is fitted with plastic straps and foil, after which it is time to measure and weigh. Size and weight determine the transport price and fortunately it is completely within my budget. The transport company wants the invoice paid before the engine goes on the plane and just when I want to make the payment there is a malfunction at my bank! I try via phone, laptop and a local PC but nothing works. The representative of the transport company already tells me that there is no other option than to rebook the flight to a later time, but luckily I can still try to pay in cash. He goes with me to a payment terminal and 6 pins and a large stack of banknotes later it's fixed: my motorcycle is on transport home!
