IT'S ALL A LITTLE BORDERLINE
T
The art of border crossings
By Mike Hannan
he realisation of how bad a border crossing
could get came on a blistering hot summer
Sunday in August 2008 at Kyakhta on the
Russian border with Mon-
golia. Together with
my wife Jo, two-up
on our BMW R1150GSA, we had
been travelling for 10 months
without a break and had
crossed a lot of inter-
national borders to
get to that dusty
and forlorn place.
What started as a
routine business
day on the road
ended after four
hours of inter-
rogation
with
dehydration, ex-
haustion, a signif-
icant blow to our
finances and the
problem of get-
ting into Mongo-
lia still in front of us.
It was a sharp reminder
of how unforgiving borders
can be when things go wrong.
Our Russian misadventure was
the incentive we needed to sort
out our approach to border cross-
ings. Over the years and kilometres that followed we have
crossed dozens of other international frontiers, after Rus-
sia we treat each one as a critical event and prepare and
plan for it accordingly.
Yet, even with the best planning, at borders things still
go wrong and sometimes it is just your turn!
Start your research well before you arrive in the border
area to allow time for a change of plan. These days there
are plenty of resources available, including; the official
government sites, posts from other travellers and infor-
mation sites run by travel companies.
The official sites should always be your first call. From
TRAVERSE
our experience, travellers' posts are often out of date or
just plain wrong so make sure you confirm information
before betting the house on it.
Focus your research on the important
areas of immigration, customs, insur-
ance and quarantine and make sure
you understand the requirements
for each. Immigration is gen-
erally the first clearance
both in and out. Here,
the need for a cor-
rect visa is obvious
but people still get
caught out, partic-
ularly if they have
been reading a net
post from a nation-
al of a country that
doesn't need a visa
for the new coun-
try. Immigration
can also require
some other admin-
istrative charges or
nation specific lev-
ies which may not be
obvious. For example, Ar-
gentina charges Australians a
$US100 tourist fee which can only
be purchased online and cannot be
paid at the border.
Every country has Customs rules
about bringing in vehicles and all require original docu-
mentation for registration and proof of ownership. In the
worst case, a carnet or a security deposit will be required.
A Quarantine clearance may also be required for entry to a
new country. Most Central American countries have such
a requirement. If you’re entering Australia, you will have
to meet the strict biosecurity requirements when you en-
ter. These are some of the strictest in the world.
Once your research is done, you need to decide which of
the available border crossings you should use.
All border crossings are different. A busy commercial
crossing on a major highway will have a crowded, chaotic
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