We shipped our Milady Landy from Dubai to Cochin, India. In this blog we describe the whole process, including our experiences with waiting due to the bureaucratic procedures in India.
First contact
Sonja has contacted a shipper in Dubai, Reef Shipping. They can ship Milady in a container from Dubai to Cochin in Kerala, (South) India.
Sonja is in regular contact with Faheem, she emails a copy of our passports, car papers and our Indian visas as soon as we have them available. We arranged the visas via the Indian government website, for which we had to fill in a very extensive questionnaire, after which we had our e-visas within a few hours.
The price for transport with a 20 foot container is 12,000 Emirates Dirham, approximately €3,150. That includes all costs in both ports.
Deliver to Dubai
On December 29th we arrive in Dubai where we look for a place for the night at the campsite of Jebel Ali. Here I take all the roof boxes and other stuff off the roof so that Milady just fits in a 20′ container. The height with boxes is 2.62m, without boxes it is 2.25m.
On December 30th we agreed to deliver Milady to the shipper. It turns out to be a warehouse on an industrial estate.
The car is measured again and approved for the 20′ container.
They will later load the car into the container and take it to the port of Jebel Ali.
We say goodbye to Milady and are picked up by our host from the apartment we rented. The next day we fly to Cochin.
Waiting in Cochin
We have arranged a homestay near the airport of Cochin. Neil and his parents Tessy and Jose welcome us hospitably in their guesthouse. We will stay here for 3 weeks until we can finally pick up Milady.
After three weeks of waiting, with frequent contact with our shipping broker in India, today is finally the day. All the paperwork has arrived, insurance has been taken out and our identity papers have been received by Jijesh, our broker.
Our Carnet de Passages was, after being stamped in Dubai, sent to Cochin by our shipping agent Reef Shipping via DHL. The shipping envelope mentioned documents, but they had also put the spare keys in the envelope. That was not such a good idea, because the Indian customs now considered the envelope as a package and extra payment had to be made for that. Initially it was also not known who had to pay, so confusion all around. Eventually Reef Shipping paid and Jijesh received the shipment on Friday 17 January 2025.
Milady has already arrived 9 days earlier with a container in the port of Cochin. It is actually crazy that the container only took 5 days and the papers 17 days!
Pick up in the port of Cochin
But fortunately, today, Monday 20 January 2025, the time has come.
To the port
We take an Uber from our homestay and arrive at the customs building at 10am. Fifteen minutes later we go with Jijesh and his colleague to the immigration office of the port of Cochin to apply for a temporary access pass for both of us. In the meantime I get a video of Milady being driven out of the container, she is now really on Indian soil. 🥰
The procedures
After half an hour we have the necessary application forms with various stamps and signatures.
With that we have to go back to the customs building, first to customs and then to the CID, yes indeed, the central intelligence service.
I am invited in and have to answer a few questions: do you have weapons in the car, no; do you have new products in the car that you want to sell, no; do you have drugs or alcohol on board, no; do you have any medication with you, yes, paracetamol, haha🤣. Fifteen minutes pass like this and with this last joke I say goodbye. They will come to inspect the contents of the car at 2.15 pm this afternoon. In the meantime Jijesh has handed in the application form for the day passes and his colleague drops us off at the coffee bar of the customs building. We drink coffee and tea and later a carrot and melon shake. At 1.15 pm I get a call from Jijesh asking if we want to come to the main entrance. We have a quick lunch of biriani (rice with vegetables) and fried rice.
Reunion with Milady
Then we ride with a tuktuk to the harbor area. There Jijesh hands over the necessary papers and takes us to a corner of the harbor area.
And then we finally see our little house on wheels again, our Milady Landy is parked in the shadow of the harbor building and looks completely unscathed. How happy we are to see her again.
The inspection by the CID at 14:15 finally takes place at 15:25 and then it turns out that customs also have to carry out an inspection. Fortunately, they don’t find anything they don’t like and we can drive to the exit at 17:00. In between I quickly stick a sticker on the back of the car: Caution, Left hand drive!
We drive out of the harbor
Jijesh’s colleague still has to return the forms to the customs building, but if he is back at 5:30 PM we can hit the road.
Driving on the left takes some getting used to, but once I get the hang of it I can join the busy evening traffic on the way to Kanjoor.
That needs to be celebrated
With Jose, Tessy and Neil we celebrate the arrival of our Milady in the evening at the Salkara restaurant, near the airport of Cochin.
On the road in India
Finally, after 3 weeks of waiting, we can set off again with our little house on wheels, on our way to new adventures.