Border Crossing: Georgia

Date of Border Crossing	30.6.2006
Point of Entry	Sarpi from Turkey
Passport and Visa	Passport has to be valid for at least another 6 months. No visa was required! (I know this sounds incredible, but it is true at least for Swiss citizens.)
Insurance	They did not check if we had valid insurance (we didn't).
Drivers Licence	Did not get checked, but I am sure that you are required to have one.
Motorcycle papers	We had to show our 'Technical Passport' as they call it, which is the vehicle registration papers from home. (Fahrzeugausweis)
Licence plates	Licence plates from home country are sufficient.
How it went	As you leave the Turkish border you drive up to a little booth on the left hand side. This is the immigration office. Here we had to show our passports. The officer at first was very surprised to see that we did not have a visa (which made my heart stop!). But then he checked a list, which seemed so confirm, that Swiss citizens don't need a visa. So our passports got stamped an we were waved up to the customs building. Here we were greeted by an official who spoke a little English. He filled in a slip of paper for each bike which contained the licence plate numbers and waved towards an office to the side. While Khim stayed outside with the bikes I went into this office. The office was packed, but of course there was only one guy behind the counter hiding behind a computer. As it turns out you have to hand in the slip of paper, passport and motorcycle papers to this guy to get the necessary paperwork for your vehicle. As I said, the office was packed and tempers and the temperature were running high. Soon an argument broke out over who's turn it was. But just as soon everybody was more interested in the girl with the motorcycle (me) and my papers were handed to the guy behind the counter ahead of everybody else's. After a half hour of entering data, three copies of vehicle papers were presented to me and I had to sign all three copies. Very important: the exit border is listed on this document and you can only exit through the border listed on this form! So make triple sure that the right border is mentioned! The permit for the bikes were issued for 15 days, which was more than enough for us. Once I got out of the office with the vehicle papers we had to show these to the guy who had handed us the slip with the licence plate numbers. He was surprised to see me back so soon, but upon checking the papers waved us on to the gate. Between the customs office and the gate there is a bank where we changed our Turkish money into local currency without any problem. At the gate passport and vehicle papers were checked again and that was it, welcome to Georgia!
Point of Exit	Krasny Most to Azerbaijan
How it went	As this was the 'right' border, meaning the one listed in our temporary import papers it was no problem. (The day before we had tried exiting through the other border to Azerbaijan and there was no way they could be persuaded to let us pass!) Beside the temporary import papers we also had to show our passports. These only got stamped after the Azerbaijan visa had been scrutinized thoroughly!
Additional Information	Neither entry or exit costs a single dime!