Seeking advice about Borneo/Kalimantan and Sulawesi
 

Hello everybody

Currently in Thailand. Overlanding from Europe to Australia. Just had two very nice and interesting months in Laos and Cambodia. Will head on towards Oz in the beginning of May. Plan to ride through Malaysia, Indonesia and East Timor.

The most obvious and conveniant (?) route through Indonesia seems to be riding Sumatra-Java-Bali-Lombok-Nusa Tengara-Flores.

BUT - I am thinking about riding a completely different route and thus I try to do some research now.

The route I have been thinking about doing is to ride Sumatra-Java-maybe Bali and Lombok and then catching a ferry up to Kalimatan, for example Samarinda or Balikpapan and then do a loop clockwise on Kalimantan/Borneo to Pontianak. Then cross into the malaysian part and ride the two provinces there of Sarawak and Sabah. And vist Brunei also. (I am even thinking about a detour to the Philippines - but thats another story...)
Then catch another ferry from Tawau to Tarakan or Nunukan and then another ferry over to Sulawesi, ride Sulawesi from north to south (Makassar) and then catch another ferry to Flores and then to East Timor.

What are your general thoughts about this, is it possible, advisable?
Will the ferries carry motorbikes in this part of the world? Are the roads in Kalimantan and Sulawesi rideable? How about safety issues? Are there accomodation, gas, food available along these parts? Etc etc
Do I need to change itinarary partly or should I just forget the whole thing and stick to the conveniant route?

Any information, advice and general thoughts much appriciated!

Hi Kurt

Will be really jealous if you get there, hope thinks are good my friend

Wayne

I'm hanging around in Sumatra at the moment and have been thinking the same thing. I've been asking around about ferries and that but solid information is pretty hard to come by. The best thing is to just turn up at the port at ask what boats go where. But going to Sulawesi/Borneo I think is best from Jakarta or Surabaya.

I'll try and make a move up there in May or June so I'll post back again when I've found out something, or give us a shout when you're in the area and we can have a go together.

You are right that information is very hard to find about these islands and local conditions. So any information or advice would be good.

I would not like for example to get to Kalimantan, ride around most of the island and then find out that the ferryboat from Tawau cannot carry motorbikes. Which would mean that I probably had to ride all or most of the way back again....or to ride 1000 km into the inland of the island and find out there is a dead end there because a landslide or something like that.

Kalimantan and Sulawesi anyone???

If you're in Kalimantan, there's little chance you will ever make it to Tawau, which is in Malaysia (Sabah). Both countries (Indonesia and Malaysia) are strictly apart, with no apparent border crossings.
The Malaysian part of Borneo (Sarawak and Sabah) have good roads, and you can get almost anywhere. The Indonesian part has no ongoing roads at all, just local roads around any port village. From one village to the next is all done by boat.

i live in the western part of kalimantan, about 400km from pontianak.

take a look here
https://www.facebook.com/hady.fritz/...7441031&type=3
these photo taken last year, road condition always change, can be better can be worst.
ready for some adventure:oops2:

I wish people at least had a certain clue about things before throwing up complete nonsence when a man asks for information.

There are two official land border crossings between Indonesia and Malaysia onBorneo/Kalimantan. That would have been the least thing I would have worried about if travelling on Borneo. Anyhow - for other reasons than border crossings I have decided to skip Borneo - but Sulawesi is still on my list.

From Wikipedia:

"Land crossings.
There are only 2 official land border crossing, namely between the Malaysian town of Tebedu in Sarawak and Entikong in West Kalimantan & between lundu-biawak and aruk-sambas. The crossing is along the main route between Kuching, the capital of Sarawak, and Pontianak, the capital of West Kalimantan.

There are numerous other informal crossings between Indonesia and Malaysia along the length of the land border, such as in Serikin near Kuching, Bario in the Kelabit Highlands and Sapulut in the interior of Sabah. These are mostly used by the local population and a certain amount of cross-border trading and smuggling goes on at these and other illegal crossings. Illegal immigrants are also known to use such crossings"

Well Hady - I would have loved to have a look at your photos but since we are not friends in FB I dont have access to your photos..... :-(

Anyhow - I have decided to skip Kalimantan for this travel. Hopefully another time...

Ride safe snakeboy


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borneo / kilimantan road conditions
 

i'm curently in kilimantan, maybee someone is intersted about this:
the main road around the iland along the coast(ore the nearest to the cost) is paved, mostlly in verry good conditions. only if there are roadworks you may have to pass along the buildingplace in mud fore a few km's, but tha's ok and more ore less easy. not so much trafic, exept around bigger cities (sampit/palangkaraya)
this road seems to be total renewed in 2011 (the verry most bridges along get this date)
i did this road from kuching to palangkaraya.
all 150-200km there is a regular fuelestation, and privats sell fuel every few km's.
between nanga tayap and pangkalanbun i found no hotel (290km) otherwise i saw hotels here and there, at least lets say every 150km.

today i went off the main road, new adventure. from palangkaraya to kualakurun. road is verry nice, narrow and not much parts without good turns, but a bit tricky, sometimes the road is covered by water (flood) ore sand wich left behinde from water. ore potholes hidden by turns, but in a total verry nice. (ca.160km)

from kualakurun to muaratewe my paper map knows a road, both of my gps don't know about this, i tried.
for directions asked locals on every crossroad.
first 30km nice paved road. the following 110km a mixture between good gravel track, deep sand/gravel, verry nice half dried mudd wich is leatherlike smooth and a pleasure to ride on, 30-40cm deep liquid mud pots, muddy road with rut's scratching on my panniers...
may it's the bigger fun without luggage. oh and i had to remove my front fender, mudd has sticked between it and the weel so it was completly fix, and it's kinde of tricky to ride without steering ;-)
i only needed help from others at one point, but there were plenty of hands, two trucks trying to pull each other out of the mudd.

it's still rain season here, but not really much rain in the moment. every day a short shower and thats it.

fore some impressiones this and the next 1 pictures to the left are about this day: https://www.flickr.com/photos/132702...etaken-public/

Truly great and positive information from 88ontheroad here. A big thank you to this brave guy! :thumbup1:
New adventures under planning definetively.

Thanks
 

Great information .... thanks to 88ontheroad, just cleared up my shipping from KL to Borneo !
Have a save ride and keep us updated !!

Heinz

Hey there!

Any chance you could share some information about the Malaysia - Borneo shipping? From which port to which port? Roro, container or freight?
Which company and how much did it cost? Any problems and would you recommend this shipping?

Thanks in advance!

hey snakeboy,
heres a good map that gives you an overlook on the ferry connections
http://www.peterloud.co.uk/indonesia/pelni.gif
a lot of the ferries do take bikes. you can check it out on the pelni webside https://www.pelni.co.id/

Thanks Froston but the stretch I dont have information about is Borneo to Malaysia mainland. The stretch AT750 mentioned he had sorted out shipping already.