Hi All,

Hope this will be of some use to someone. We did this using a carnet, so it may be slightly different if you don't have one.

These were the steps we took to get the bike over to Indonesia.

First we got our 60 day Visa's from the Indonesian Consulate in Penang GPS ref N5 25.975 E100 18.295, this took two days to process and didn't prove to be any hassle with a carnet. If you have a pillion a letter from the rider to say the pillion will be leaving the country with you and the bike is required. No outward bound flight ticket is required anymore when in possession of a carnet.

1. Contacted Mr Lim of Cakra Shipping, Georgetown. ph 6042625879 mob 60124709717

2. Visited his office, 2nd floor,187 Lebuh Pantai, Penang. GPS ref N5 24.860 E100 20.284. Mr Lim is a very helpful guy and will let you know all the information required.

3. Organised the bike to be shipped on Friday, we were to meet at his office at 10am handed over 370RM then we headed out to the dockyard at Butterworth to meet the ship coming in and to get it loaded there and then.

Customs on a Friday is a bit of a pain, Friday is a Muslim prayer day so Customs close in the afternoon, with the ship getting it at 1500 we had a lot of waiting around.

4. The crane operator didn't really have an idea on how to lift a large GS Adventure so it was worthwhile for me to make sure he rigged it correctly. He may be a bit more knowledgeable on smaller bikes.

5. Say goodbye to the bike and jump on the back of Mr Lim's bike and head home.

6. Flew Georgetown to Medan with Air Asia on Monday morning (ferries do not operate that route anymore). After ditching our gear at the hotel I headed out to Belawan Port by motorcycle taxi (one hour) to pick up the bike. The shipping agent's office in Belawan is at GPS ref N3 46.831 E98 41.120. This place is just a house, here the Belawan agent will come and escort you around the Customs procedure which is a bit long winded. I kept my m/c taxi with me and waiting around till I got to the see the bike. I paid him 100,000rp for his troubles and for all the waiting.

The first customs chap just wanted to have a little chat and see the carnet, second visit to another customs to tell them to come and inspect the bike. After inspection (just frame/engine number) another trip on the back of Mr agent's bike to another Customs office in the dockyard to get the carnet stamped.

7. Finally got back on the bike and made my way back to Medan.

Traffic here is pretty bad compared to Thailand and Malaysia, I made it out there in 45 minutes and managed to make it back in an hour, this was just lucky.

Keep your GPS on you and don't leave it on the bike when you ship it, it saves a lot of hassle getting to the shipping agents office in Belawan.

Cost
Shipping out with Mr Lim 370ringit -- 76GBP
Collection fee, 800,00 rupiah, don't pay any more than 900,000r -- 64GBP

No fees to customs or anybody else, all went well just took a long time.

Cannot say if the process will be the same if you do not have a Carnet but I'm sure Mr Lim will tell you the details.

Cannot think of anything more to add but he can contact us on gsaworldtour@hotmail.co.uk if he needs anymore information. We will also try and put this up on HU and possibly ADV if they have a borders link.

Hope this is ok,

John

gsaworldtour.com

I would not underestimate the task of entering Indonesia without a carnet, even though I know it´s been done... you can do just about anything in Asia, if you have the patience of a saint, or it´s your lucky day!

In fact I´ve personally met other bikers there, who had had very serious trouble to get their bikes into the country at all. The bikes stayed with the customs for weeks, and they were becoming desperate. Some of them claimed, that they even HAD the carnet, and one said, that he´s currently demanded a "recommendation letter from the United Nations"!!

So I think that the place, where you are entering from, could also be important. One, for example, had his bike stuck at Jakarta airport, and another one at Surabaya seaport... both places, where may be not so many foreign vehicles are transported to. One of the reasons to go Penang to Belawan, if it´s not far away from your route, is the fact, that it´s been used quite a bit, and so the customs know how the process should go.

One would think, but not sure if that's the case. It's one thing that in Tanjung Balai they had no idea how to fill it, but even in Port Klang, a massive cargo port, the officer with many shiny things attached to his chest knew no better. He got a bit anxious a few times, but I kept feeding him some copies of random docs (passport, rego...etc) and he eased up. Then he made up sime random "serial number" and wrote it on both slip, and he got an official and a personal stamp. Then he started to ask if I have a camera and/or a laptop and if they're covered by the carnet. You just need to be confident about you doing everything right an they accept it.

As for getting into Indonesia with no carnet...I'm not even sure about leaving the country without one!

Well, I know that 4 years ago things were very smooth *both*ways* between Penang and Belawan, as there were other bikers coming from Indonesia at the same time. In Penang, I actually gave one of them a lift to the docks, to pick up his bike from Cakra Shipping´s terminal. Everyone said they passed customs without a hitch on both ends.

For us it took maybe just 10-15 minutes to clear the customs at Belawan, and we only payed some fixer maybe 5 dollars, all of which I first could not believe, after all the horror stories that I´d heard....

But that info is of course old, and some things may well have changed (apparently have already, if that passenger boat is no longer operating; the situation with those seemed ever-changing, though!)... but if Cakra Shipping still has their onion boats going, they´d be my number 1 option between Malaysia and Indo (- unless of course if there´s some proper car ferry going – in fact they´d opened such a ferry route just a short while before we were looking for a passage, but unfortunately they´d already closed it down, too!)

I used Mr Lim from Georgetown to Medan in August 2011. He did a great job and the contact he recommended in Indo also no problem. I have name somewhere if needed. John Enfield details contact info are same as I used so still current. I can recommend Mr Lim.

same goes here lim of cakra shipping did a great job even to 2 of my friends...

Hi Guys.

I made I new way of shipping from Malaysia to Indonesia in December 2011, similiar to andras.ikladi but otherway. In my case it was a bit complicated and stressfull, as I was the first one, but I am sure it'll be much smoother for any another.

I arrived at Malaysian coast on Sunday, when called Mr Limb he said they are shipping only Friday/Saturday morning and it goes over weekend in every case. The price was oscilating around 900+. I checked also Port of Melacca, Port Dickson and Port Klang with no luck, but when looking for some solution at passenger terminal in the last place I met two guys who work for travel agency. They offered me to send my bike by one of the ferries to Tamjung Balai, using their connection, next day. I paid 300 ringits for taking motorbike across and another 100 for someone to help me to sort travel and customs on the other side. I could also go on the same boat, for another 100 but as I had no visa they didn't allowed me to board and I had to fly to Medan and take minibus to Tanjung Balai instead. Everything was well organised, nonetheless I had to spend a half day with Indonesian customs. They said they had never dealt with it before, but after a few hours of calling they got familiar with procedure and said proudly that next time they will be smarter, so hopefully it takes an hour or so. The clue is to have letter from Ikatan Motor Indonesia beforehend, just email them a few days before arriving, then they send permission and instruction to customs in chosen place how to proceed.
And I hadn't paid any duty or other charges, everything was free.
After you leave the customs you have to go to police station and wait for Road Permit, that's another story, a few hours again but free too.

Before you get there good idea is to have Indonesian visa in passport, it save you money, unnecessary flights, time and stress when traveling by minibus. You can apply in Kuala Lumpur, it takes three days for them to issue one.

All operation was easy and quite well organised and when I called to the guys from other side they said I can recommend them for others, they can do it again any time. If I am to do it ones more I am sure I go this way: everyday shipping, shorter time, half price comparing to Cacra.

Contact number to Izainil is +60136367611 but, as he doesn't speak english perfectly well better email him on izainil_nazzirul at yahoo dot com

And remember to have CPD stamped when crosing border to Malaysia from Thailand. Doesn't matter that they say it's not required, they won't allowed you to leave without it later. But if you forgot ask Izainil, he's got solution for it too.

Good luck
for more details look at my blog

__________________
http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog/cimek/1/tpod.html

Great find and it's good to have another option.

> The clue is to have letter from Ikatan Motor Indonesia beforehend, just email them a few days before arriving, then they send permission and instruction to customs in chosen place how to proceed.

Who are they and how did you find out about that? Can you please post their email here? (Please encode it with scr.im or similar to prevent spam.)

There is another good reason to have a visa in advance: it's valid twice as long and can be extended.

Enjoy Indo!

__________________
Cheers,
Peter.

Europe to NZ 2006-10

It's equivalent of RAC or ADAC in Europe. Their website address is:

http://www.imi.co.id/

We browsed for details with officers in Tamjung Balai to find contact details and then ringing numbers one by one to find out how to proceed.

The nice lady informed that Indonesia has different rules to deal with CPD than rest of the world. Like with everything probably. To cross the border apart of valid Carne booklet you have to register your intension to enter country with them in advance and then they email approval letter to appropriate custom office. It normaly takes 3 days, but, as I was on the border already they managed to do it same day. After that they stamped my Carne and allowed me to enter for free. It was a big struggle to sort it out, so I am sure next time they will remember the case and be more familiar with procedure.

Apart of it the guys are very kind and nice, the problem was only lack of knowledge.
At the police station - otherway, they know how to proceed but everything is taking looong time.

__________________
http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog/cimek/1/tpod.html

A bit like Singapore then. It's weird, though: you don't get any of this palaver when going through Belawan or either land border crossing.

Thanks for all the info.

__________________
Cheers,
Peter.

Europe to NZ 2006-10