Border crossing from East Timor to West Timor

[farsidemc]

How smooth is the crossing? As Indonesia doesn't recognize carnet, how much money does one have to pay, what's a fair price?
Thanks
MG

[Nathan90]

Hi mate,

Not sure you're shooting straight on that one. I crossed East to west Timor about three months ago and had the carnet stamped on the indonesian side and didn't have to pay anything else.

it was actually quite easy in the end, i just had a border hawk guide me through and was on my way in less than an hour.

my advice though is get there early and ride through to Kupang rather than stay in Atambua, not the nicest place. And check the ferries. Pelni only goes every fortnight; 14th and 27th or something like that, and the local car ferries only sail when the weather is good.

Give me a shout if i can help with anything else

Nathan

[brethouwer]

Nathan, not sure how you got your bike (?) into East Timor, or where you got your visa, we've been told by the East Timor embassy that they will only issue a visa if we have written permission from 'ikatan motor indonesia' (IMI) to travel through indo, in addition to the carnet, as they (sometimes) will ask for this on the border, entering indo from East Timor.

Suppose it's one of those grey areas where different people get told different stories by different embassies...

[farsidemc]

[quote=Nathan90;241572]Hi mate,

<<<<<<<<< I crossed East to west Timor about three months ago and had the carnet stamped on the indonesian side and didn't have to pay anything else.

it was actually quite easy in the end, i just had a border hawk guide me through and was on my way in less than an hour.

my advice though is get there early and ride through to Kupang rather than stay in Atambua, not the nicest place. And check the ferries. Pelni only goes every fortnight; 14th and 27th or something like that, and the local car ferries only sail when the weather is good. >>>>>>>>>>

That sounds good, I was worried about the boarder crossing. How much did it end up costing you to get your bike into Dili from Oz? I assume you shipped the bike from Darwin, is there anything you recommend to see or experience in East- West Timor. What about Indonesian ferries through to Medan and on to Penang did you do any of that? I know I am asking a lot of questions, thanks in advance.
Cheers
MG

[Nathan90]

Sorry guys, not been on here for a few days.

You know i've also heard people have been told all sorts of things which have changed their mind about going through East Timor, I can only go on my own experience which went something like this;

I shipped the bike with Perkins from Darwin to Dili. It cost around AU$330 which was more than I thought it would be becasue they didn't explain in advance that it would have been cheaper to have it crated. Mine was instead loaded manually and I was a bit annoyed they didn't mention the crating option until it was too late.

Anyway, I flew into Dili with Air North getting a visa on arrival. I think US$30.
I got my indonesian visa at the embassy where the man told me I wouldn't be able to take my bike in to the country. That worried me.

But when the bike arrived and we headed for the border I had no problems. They just stamped my carnet and that was it.

I kind of wish I'd done it now but a full circuit of East Timor would have been interesting. The coastal road to the next 'city' - can't remember the name - to the east is really cool if you just want to settle for that.

Outside of Dili ET is a fascinating place. People are awesome, so is the scenerey, I much preferred it to the West of the island which I didn't much care for. I felt it a lot more hostile, as though you could sense the troublemakers had fled there after being kicked out of the East in '99.

Unfortunately I missed the Pelni ferry and had to wait a week in Kupang, which is ok. Pelni is the big passenger ferry operater which can take bikes at a hefty cost. If you can swallow the dubious safety record, the local ferries are much cheaper, more frequent and less hassle. Just turn up and get on.

Just check the weather because the one between Kupang and Flores doesn't sail if it's bad. That's an 18 hour crossing and quite torturous. The ship's are old and the people on them can hassle you but not in a threatening way. That service runs once a day.

Same goes for Flores to Sumbawa, though that's only 8 hours I think. You pay about US$4.

Sumbawa to Lombok is closer, I think 3 but I forget. Same price, more frequent. And then as you continue west the ferries get cleaner and even more frequent. Every hour or so from Bali and Java.

I really can't fault the ferries I used. They helped me get from one end of Indo to the other in 3 weeks.

Crossing Medan to Penang was trickier as there's no vehicle ferry. I found some random guy who got the bike on some sort of boat but he did sort of screw me. There's a fella called Mr Lim who works out of Penang. I think his details are on here somewhere. I don't have them myself as I only found out he was involved with my shipping when I got to Malaysia.

Looking back Indonesia was a great place. Just watch out for the potholes in Sumatra. They'll eat you.

[farsidemc]

Hi Nathan, I did call Perkins and the lady mentioned it's cheaper to go to a bike shop in Darwin and have the bikes crated. Did you get a 30 day visa? I am hoping to get 60 days as I remember the good times I had going from Bali to Sumatra in the 80s (no bike) I got 5 weeks and then a two week extention and that was not really enough! Yeah I do remember the enormous potholes in the south of Sumatra. Thanks again.

MG

[Nathan90]

Cool, that's good they've given you the option of crating. It seems the better of the two as when I finally located my bike in Dili it was in the back of a container wedged between pallets of Pringles and all sorts of stuff.

I did only go for the one month visa and while I don't regret it as I had a great time trying going across, it would be nicer to do it a little more relaxed. To get a two month visa some people were just being asked to write letters explaining why. My advice is don't even mention the bike if you don't have to. Like I siad, they gave me all sorts of lectures at the embassy about taking a bike through. But I figured they were just immigration, not customs as they didn't have a clue what a carnet was. Which was, if I've not mentioned, stamped going into Indo.

Hope that helps.

[Outback rider]

hi guys,
I'm heading to Timor in the morning from Darwin, Australia. If you are on the road in Timor and looking for a mate to explore the country let me know. My plan is to head to kupang via anywhere and catch a boat to Flores or somewhere and then keep going and stay in Bali a week before riding to gill minouk and catching a ferry to java. Don't have any plans past that but will be fling back to oz to check on my biz before resuming my ride to somewhere....I have a carnet for as far as India .....I ride a hp2 enduro and like the open dirt tracks. When I head back home I will be riding the west cost from Darwin .
Mike

[RTWbyBIKE.com]

We will take the other way, going from NZ to BKK and then to Darwin via Dili in May 2012...

[Outback rider]

So what i have learned so far is. If u in darwin and sending your bike get it boxed by NT motorcycles $250.00 and that includes dropping it to perkins. If you rode fro sydney so e 4,000kms away you may wish to service your bike, if so go to allicross, awesome blokes who love bikes and are the only bmw guys in darwin. In timor, the boat can be delayed sometimes so stay in a clean cheap hotel with free wifi. i have been staying in hotel timor and its expensive , full of smoke and i dont rate it. Wifi is $15usd for 2 hours. Food is great and wine is cheap.
The pleasure of getting premature lung cancer is about $135usd per night.
If u have breakfast late u wont need lunch. Its air conditioned but so is everything. Accross from the hotel is the docks, when u pay your bills at perkins $50 for their admin in timor, take your carnet to customs across the road from hotel timor and they will stamp it for u and u are free to go. Before you leave australia make sure u have some passport pics done with a red background, its the only colour permitted. While you are waiting in darwin for your air north flight to timor, write a proposal letter stating why you want to visit indonesia, what islands u intend to visit, the purpose of your visit where u will stay and who you will stay with. Ya i know lol......its very diferent than flying into indo where u pay $35 usd andyour in. Anyway onthe day you land go to the indo embassy and apply as it takes 3 days. The taxi"s are $1 to everywhere but if its a back and forth type trip pay more. Well tomorrow i get my bike and leave. So i will let you know whT i see onmy way to kupang. Oh yeah,learn some bahasa as they all speak it and its lots easier thantheother languages they speak.

[nickandrabbit]

Hey guys
I'll be doing this trip in a month or so. How did you go with it all outback?