Anyone got any idea if its possible to get a boat with the bike and yourself from indonesia to OZ, Im trying to travel round the world for charity without using airlines and using cargoboats. Check my site if your interested www,earthtrek.co.uk Blessings to all. Jonny

We tried to find a boat from Indonesia to Oz, but because of the weather we were stuck in Bali, and that was too far away for any small boats to make the trip. We heard there could be some options from Kupang (West Timor), but nothing solid, just rumours. The problem is, they only know whats going on at their harbour, and the next one, they´ll tell you to go and ask there. And our visas were running out, so in the end we decided to ship from Bali (by air & very expensive).

I think your best bet would be the Perkins Line cargo ships line Singapore-Dili (East Timor)-Darwin; you can find plenty of info about shippings by them in the shipping pages on this site. I dont think they will let you go on the boat, you´ll probably need to fly.

We thought we would go that way, but the situation in Dili turned highly unpredictable (there had been the assassination attempt on the president just a few days earlier) and it wasnt even certain that the land border with Indo would be open, so we decided to skip it altogether. In the dry season it should be a very nice journey via the smaller islands east from Bali, but do get a 60-day visa from Malaysia; we had only the 30-day visa on arrival, definitely were short on time in Indonesia.

You can also send the bike by ship from Surabaya or Jakarta, but most of the ships will go to Sydney or Perth, probably a lot less going to Darwin. And it will take several weeks to arrive.

You will need a carnet for Indonesia, and even then its not 100% sure they´ll let you enter. Heard of big problems in Jakarta airport and Surabaya seaport, even when all documents were supposed to be ok. I´d recommend using the Cakra Shipping line between Penang and Belawan (Sumatra), though you need to take another boat yourself. In Belawan, and with the carnet, it was no problem.