I took a ferry from Bira (Sulawesi) to Labuan Bajo (Flores) via Jampea on 18.03.24. The ship was scheduled to leave at 9pm local time. I was told to be there 7pm and 9pm. We finally left the port at 1:30am in the morning after boarding at around midnight. We arrived at Jampea at 1pm and left it at 6:30pm. I was able to drive off at 10am on 20.03.24.

I paid 255.000 for me and my bike for both connections. The ticket for the bike says <500cc, but that's okay.

The ship's name was "Sangke Palangga" and is operated by ASDP: https://www.vesselfinder.com/vessels/details/8738419

Both websites (asdp.id and ferizy.com) don't give out reliable information about the schedule, but they do answer emails quickly and patiently: cs@asdp.id

The ferry is a small one and boarding is a hot mess. It seems to be the only way Jampea is supplied with goods. The boarding process took around six hours with dozens of trucks driving onto the ferry, turning around, offloading and driving back out. At the end every square inch was occupied by goods needed mostly in Jampea. Then they squeeze in a few cars, trucks, and motorcycles.

Fortunately right next to the ferry they're building wooden ships for tourism. The construction manager is a suisse guy who I had a chat with while he showed me around on one of his constructions. It's impressive how they're still building ships like in the "Curse of the Caribbean".

The ferries passenger area is not really separated from the outside nor the car deck. When it's raining, only plastic planes in front of the windows keep the worst out, but wind will bring in some drops. There were a lot of passengers, the mattresses were mostly taken off the bunk beds and scattered around everywhere. Every square inch was taken by somebody trying to get some sleep. I needed to be extremely careful not to step onto people while walking around.

Meals are not included, but there's a possibility to buy instant noodles for 15.000 a cup. The whole passenger area is littered in trash if it's not thrown out into the ocean. Smokers smoke wherever they want to. The only room kept clean seems to be the mosque.

There's an air-conditioned room with soft seats, but it's hard to get a seat there. A separate ticket is not needed for it. Tickets got collected an hour before each arrival.

As the only white guy I was invited to the bridge when we left Bira. Impressive to see the process of leaving the port.

When we arrived at Jampea basically the whole village was waiting on the jetty. Of course I got a lot of attention when I left the ship to walk around. After I got off the ramp and walked 50m, I turned around and saw that the ramp was pulled up again and the ship moved away. I ran back scared and asked whether they're leaving without me. Everyone laughed their asses off because the ship was just turning 90 degrees to open a small door on the side to unload the cargo. That process took 5:30h (they said it would take four), so there's plenty of time to walk around, have lunch and buy some stuff at the local convenience store. After unloading all the stuff for the island other stuff, mostly fish, got loaded, even more messy than in Bira because this time no vehicles needed to driver onto the ship anymore. After that we sailed off, this time even slower at 15km/h. Fortunately most people left in Jampea, so I finally got my own bunk bed, although still without mattress.

After all, this ferry ride was an adventure on it's own and probably the longest I'll ever have to do in Indonesia. It's the combination of two days on a relatively small ferry, compared to the one serving Balikpapan to Pare-Pare, that might make it the worst overall. I've heard that the one I took was the first to be operating again after a storm that held up the previous one in Jampea for five days. It was just operational again the day I used it.

I took some pictures and added descriptions: https://photos.app.goo.gl/QurgZPhSjma7gs9i8



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Ha-ha-ha thats a great trip report! Reminded me a lot of both the Larantuka to Kupang (Flores island to Timor island) where the only free space I found to sit for the 18 hour crossing was a mooring pole at the rear of the ferry. It was also absolutely packed with goods, livestock and vehicles and passengers. And the Surabaya to Makassar ferry (Java island to Sulewesi island) where the only free space was on a bit of carboard - that a friendly guy offered me - on the cardeck.
But it is an adventure for sure….

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