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