Not Allowed To Ride in Indonesia
 

I arrived in Dumai Indonesia, no problems through immigration and got the bike through customs, I was then told I had to go down to the local police station and register there. They were not there when arrived that evening so had to return the next morning. I had a large ride that day so arranged to meet them at 8am no one showed up till about 9.30 and nobody appeared to know what they were doing after stuffing around for an hour and a half.

Then the head honcho "Fadly M. Ismail Sh .Sik" said I could not take my bike. No justifiable reason was given they said my Carnet was not an acceptable document as registration. I argued every possible way but they refused after supposedly calling there superiors in Jakarta. I was chatting some blokes who where teachers in the town and they informed me that all bikers must register with the cops but they have never seen any problems, the only explanation they could offer was political problems with Australia.

So if your Australian and crossing into Indo via Dumai DON'T STOP AT THE COPS!

Bugger!

Sorry to hear of your woes.

You should be fine without that document anyway - we only got stopped once in 2 months after overtaking some bikecops in Kupang and I think all they were after was baksheesh...

That truly sucks! But I would agree with your recommendation, avoid the cops in Indonesia if at all possible. We were stopped 3 times to see our driver's licence and they also asked for my International Licence which was expired. I just showed them my California licence and said "international" and they seemed ok with that. Another time, I was about to show them my carnet when they demanded an international licence, and after slowly unpacking my stuff to get access to the carnet, they just said ok, ok, you can go...

S... happens
 

Hi Chris,

that is Tanja and Christian on the blue AfricaTwin from Laos and Cambodia.

Good to hear that you made it to Indonesia so far. But what are you doing now? You go back or what? You waited until the police go home?

Would be nice to hear from you
Tanja & Christian

Gday Tanja & Christian, Yer I could have traveled with out my bike but otherwise there is only one road to the next town and they had already been in contact with cops up ahead. I could have waited a day or so but Dumai is the pits and I did not feel like major hassles from the locals so close to home! Safe travels
chris

Hi Chris,

maybe, you remember us??
We met you in Laos at the nice waterfall!!
we are traveling on our 2 teneres around the world.
we are now in cameron highlands and getting your story!!!
that sounds not good!!
and i heard, that the border to east timor is closed as well!!??

how are you and what are you doing now??

we think about flying from kl to australia now??!!
instead of driving through indonesia