Pelni timetable and Northern Borneo/Indonesian Kalimantan - 4

Next issue to be looked at is the locations of immigration office.

Specifically, we need to know where Indonesian consulates are in northern Borneo, as Indonesia do not cater for visas-on-arrival (except at certain places) unlike Malaysia and the Phyls.

You might then think that since the linkage we are looking at is between Sandakan and Zamboanga there is an office of some sort in Sandakan. It is not true and there is nothing in Sandakan for entry into Indonesia.

Indonesian consulates you need for entry into Indonesia

                                          

in Malaysian Borneo only operate in Kota Kinabalu on the other side and Tawau on Mindanao side. Tawau, in particular, is important because Tawau is closest to Indonesia's Nunukan by sea and Tarakan by both sea and air.

And, neither Nunukan nor Tarakan issue visas on arrival. That is why Tawau is deemed important not just as a nearest gateway to Indonesia, but also as a base for getting the paperwork done.

               

It is also physically very far from Sandakan. I have done this Sandakan-Tawau route by a rentacar and it takes 6,7hours. There is no ferry link between Tawau and Sandakan, either.

So, Indonesia (only) present a practical visa problem. In what follows I will be mindful of this fact and guide you through as painlessly as possible.

Before going any further let us be clear about the location of the Consulate in KK and Tawau.

In Kota Kibabalu it is not that difficult to find the Indonesian consulate in town. 

                            

There is only one river in Kota Kinabalu as you will see, coming into town from the airport. Where two rivers meet is the Consulate. You can check this area against any other Google maps and locate it.

                   The largest structure you can see on above aerial photo is the raised road crossing another main road underneath, coming from town centre. I was a frequent user of these roads until recently.

Next, take a look at Tawau.

Tawau looks like as follows.

I stayed here in January 2016 for a few days. It is fairly a large town and I found

 walking about in heat was too much.

What follows is the pier location. I should imagine that the distance between them is approx. 4km. I woud not dare walk to the pier.

                      Tawau, areawise, is a much larger town than Sandakan. Sandakan is a lot smaller than KK and KK is a very small town.

I should perhaps add, at the end of this article, that Idonesia do offer visas-on-arrival at some key places. I will come to that and other issues in the next article.

 

Pelni timetable and Zamboanga/Sandakan - 3

Here, I will talk about Zamboanga-Sandakan route, only.

What you want to know is where you can actually buy your tickets and what you should expect in each of these two port towns. Having got it out of the way I will then talk about details.

In Zambpanga you can buy your tickets at the terminal building close to the pier for

 high speed boats. See following pictures.

 This picture above is showing you the aerial view of the port of Zamboanga. Port terminal is the large white building on this photo.

You can see it better with the following photo below.

 The outermost pier is for liners, linking Zamboanga and Sandakan direct. High speed boats willl make a few stops on

the way. Even larger one is the following.

In Sandakan the matter is more complicated, because tickets are not sold in the town centre of Sandakan. For that matter, the pier itself is located in an area called Karamunting, some 7km outside Sandakan town centre and your ticketing office is not there either, but somewhere between them.

Best to deal with this complication with pictures.

                                  

On this picture above the smallest square at the bottom left is the location of the pier. Sandakan is on the right within the largest square, and the ticketing office is to the left of this large square.

The distance between the pier and the town centre is approx. 7km. There are other piers closer to Sandakan town centre, but they are meant for Malaysian navy/coastguard ships.

              

This aerial photo above is showing you the exact location of the ticketing office, slightly outside town centre. It is a very small office, almost unnoticeable on the ground floor of a hotel called "Hsian Garden". Office name is Maritime (TEL: 089-212-063)

Apparently, there are inscriptions on the outside both in Malay and Chinese languages.

Yo may also try at the following office inSandakan.

 
Standard Marine Agencies Sdn Bhd Block G,
Lot 1, 1st floor, Bandar, Ramai-Ramai, Jalan Leila,
Sandakan, Sabah Malaysia
Tel # (0060)(89) 216-996, 217-607, 271-998
E-mail Address: chowyangann@standard-marine.com.my

So, I have dealt with ticket office locations. On the next article I will talk about locations of immigration office and visa requirements with a few route maps.

One small note of caution here might be the fact that as far as I am concerned being able to cross into the Phyls or Malaysia/Indonesia is not the prerequisite of going about largely in the historical context of the Banda sea area.