Pelni timetable and Bitun, Suraweshi - 6

Indonesian visa - paperworks

(Partly relating to Surawesi - General Santos sea route with immigration office location within northern Surawesi)

In Manado:

Address: Jl. 17 Agustus No.45, Telp: 0431-841688, 863491

                       

                                                    

In Bitung:

Immigration office is located as follows on the map below.

Address: Jl. Dr. Sam Ratulangi, Telp: 0438-31869

 This place is approx. 1.5km from the port of Bitung and as the following map shows it is also right next to a Pelni ffice.

 This is showing you the town of Bitung.

          Another one in town.

The most obvious landmark will be the tunas, as shown here. Bitung is where tunas are unloaded from fishing boats and taken to Manado airtport for flight to Tokyo for

 immediate consumption.

 

However, you cannot get your boat ticket at this Pelni office as the ship is not one of theirs. You should not expect a ship like below, either.

 This is a much more decent ship meant for island hoppers in the region.

The ship we are talking about is a small cargo boat meant to carry chickens and stuff between Surawesi and Mindanao and passengers are only additional loads as far as the ship is concerned.

It will take some 5 days back and forth, costing you approx. 15 USD equivalent one way. Sailing frequency is small, once a week from Bitung at 14:00 on Saturdays only.

Not much else is known at the time of writing this, primariy because few records have been left to date. There is a very vivid account of the voyage made by a Japanese backpacker.

He made his quick return trip for visa renewal only, Bitung-Gensan-Bitung without spending time in Gensan. He was travelling with half a dozen European backpackers and local people , but he did not leave concrete information at all let alone year record.

In his account, even one married European couple made it from the Phyls by the same boat back to Bitung, all with a very large number of noisy chickens on board.

So, all we know is that this cargo service is perhaps handled by EPA Shipping Lines in Bitung. We know where their office is located.

EPA Shipping Lines : 089-380-3591

PHP 1800, twice weekly and approx. 36 hours one way. Check with tourist office and there is also an Indonesian Consulate in Davao.

See following maps and photos.

                   

                                            

                

As a matter of fact, there is another shipping line involved in this route.

EAGA AGRO MARINE PUTRI SHIPPING AGENCY : TEL: 063-553-4552/552-9824

 They even run a car rental as follows.

EAGA Rent-a-Car Services @ Rivera St, Lagao, Gensan TEL: 063-552-3470   

However, it is my impression that they really only look after cargos, not passengers.

As I mentioned earlier I do not think these local (well, almost) traffics are subjcted to political and economic turmoils. So, despite universal suspicions and doubts and all other nagging thoughts I believe that this route is alive at all times. 

What follows are some more photos of Bitung.

                                                 

                             

          

This is a lovely port town and in the nearby forests you will see small monkeys as you also find elsewhere in Bohol in the Phyls.

                                          

On a slightly seperate note and for your visa information in general what follows must be of value to all of us.

Visas-on-arrival (35 USD) :

If you are arriving/departing using Manado International airport or port of Bitung you will need to obtain a visa-on-arrival even if your stay as a tourist is limited to less than 30 days (not extendable).

In so doing you need to have your valid passport with more than 6 months left and more than 3 blank pages. You will also need to have a valid ticket for going out of Indonesia.

No visa entry :

This no visa entry practice is based on the declaration by Indonesian government made and put into practice on 12 June 2015 that:

Travellers from 30 countries including Japan are exempt from obtaining visas prior to entering Indonesia as tourists if their intention is for staying less than 30 days. 

However, you can benefit from this procedure at the following places only.

5 international airports :

Jakarta, Denpasar, Medan, Surabaya, and Batum

3 sea ports :

Tanjung Pinang, Batum (Batum Centre and Sekpan), and Tanjung Ubang

Please note that :

Even if you enter Indonesia via one of above places but intend to leave Indonesia from a place not listed above you will still need to obtain a visa-on-arrival.

For example, if you enter Indonesia at Jakarta International and intend to depart from Yogyakarta you will still need to obtain a visa-on-arrival.

If you do not want to do that for some reason you will then be asked to depart from one of the above listed places.

In the next article I will be looking at what it is like at the other end in General Santos, aka, Gensan locally.

Pelni timetable and Sandakan/Tawau Northern Borneo - 5

From article 4 of this Pelni series we now know where Indonesian consulates are located in northern Borneo.

One in Kota Kinabalu and one in Tawau, but not in Sandkan (for entry into Indonesia).

       (Tawau consulate)

Let us consider why consulates come into the picture in the first place, of border crossing from the Phyls through Malaysian Borneo into Indonesia and in fact this is where things get muddy.

So, best to concentrate on one direction only for the moment.

Going through this route from Indonesia into the Phyls is not a problem, simply because both Malaysia and the Philippines offer visas-on-arrival, assuming, of course, that you

 have a valid passport.

The only thing that then matters is that you cannot bypass Malaysia, but that is not a big issue. By the sea route from Indonesia you simply arrive at Tawau and the rest will be more or less domestic matters within the boundaries of Malaysian Borneo.

However, coming down the other way is a lot more complicated.

There are good reasons. In theroy, then:

1. The Philippines immigration will not let you out into Malaysia unless you have a valid ticket for going out from Malaysia once in.

2. Malaysian authorities in Sandakan will not let you in without a valid ticket for going out of Malaysia,

3. let alone with Indonesian authorities letting you in at Tawau, unless you have a valid ticket for going out of Indonesia with proper entry records into Malaysia.

All this sounds formidable and :

You may wonder why, and my own answer to that is the strict passport control by Indonesia. For instance, once you are in Malaysia and/or in the Phyls you can extend your visa without going out of the respective country.

With Indonesia you cannot do that and in fact that is why some people tried in the past to solve this problem by going into the Phyls via Surawesi-General Santos route. I will come to that later, as it is an important topic on its own.

What you should know as the Tawau paperwork is as follows.

1. The visa you can ask for is a 60 day once only entry visa. If you apply in the morning you may get it in the afternoon of the same day.

2. You shoud have a valid passport.

3. Copies of the passport main pages and in particular a copy of the page with the Malaysian entry stamp. (I always make copies anyway for renting cars and bikes)

4. Ticket for going out of Indonesia

5.  Two Photos

You are expected to pay for all this by MR. So, have ready MR 200.

Having cleared your passport business you then proceed to the pier and your boats shoud be waiting for you as follows.

                   

 

Let us recap here what we have been looking at. Will it be a long way from the ferry terminal at Zamboanga?

Once you are in here go to the ticket office and pay PHP 3100 one way. As I remember it the other way is something like MR 250, I think.

Immigration office is in the waiting section on the right as you enter this area. There are lots of 2 Go service notices, but this place is not exclusively for their 2 Go ferry service. So, just walk in.

                   (2 Go ferry, domestic only)

Liners depart twice a week (Monday and Thursday) at noon, taking approx. 24 hours to reach Sandakan from here.

I would not reccommend taking high speed boats as they will make stops at Islamic radicals infested islands down the way to Sandakan.

(SRN Fastcraft : 062-992-3765 by Weesam Express boats twice weekly, PHP 5400 and approx. 8 hours)

            (Alleson liner PPA Terminal)

Aleson Lines : 062-991-2687

                   1st deck space is used for cargos and passengrs occupy levels above.

Here perhaps, I should touch on Indonesian visas-on-arrival. There are 2 types, 7 day and 30 day visas at 10 and 25 USD each.   

You need a valid passport and show your outgoing ticket.

Airports are:

Bali, Jakarta, Denpasar, Surabaya, Medan, Manado, Balikpapan, Surakarta (Solo), Lombok, Padan, Makassar, Kupan, Yogyakarta and Pakanbal

Sea ports are:

Jakarta, Batum, Medan, Makassar, Surabaya, Bali,  Jayapura, Bintan, Dumai, Padan, and Belawan

Keep in mind that there may be a few omissioons and new additions.

I once flew into Tarakan airport from KK via Tawau aiport. My passport was confiscated for obvious reasons. So, you really need to tun up at the Tawau consulate.