With numerous changes, restrictions and legislation impacting on travel affecting the Overlanding community and with countries such as Thailand requiring pre-authorised entry permits coupled with insisting on traveling with an authorized guide, we wanted to share our guide to island hopping starting in Australia to Timor-Leste then across the Indonesia Islands and onto Malaysia.
At present there are no restrictions on travel and no pre-authorized bureaucracy that needs to be attained before embarking on this route, we are traveling on UK issued passports and the car is traveling on a Carnet-de-passage.
This guide follows our path starting from Darwin, Australia and ending in Port Klang, (Kuala Lumpur), Malaysia. We took 6 car ferries, boxed our Landcruiser up twice for shipping on 2 container ships and covered around 8,000km / 4,500miles over a 2 month period.
The information here may change, especially the ferry schedules, these details are seldom updated on the provider’s web-site. We sourced information from meeting other overlanders along the way, chatting to the locals, turning up early at the ferry ports, gathering what we needed then returning to board the ferry and the truly invaluable resource, reaching out to overland forums.
The Route:
Yellow line – Container Ships
Blue – Road & Car Ferry
*Our driving route differed from this, the ferries crossings remain accurate.
AUSTRALIA
- Darwin, Australia to Dili, Timor-Leste – Container Ship (we flew)
TIMOR-LESTE (Land border crossing)
Dili, Timor-Leste to Kupang, West Timor (Crossing into Indonesia)*
INDONESIA – West Timor, Flores, Sumbawa, Lombok, Bali, Java, Kalimantan – Car Ferries
- Kupang, West Timor to Larantuka, Flores
- Labuhanbajo, Flores to Sape, Sumbawa
- Pelabuhan Sumbawa to Kayangan, Lombok
- Lembar, Lombok to Padang, Bali
- Gilimanuk, Bali to Ketapang, Java
- Semarang, Java to Kumai, Kalimantan
INDONESIA/MALAYSIA/BRUNEI/MALAYSIA/BRUNEI/MALAYSIA
Land border crossing:
West Kalimantan, Indonesia to Serian, Sarawak, Malaysia*
Miri, Sarawak, Malaysia to Brunei*
Brunei to Brunei-Muara District, Malaysia*
Limbang, Sarawak, Malaysia to Brunei*
Brunei to Sarawak, Malaysia*
Sarawak, Malaysia to Sabah, Malaysia*
MALAYSIA – Container Ship (We flew)
- Kota Kinabalu à Port Klang (Kuala Lumper)
*Passport control (have some free pages)
Summary of Ferries/Containers
Below are the ferries and container we took which included the carrier and costs:
IDR – Indonesia Rupiah
$1 AUD (Australian dollar): 13,000 IDR
$1 USD (American dollar): 10,000 IDR
£1 GBP (British Pound): 16500 IDR
| No: | Ports
OUT |
PORT
IN |
Day and time | Company | Crossing time | Cost IDR | AUD
(Approx) |
| 1 | Darwin, Australia | Dili, Timor-lest | Once every two week | ANL | 7 Days | n/a | $3000 |
| 2 | Kupang, West Timor | Larantuka, Flores | Twice weekly
Sunday & Thursday 12pm |
ASDP | 12-16 hours
(Had to wait in port on arrival for 2-3 hours) |
1,590,000
Car and 2 adults. Aircon room 50,000pp extra |
$155
$5pp |
| 3 | Labuanbajo, Flores | Bima, Sumbawa | Twice Daily
8am & 4pm
|
ASDP | 6-8 hours | 1,180,000
Car and 2 adults |
$115 |
| 4 | Poto Tano, Sumbawa | Labuhan, Lombok | Every 45 minutes
24 hours a day |
ASDP | 2 hours | 566,000
Car and 2 adults |
$55 |
| 5 | Lembar, Lombok
|
Padang Bai, Bali | Every 2 hours | ASDP | 4 hours | 862,000
Car and 2 adults |
$80 |
| 6 | Gillimanuk, Bali | Ketapang, Java | Every 30 minutes | ASDP | 2 hours | 144,000
Car and 2 adults |
$15 |
| 7 | Semarang, Java | Kumai, Kalimantan | Every 2-3 days | DLU | 24 hours | 3,000,000 car
Adult ticket from Economy to VIP 200,000-365,000pp
|
$300
|
| 8. | Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
|
Port Klang (Kuala Lumper) | Once a week | NCT | 10 DAYS | n/a | $850 |
INFO
Car Ferries:
We would suggest arriving around 3-4 hours before the departure time to guarantee a place on board for the more infrequent crossings, the more regular ones just turn up and get in line. They always left on time but they were normally late on docking due to low/high tide depending on the port, traffic or rough seas. Boarding the ferry sometimes requires reversing on and normally up the on-ramp into a small space between local trucks. Tethering/lashing your vehicle is optional, we didn’t and have noticed a few rub marks on the front bumper from other cargo. Access to you vehicle for the duration of the trip is not always possible, most of the truck drivers sleep in their cabs during the crossings and/or under the trucks, in one case under our car!
Food and drink are available on board all vessels, normally from a small shop with a slight mark up selling cold drinks, coffee/tea, pot noodles, biscuits, confections etc. You can also buy food from locals selling food before the boat departs as well as real fake Rolexes. If you book VIP on DLU you will get food included, you may wish to bring your own or eat snacks unless you ravish in cold rice and fish heads. Also no alcoholic beverages on board to purchase, BYO.
We found most of the ASDP ferries reasonably clean and the staff very friendly. With DLU the staff were also friendly, however, it wasn’t very clean and there were loads of cockroaches on board (you can see previous blogs for more information).
There are electrical plugs on board to charge your mobile devices but these are in short supply, some of the boats have a movie playing, normally in English and if you’re lucky you can sing the night away with the Karaoke on some ships.
Some of the staff try and sell you’re their cabins for a few dollars, alternatively, you can normally enter the VIP areas which has AC sometimes for free, sometimes for a small charge. On the overnight ferries we opted for the most expensive VIP options, don’t expect too much it’s not going to be a first class cabin on an Oceania cruise liner.
Shipping/Container
There are no car ferries to connect from Indonesia to mainland Asia, there may be a passenger ferry somewhere in Sumatra to Malaysia but this does not take cars. This leaves a couple of options either use a shipping container, shared or alone or RORO (Roll On/Roll Off).
There are many ports in Indonesia you can do this from, Jakarta being a prime one normally into Singapore, we know some overlanders have gone from Sumatra or from Java, we decided to head through Kalimantan & Borneo and then to ship between Borneo, Malaysia to Peninsula Malaysia.
If your vehicle is anything like ours, with a years’ worth of supplies, spare parts, accessories it is STRONGLY recommended you to use a container rather than RORO. We’ve heard tails of people having all their items kindly removed by locals while sat on a port dock somewhere awaiting customs clearance.
Australia to Timor-Leste
From Darwin to Dili the ANL agents packed, sometimes revered to as “Stuffed” our truck into a 20ft container. This required removing our items from the roof rack, including the roof top tent, hight-lift jack and storage box allowing for the height of the truck to clear the doors of the container. The guys at ANL “lashed” or ratchet strapped the vehicle to anchor points in the container to reduce movement when in transit, this can take an hour or so. We left the keys with them and had to trust them, they dropped the tyre pressure down to lower the car slightly, we were also present for when the container was open with the customs man in Dili.
Borneo, MalaPeninsularenusllar, Malaysia
We shipped from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah to Port Klang on the outskirts of Kuala Lumper on the recommendation from a fellow overlander Emi. We contacted a couple of companies and decided on the NCT Group as they were very professional, efficient and friendly. Conveniently they had another local car that needed to be shipped at the same time so we shared a 40f container and worked out a little cheaper the RORO which was our original plan.
From Kota Kinabalu to Port Klang, as we were sharing a 40ft high top container we didn’t have to remove anything from the roof. A simple case of turning up, dropping off the keys and then leaving.
In both cases, we moved any visible valuable items such as sat navs, stereo face plate, basically anything shiny and locked it in the back of the truck or hand carried it. We then cabled tied locks and access points to create a seal, not impenetrable to customs but enough to alert us to unauthorised access when we recover the truck at the other end. NCT also sealed all doors with masking tape creating a seal. We also moved items itemised on an check list such as spare bulbs and a triangle to the front seat so if customs in Port Klang checked they would be in clear sight.
Roads:
The roads across Timor and Indonesia are varied, mostly ok, we encountered every variation, you will need a 4×4 in the more rural areas, it would be possible to drive a standard car, the locals seem to manage it but a car on a 1″ lift (upgraded suspension) or with larger tyres would be recommended. Indonesia has some great toll roads, they’re not quite finished and have monstrous potholes so beware, we passed scores of people with burst tyres.
With the boom of palm oil the roads in Kalimantan are great, this we presume is to transport the fruits more efficiently, you do find yourself getting stuck behind the slower trucks at times. We were expecting mud tracks and to be getting stuck all the time, this is not the case anymore. If you head into the forests it changes to tracks, our satnav or google maps didn’t recognise the new roads. Brunei and the rest of Malaysia had better than most European countries.
Border Crossings/Carnet
In Australia, we had to get the truck inspected by Department of Immigration and Border Protection in Darwin city centre before heading to the ANL shipping company with our relevant documents. They signed off that the Carnet-De-Passage which is a customs document that identifies a traveller’s motor vehicle. It is required in order to take a motor vehicle into countries around the world. We also had to have the truck weighed, we drove to a local weight station that commercial trucks use and they printed us a ticket, 3.4 tonnes for the old Landcruiser!
Timor to Indonesia
The first overland border crossing was between Timor and Indonesia, they checked off the Carnet and 2 officials went through the truck, checking and looking for illegal contraband. The process took 1hr. Avoid lunch time (12 until 13) as they can be closed.
Indonesia into Malaysia
Super easy, checked the documents against the vehicle and we were on our way.
Malaysia into Brunei
We filled out a tempory permit to enter Brunei, this allowed us to travel freely for 30days. There was no charge for this. Officially we needed to get the Carnet stamped, this option avoided this and created less hassle for all involved. Due to the current road infrastructure in Malaysia the quickest route to travel from south to north is through Brunei, you have to enter Brunei, then exit into Malaysia, then enter Brunei again and then exit into Malaysia to cross. There is a boat that avoids one enter into Brunei that travels through the Labuan Federal Territory and onto Malaysia. We took the roads with no hassle.
Borneo, Malaysia to Peninsular, Malaysia
The only thing we had to do out of the normal paperwork was to get a verify a photocopied of the carnet and the car registering authorised by a notary/justice of the peace. We didn’t want to give the originals to the shipping company and they required these documents for customs clearance, this was the compromise.
Safety:
We encountered very little in the way of trouble on our journey and didn’t felt threatened at any stage. We did run into religious protests in Indonesia and had to hide in a government building while the armed guards moved on the strong crowd which was exciting. Wrong place, wrong time. Everywhere in Indonesia has a security guard manning the car parking, great peace of mind even at the low-cost dwellings.
Most people are bemused in seeing a foreign registered vehicle and are more interested in you and your car which is reciprocal, we felt very comfortable chatting to people, showing them around the car and in pigeon English/Bahasa/Malay, pointing and google translate including them in the journey. Allow and extra 15 minutes on check our to chat to the locals!
Police:
We were stopped twice, once on a toll road to check documents which turned out to be an impromptu photo session with the local cops #selfi
The second was to obey a local rule, all cars must drive with our windows down, we complied, laughed and carried on.
Things to See:
To try and illustrated all the amazing things we have encountered on this leg of our journey would be a huge undertaking which we try and cover in our sporadic updates of the blog. To summarise, Dili, Timor-Least is good for a couple of days, phenomenal scuba diving/snorkelling on Atauro Island, a highlight of the trip so far!; Flores, Indonesia is uncharted and worth exploring; Sumbawa, we tried exploring, not very much to do; Lombok, perfect for a holiday on a holiday, not a busy or crowded as Bali, loads to see and do; Bali is very commercial and is heavily trodden on by tourism, the north of the island a bit more honest avoid Kuta; Java is busy and parts are very Westernised, Yogyakarta and Bandung a great cities, super architectures; Kalimantan has the wildlife from what is left over by palm oil plantations, Brunei is brief but has the cheapest fuel so far (20 cents AUD/ 13 pence GBP a liter) Borneo has fantastic food, wildlife, walking, beaches and variation, super place!
Contacts:
Car Ferries:
Company: DLU (Dharma Lautan Utama)
http://dlu.co.id/
Address: Jl. Kanginan No. 3 – 5, Ketabang, Genteng, Kota SBY, Jawa Timur 60272, Indonesia
Phone: +62 31 5353505
Company: ASDP
https://www.indonesiaferry.co.id/ind/index.php
Address: Jl. Jend. Achmad Yani Kav.52 A, Jakarta – 10510, Indonesia
Telp : (+6221) 4208911 – 13 – 15
Container Shipping:
Company: ANL
http://www.anl.com.au/
Contact: Karen
ANL Container Line Pty Limited / North/South network, East/West network
Suite C305, Level 1, Tower 3, 19C Kitchener Drive, 0800 DARWIN
Phone 08 89447600
Company: NCT
Contacts: Grace, Salina and Jothi
Mile 5.5, Tuaran Road, Off Kolombong Road
BDC/SEDCO Industrial Estate
88450 Inanam, Kota Kinabalu
Sabah, Malaysia
P.O. Box 14640
88853 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
Tel: 60-88-435555
Fax: 60-88-435111, 435566
Email: info@nct.com.my
AGENT
Company: Agent in Klang, Malaysia
Smartworld Fright and Transport
Contact: Ms Emma
Lot 881,Batu Belah, Batu 2 ¾
421000 Klang, Selangor Darul Ehsan
