MALAYSIA

Borneo

As said in many publications, Borneo is different from the Malaysian peninsula. Both regions, Sarawak and Sabah, jealously defend their differences and keep as much independence as possible from the federal government. They are more “laid back” in their way of life too, one consequence being that official services opening hours are different!

The climate is different from the mainland, less hot in the dry season and more humid in monsoon season. Crocodiles live in the rivers and yes – they may show up on the beaches around the mouth of the rivers. This is no joke, so it is not a good idea to dive under the hull in those places!

The Grab App

[The leading ride-hailing, taxi, food delivery and grocery app in Southeast Asia]

That’s the first thing to know about when ashore. This application on your cellphone saves you time, money and worries. The most useful service is the “taxi” you can book and pay from your phone. You know the time to wait and the price ahead of the trip, the amount is taken after the trip. Price is very low and chauffeur’s availability very good.

You can get lunches delivered (not on board though) at the Marina, or any address you want. Groceries may be ordered on line and delivered too; the ratio items delivered / items ordered is not very exact though: 50 to 60% of the items ordered are delivered.

Grab is available anywhere in Malaysia and Indonesia.

Ordering online, other options:

• Shopee
• Lazada
• Rainbow Runner for scuba diving gear

NW Borneo, Sarawak, Kuching

Kuching is the capital and chief port of Sarawak in NW Borneo.

Do not expect a marina here as the pontoons have been destroyed. Mooring just downstream of what’s left of the marina is possible, or closer to the mouth of the river, 4 NM downstream, in a curb in front of a village on the right (Kampung Sijingcat).

The marina office however, is still in operation. The staff are friendly and eager to help and will drive you to CIQ which is close by.

• Contact: Mr Bohary : +60 10-592 1090.

We were told the federal authorities could move their offices into town next year, then the State would take over the premises and there would be a chance the marina would get some funding.

Getting a 60-day Indonesian visa here:

We went to get our 60-day visa for Indonesia at the Indonesian Consulate and were told we could apply on-line. After the headache of the Vessel Declaration System (VDS) for Indonesia (see notes further down under Indonesia), we were not too optimistic, so we asked the Consulate employee to give us a hand, which she did smilingly. Half an hour later we had our two visas. On the other hand, they didn’t know about VDS and couldn’t assist us! (https://molina.imigrasi.go.id/)

Other local info:

• Scuba Diving shop: Kuching Scuba Centre, 159, Jalan Chan Chin Ann, 93100 Kuching. Well staffed and competent.
• Muara Tebas Seafood Restaurant, 10, Jalan Kampung Muara Tebas, Sungai Buda Kecil.  An excellent seafood restaurant we wouldn’t have found by ourselves.  Located at the mouth of the river Sarawak, built over water, the living animals are waiting for your choice in aquariums all over the place. It is at the foot of the Ching San Yen temple.

NE Sarawak, Miri

Miri is located near the border with Brunei and is the birthplace of the Malaysian petroleum industry.

Here there is a privately-owned marina, run by an excellent Manager, Captain Arrifin. The marina is cleaned every day, the pontoons well maintained, the premises are simple but good enough. We left our catamaran for five months there, pricing is reasonable.

We had maintenance performed on a scuba diving compressor and tanks and our life raft was serviced too. Jobs were well done by qualified companies sent out by the Manager. We can only recommend this tiny, though well-placed and well-protected marina.

CIQ process:

As we had done the CIQ in in Kuching, we had only to check out in Miri in this order: Immigration, Customs (same building) then Harbour Master (Jabatan Laut). We were lucky to have Captain Arrifin drive us to those places.

Contacts in Miri:

We were dealing with all of the following contacts :

• Marina:  Captain Arrifin Abdul Aziz – Tel; +60 014 273 0186; email [email protected]
• Mechanic workshop: Ho Simon Tel; +60 016 826 2748 (engine sea water pump reassembly)
• Alliance Bearings: Tel; +60 085 412273, +60 085 412276; lot 615 Jalan Permaisuri 98007 Miri; email [email protected]
• Upholstery, tarp jobs: Kiwi Enterprise Tel; +60 016 8720 660; email [email protected]  They make any job within two days, but for Sunbrella they need one week.
• Scuba diving: tanks service, air compressor repair: Kenyalang Underwater Services Tel; +60 013 8365 050
• Life raft service: Keisha Marine, Jacky Wong +60 013 865 2392; [email protected]; [email protected]
• Outboard repair. Yanmar & Makita distributors: Soon Hung Trading Tel: +60 085 421919 & +60 085 421515; [email protected] (we placed an order for a Makita device on the Internet and got it in three days).
• Yanmar distributor. Pansar is the big company which imports spare and engines. The only problem is to know who to ask for. We were told Daniel +60 16-886 8381 and Me Lau +60 16-879 8319. Daniel answered quickly and provided us with a proper quotation. However for anything that is not in stock, the delivery time goes from four to six weeks. You can get it delivered anywhere. So be ready to place an order ahead of time.

The Miri Yachties community:

Walter & Gisela – SV Atlantis;  they live in Miri, they sail and are the social link between sailors here. Yachties share a pot-luck dinner every Friday evening at the Marina terrace.  Tel: +60 (0)135 138 534,
 email [email protected]

Borneo, Sabah, Labuan

Labuan lies five miles off the coast of Borneo, adjacent to the Malaysian state of Sabah. Officially the Federal Territory of Labuan, it is an island federal territory of Malaysia which includes Labuan Island and six smaller islands, off the coast of the state of Sabah.

The marina here is pretty small and also in need of repair. Do not count on facilities.

• Marina, call Ana +60 16-708 6909.
• The best seafood restaurant: New Sung Hwa, First Floor, U0002, Jalan Okk Awang Besar

Sabah, Kota Kinabalu

CIQ Process

Customs and Immigration are conveniently located in the Sabah Port Authority quarters, Jalan Tanjung Lipat. Marina Office (Harbour Master) is 36 km away: Jabatan Laut, Wilayah Sabah, No.2, Kompleks Jabatan Laut, Teluk Salut, Jalan Sepanggar.

LPG Refills:

Never easy. Here is the address given by Sutera Harbor Marina:

• Syarikat International Home Gas
  Block J, Lot 9, Jalan Sugut, Segama 88000, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. Tel +60 088-252 613

You need to take a Grab and bring your tank for refill. Our tank was bought in Thailand and they were able to reload it to 7.5 kg instead of 13. We decided to buy a Malaysian one with its own regulator.

Instead of bringing the gas by ourselves, we asked the Marina crew if they could find somebody who could do the job. They found a worker in the Marina, who was eager to get our tank refilled one way or another, and did the job for a very reasonable fee.

INDONESIA

Belitung

From Kuching, Borneo, Malaysia, we made our entry into Indonesia at Belitung at the port of Tanjun Pandan.

Thinking we would be closer to the city, we moored four miles south of the entry of the river that goes to the harbor. With the dinghy we entered the harbor at low tide.  We couldn’t enter with our catamaran because the river is very narrow, buoys are either there or they are not and it’s overcrowded with fishing boats. There is no place to land so we moored the dinghy behind the police boats and had to climb over the pontoon.

In the city everything was closed due to a two-day holiday to celebrate the end of Ramadan. So, we decided to move to the north cove, named Tanjung Kelayan, or Marina Beach by the locals. It was a lovely place.

A pontoon stretches into the water with local tourist boats attached to it. We chose this as the spot to land with our dinghy and went ashore where we were welcomed by Edy, who took over the café previously run by Evan. Evan had to change jobs because of COVID and is now driving customers from the airport. However, he still assists the sailors.  When you come ashore, just ask Edy and he will call Evan and make an appointment for you.

Edy runs the café and arranges for diesel and laundry delivery at the beach, not on board. We learned there are three categories of diesel. The lowest grade is Solar, the intermediate is Dex Lite, the best is Dex. We opted for the best and had to pay 24,000 Rupiah per liter (1.5 € approximately).

CIQ Process:

Evan took us in his car to clear in, with the first stop Immigration – Jalan Jend. Sudirman Km. 6,5 Tg. Pandan 33413.

We had already booked our 60-day tourist visa at the Indonesian Consulate in Kuching, which cost approximately 94€ per person. You can apply for this Visa online: https://molina.imigrasi.go.id/

The other offices are located conveniently at the same place in Laskar Pelangi Harbor. Then we went to Customs, who wanted to visit our yacht (the next day) and finally Quarantine.

It cost 75,000 Rupiah for the papers and 70,000 Rupiah for the Green Book.

At the Harbor Master’s office, we couldn’t proceed without the Customs papers, so we had to wait and come back the next day.

Next morning we picked up the two Customs officers with our dinghy. They took a few pictures and asked a few questions. They checked our MMSI and AIS, asked if we had guns and had a look in the pantry. When they had finished their inspection we had to return to their office. Thanks to Evan we then headed for the Harbor Master.  Allow between one and a half and two hours per office visit.

About the Vessel Declaration System (VDS)

• This must be done in advance of visiting Indonesia (up to 24 hours).
• First step is registration, with your name, email and password. It is completed when you receive an email for confirmation, only then you can log on. It took two weeks to get this confirmation by email!
• Then you must enter your yacht details. Don’t forget to click on the “save” button at the very end of the page. As there are several sections to the document, it is recommended to save at every step to avoid having to redo the process. You must SUBMIT your document using a very small button at the top right of the screen. We filled all of the requested information carefully, including our planned route. We didn’t receive any confirmation.
• The Customs officials couldn’t get access to our page from their laptop. We had to show them our full registration on our own laptop. Then they asked us to open our own session into their laptop, so they could read our data and proceed to the next step and finally deliver the Vessel Declaration (two pages).
• So the VDS application is not 100% reliable and the officials in Tanjung Pandan don’t have all of the access.

Cell phone and data:

You must have your phone registered in order to buy a SIM card, otherwise the SIM card won’t work. At Tanjung Pandan, Customs don’t have the ability to do this, so, you have to go to GraPARI Telkomsel, Jalan Jendral Sudirman N° 28 D-E.

They will register the IMEI number of your phone. Then you buy data, either local data (which works only on the island) or international data. One SIM card with 200 GB of International Data, valid 30 days, cost 450,000 Rupiah.

Evan’s service:

Evan was two full days with us, driving us to the city (a good half hour drive), where we could run other chores including changing money at the bank, food shopping and organising our cell phone SIM card.

He was very helpful and kind and charged 700,000 Rupiah per day (40 € approximately) which seems very reasonable.  He can be contacted on +62 819 777 81455.  However, he is not an Agent and we were not requested to hire one.

In Summary

• The first entry into Indonesia takes more than one day if Customs want to visit your boat.
• Beware that your (foreign) cell phone must be registered before it will work with Indonesian SIM cards.
• The advance vessel declaration (VDS) is still a hassle.
• People are very kind and helpful anyway. So just be patient and keep smiling.

Dominque Cabarroque
SY Manuka

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Read Dominique’s previous reports on repairs and maintenance work they had done in Thailand and Malaysia:

• Malaysia:  Competent Repair Services
• Thailand:  Anatomy of a Refit

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The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect the view of Noonsite.com or World Cruising Club.

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