Papua-Irian Jaya

My husband and I will be diving in Irian Jaya with Kararu Dive Voyages. We will fly from Denpasar to Manada and dive at KBR a few days before flying to Sorong. Would very much appreciate hearing anyone's experience with "overweight" bag charges and any suggestions. Do they weigh your carry on bag? I know the diving is going to be spectacular!

I dove Papua in Aug 04. Manado to Sorong on Lion Air which actually sub contracts to Wings Air. They fly a small F-28 (?) jet - about 50 passengers I think. Weight IS a problem. My bags were 25 & 31 kg. Their limit was 22 kg. I asked if there was a special weight allowance for scuba gear. After checking with her supervisor the agent said ok - have a nice flight. Lucked out. On the return flight from Sorong to Manado my little trick didn't work. It cost be about $25USD for my overweight. My travel agent told me to figure roughly $1.00/kg each way. No problem with my carry-on. With photo gear & stuff you know it wasn't light weight.

My flight from Manado to Denpasar on Garuda was a non-problem. I'm sure you will really enjoy the diving. Could be occasional strong current - hope you like drift diving.

Flew Garuda last month DPS to Manado and back. Lots of scuba and camera gear. No overweight charges. They did ask if I had dive gear when the needle pegged on the scale. I said yes, and they just loaded them on the conveyer. The plane wasn't all that small really. Carryon fit in the overhead.

Have a great time.

Rand

Flew from Manado to Sorong and Sorong to UP and then UP back to Denpesar. There was overweight; but you could bargin with the ticket agents. I was with a large group and we all pilled our stuff together and when it came to paying we were able to negotiate a smaller amount; Didn't amount to that much money in the scheme of things. They did try to tell us that some of it wouldn't make it, that was a little dicey for awhile until we collected it all. I think they enjoy watching foreigners squirm. Always use the "extra allowance for scuba gear" technique. Never know when it will work. Have a great trip.

Terry

Is Garuda big enough that they have first or business class? If not, I just blew my wad of frequent flyer miles on two business class tickets to Manado. Malaysia Air to Malaysia, then Garuda the remaining legs, to Jakarta, then Manado and back :shock: I will be using the camera vest technique to maximize my carry on, minimize my checked stuff. I will carry on most of my underwater stuff (titan housing and Oly 5060 withj Ike set up) two strobes and two ports. Thats about all I can squeeze into my small rollers.

Joe

Is Garuda big enough that they have first or business class? If not, I just blew my wad of frequent flyer miles on two business class tickets to Manado.

Joe

Your itinerary is different, but from Bali to Manado, there was a business class on Garuda.

Rand

These days most of the operators seem to be arranging connections to Sorong through Makassar (Ujung Pandang) on Pelita. There also is (or was) the direct flight on LionAir from Manado to Sorong, but it might not be every day. But I've been told this connection is considered less reliable than the Makassar flight on Pelita.

I'm sure that Tony Rhodes and the Kararu people will be able to figure out the best routing for you from Manado to Sorong. Follow their advice. If they say that it's best to fly back to Makkasar and then on to Sorong instead of taking the shorter, direct flight on LionAir (if that flight is still happening), I'm sure there's a good reason.

I just did the flights from here (Bali) to Sorong and back (via Makassar) a few weeks ago. We had to overnight in Makassar on the way out, but the people organizing our trip still didn't want to risk to Manado connection. Our group pooled our check-in bags, so there were no over-weight charges on either leg either way. I was carrying both a Pelican case with housing + ports and Phototrekker backpack with cameras and lenses as carry-ons. I was allowed to carry on both after explaining that these were sensitive photographic gear. The overhead racks in the Merpati and Pelita planes (Fokker something-or-others) are not big enough for either of these, but I was allowed to stow both in a small locker area in the rear of the plane, and was not required to check them.

In the past, some people have had problems of checked-in bags (with all clothes and all dive gear) not arriving in Sorong with them, and only following several days later. Everyone on one boat ended up diving with gear cobbled together from the spare bits on several boats and wearing the same swim suits and T-shirts for 14 days.

I'm not aware of this happening this season, but it did happen last year. It's probably worthwhile having a knowledgeable Bahasa Indonesian speaker handling check-in who can forcibly point out to check-in staff that these bags have to accompany passengers on the same flight. If the flight is full (which is usually the case) and there seem to be a lot of bags being checked, it might be worth asking this person to prepay some sort of gratuity to the ground staff to order to reinforce this message and assure your peace of mind.

Merpati also flies MDC-SOQ but only on Mondays. I've taken both Merpati and Pelita (which is daily) between MDC-SOQ direct and never had a problem with luggage. I fully agree with Frogfish that if the flight is full (and they usually are VERY full), a small "gratuity" or insurance will help loads. The way they load the planes is to stuff everything they can and if some can't fit... it waits for next time. The F28 fokkers aren't very big. Also expect a lot of duct tape ;-)

I know a production guy who had 150 kg of equipment that had to be in Sorong. I advised him on the gratuity (but made sure he didn't spoil the market excessively) and all his equipment followed him on the same plane and quite a few people (locals) didn't get their luggage at the other end. Also not haggling too much for US$1 per kg of overweight is probably a smart idea.

If you don't want to deal with this stuff personally, let the Kararu people handle it. I do know why some operators don't like MDC-SOQ direct is because of the schedule and the lack of alternatives once the flight is cancelled. At UPG(makkasar), there are 3 flights to Sorong daily Merpati is the earliest (but at 0335 I wouldn't take it), then Pelita and lastly Lion. Take it from me, you WANT alternatives. I was stuck in Biak for 3 days with flight cancellations in the 90s with no alternatives. That said...the diving will be awesome, especially if this is your first trip to the area.