Lonely Planet™ · Thorn Tree Forum · 2020

border Indonesia PNG

Country forums / Pacific Islands & Papua New Guinea / Papua New Guinea

Has anyone crossed the border overland between Vanimo and Jayapura in the last weeks? Indeed, it seems that the PNG side was closed since the last indonesian election and nobody here is able to tell me if it reopened or not (not even the PNG consulate,,)

Thanks!

I know of 2 people (Indonesians) who crossed about 2 weeks ago from Indonesia into PNG.

1

Hmmm...I havent heard anything about that, but I'll be asking around in the next few days.

Out of curiosity, did you get your visa for PNG yet? Did you get it in Jayapura?

2

It is always worth a try, no matter what you are told.

On my first trip to PNG, immigration in Jayapura told me the border was closed, and when I went to the border itself to double-check, this was confirmed by the Indonesian border guards.
So I went into all the trouble and expense of finding a boat headed for Vanimo, obviously at a higher cost than going by land would have cost.
Then a few hours later, already in Vanimo, I met a Yank who simply turned up at the land border the very same day, and was allowed to cross, no problem!

3