Visa Troubles going from Bougainville to the Solomon Islands

Hi everybody

My wife (Slovak) and me (German) had big troubles going from Bougainville Island (PNG) to Taro Island near Choiseul (Solomon Islands) this April 2008 by fisherboat. On Taro our passports were taken away by the police when we went there immediatly after our arrival. 4 Slovaks who stayed there for 2 days already waiting for further transport were facing the same problem. Together with them we went to Gizo by boat, arriving there had to pay double the price for the ride than we agreed upon. One police officer in Gizo kind of forced us to pay threatening to put us to jail otherwise (we had no passports already so we better paid). Took the passenger boat MV Pelican to Honiara two days later. There we got the Passports back but we did not get any Visa. The Immigration departement said we arrived illegaly because Taro was no Port of entry so we could not get a Visa. They gave us 7 days to leave the country, the 4 Slovaks had a flight after 5 days anyway. My wife and me went a lot to the immigration department, we got a lot of friendly smiles but no Visa. Could stay some days longer but in the end we were forced to fly out of the country (to Australia) which was kind of hard for us because we wanted to go around the world without flying (made it there from Germany, fantastic trip so far, now we will continue). We had the strong feeling the (australian part of the) RAMSI troops had a much stronger interest in what happend than the Solomon officials themselves but we are not sure about this.

We still had a great time in the Solomons (mainly Honiara), met some very nice melanesian people. Would recommend it as a good place for traveling, not so many tourists there. If you want to take the beautiful ride from Bougainville maybe organize it all the way through to Gizo which is an official Port of entry. On the other hand, one of the nice younger police officers on Taro island told us quite a lot of people went via Taro without having problems, even recently. He would have let us go through anyway.

Good luck with your travels
Zwerni

There have been on-going border issues between Bougainville and Solomon Islands over the last 20 years.
I would advise anyone wanting to use this route to check with the Solomon Islands HIgh Commission (Embassy) in Port Moresby first, or as the OP says, go direct to Gizo, rather than Taro (Choiseul is very much off the beaten track to most Solomon Islanders).
The President of Bougainville died last week, and there are now issues regarding mining rights there, so take care and check travel advisories first.

I wonder how travellers crossing into the Shortland Islands might fare these days, as the Shortlands, unlike Choiseul, ARE a legal point of entry in theory - though in practice had no immigration officer when I crossed there (probably the same today).

I had also herad from an Israeli who crossed to Choiseul that RAMSI there were giving him troubles, but he did get an entry stam eventually.
It would probably be best to avoid RAMSI, and preferably even Choiseul altogether, by crossing via the Shortlands and reporting only to immigration in Gizo.

But I also can't help feeling that the recent case around the war-relic smuggling may have made SI authorities less keen on foreigners entering that way.
Too bad, as having "overland" access can only give tourism in the Solomons a much-needed boost!

There could well be a direct Brisbane - Munda flight in the next year or so.

Agree with Laszlo,
We went the other way around last year, that is from Gizo to Bouganville and had no problems with immigration. We sailed around shortlands and did not see pretty much anyone, so we doubt there is any immigration. But after checking out in Gizo and before checking in Bouganville we did stop in Shortlands. But formally we should not.