Travel documents
Passport
All travellers to Indonesia must be in possession of a passport that is valid for at least six 6 months from the date of arrival and must contain at least one blank visa page. Furthermore, all travellers must have proof tickets of onward or return passage. You are always responsible for being in possession of valid documents, tickets and visas.
Visa
Visa-on-arrival are valid for 30-days, are non-extendable and cannot be transferred into any other type of stay permit. Please check here if you country is eligible for this type of visa. The following option are applicable if your country is not mentioned or you want to travel for more than 30-days:
Health & safety
Health precautions
In general the following vaccinations are recommended for Indonesia: DTP and Hepatitis. Additionally, Malaria is a reality in some parts of Indonesia and the Mentawai Islands are one of them. We strongly recommend you contact your National Health Service for information on current necessary vaccinations and malaria precautions.
Travel insurance
Hiking in the jungles of Siberut and Surfing in the Mentawai Islands can be quite extreme and although we wish our guest a safe and incident free trip, accidents do happen. So, we highly recommend you apply for a travel insurance. Umata Village is not responsible for any health problems arising from environmental factors during your stay.
First aid supplies
Please bring your own basic care for first small accidents: band aids, alcohol, antibiotic ointment, and some over the counter pain/anti-inflammatory medications.
Safety
Mostly, there is no travel alert for West-Sumatra, and it is considered as safe. However, it is always recommended when travelling to take extra care of your valuables and be alert in the city. In addition, Indonesia is placed on ‘the ring of fire’ meaning that an earthquake or tsunami may occur. Umata Village’s staff is trained on what to do in case of an earthquake or tsunami, and government emergency routes are often available to higher ground.
Money affairs
Currency
The currency in Indonesia is Rupiah. We do not prefer you pay cash upon arrival as we need the amount to prepare your trip beforehand. Especially, payments in Euro we do not allow, as we cannot exchange money on Siberut and will have to take it to the city Padang. The exact exchange rate can be seen below
Please mind that most matters need to be paid in rupiah e.g. visa, ferry tickets, taxi etc. So, we recommend you change your money directly at the airport for the best rate or in the city of Padang. There are no ATMs on Siberut where you can collect money with a foreign debit or credit card. However, there are multiple ATMs in Padang that accept Visa and Mastercard.
Tipping
Tipping the crew is not mandatory, but highly appreciated. Umata Village does not include a tipping fee in its rates. If you want to include a tip perhaps provide 5-10% of the total bill and we will make sure it is divided among all staff equally.
Other costs
Electricity
Electrical outlets
Electricity in Indonesia is 220 volts and electrical outlets are the same as in Europe. There is not always electricity in the Mentawai Islands, especially during the jungle tours, so we recommend taking a powerbank. In the Umata Village accommodation we have a generator, which provides electricity from dusk to dawn (17:00 to 6:00).
Telephone and WiFi signal
In Padang and on Sipora there are fairly good telephone signal and multiple WIFI options. However, this is not the case on Siberut. The best telephone signal is near the Siberut harbour or Muara Siberut and there are some WIFI connections near schools or doctors’ posts. In the jungle the village of Madobag sometimes has a WIFI connection, but the rest of the jungle nor the accommodation Umata Village has WIFI.
At the Umata Village accommodation you have the opportunity to reach local cellular phone and internet signal from Sipora when walking up the hill. To be able to connect to this you will have to buy a local sim card with a internet package in Padang.