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BIGKANU TERMS AND CONDITIONS

The purchase of any travel services offered by BIGKANU constitutes a contractual arrangement between you and BIGKANU, and represents your acceptance of BIGKANU Terms & Conditions set out herein.

Please, allow us to be practical in our terms and conditions by pointing out firstly, that our marine tour in not in the well serviced areas of, for example, the Mediterranean, or even Phuket.

Raja Ampat is still a pioneer destination, at the most remote SE corner of Asia. The support systems, around engineering, health, food an communications are at very early development stages in Raja Ampat, which in itself in 75km offshore, from a city which is not experienced or well set up to deal with marine tourism. There is no chandlery shop in East Indonesia, and no one supplying parts, or foods like the gluten free range, and medical support is limited.

So when you choose a remote, Papua destination, we advise that the norms of more advanced areas cannot be easily sourced and provided in Raja Ampat on our trip. We are regularly battling with government issued fuel, which no matter how good the filtration system, can at times cause us endless grief, which we can handle ok, but it will mean the crew need time to attend it during the trip.

There will be a constant range of issues our crew must deal with of an engineering nature, with a engineer on board, as there is no capable service team available to assist. We must ask the guests understand that there can at times be crew working on engineering issues a lot, as proper seamanship demands, and as such, you are engaging here on an adventure tour, not a dinner cruise, and in the many remote places we visit, we must take care of the gear, make repair’s at a time cost, and push on.

We cannot offer a trip immune from the need on the trip, to make repairs. The boat is well made in aluminium in 2016, with great stability, and many good features, but like any machine, it is not perfect all the time.

We do not pitch ourselves as a 5 star product, with high levels of say air conditioned comfort, and other such boats are available and come at higher price points if you so choose. We are a 3 star, adventure, marine tour in a partially 5 star natural setting.

If guests come aboard, and their expectations do not match what we offer, we will make a full refund of the amount of days still ahead, and make arrangements to find nearby Homestay or resort accommodation for any unhappy guest, if the issues causing the unhappiness cannot be fixed quickly, so we please ask, if your expectations do not match what you experience, advise us on the trip, and we will refund the portion of the trip not used, and find an alternative, nearby, on shore at accommodation and offer a refund for the portion of the trip not used. We only refund the portion of trip not aboard, and no other onshore, costs.

On a small boat, when we have a group of really happy people being impacted by individuals who are not happy, it takes a toll on crew, and on happy guests, and the negative agitation of some can ruin the trip for others, hence our refund offer, and assistance getting to a nearby Homestay.

Our refund policy is clear, if you are not happy, we will refund the trip portion unused, and find but not pay for nearby accomodation ashore,and we will not pay refunds after the event, if we were not advised of your unhappiness during the trip, and if we cannot satisfybyiur concerns,we reserve the right to terminate your trip with a partial, prorata refund.

We do not offer refunds, if we are delayed for example, by the issues raised in this fairly stark condition of contract, agreed through buying on board Bigkanu trip.

If you are not happy aboard, too hot, the wrong expectation, or whatever, please let crew know during the trip and not after, when we can do something to assist, or offer residual refund.

Please, also understand we work in a marine officialdom system, renowned as one on the most dysfunctional and corrupt on the planet, and it’s not uncommon for officials to delay, antagonise or whatever, often seeking bribes. So for example, when get Harbour Master clearance from Port, it can be delayed, as officials just wander off home, of go to church, as they just do not seemingly care. Often the more pressure they apply, the more agents in the middle, must feed them bribes. We, ask guests to be aware of this and tolerate delays.

Many foodstuffs available in say Bali cannot be sourced anywhere in Eastern Indonesia, and we are limited in gluten free, dairt alcohol and many other supplies, and alcohol costs almost double, sometimes triple the price of alcohol of the same type in Bali.

Recognise that medical care is not available out on the islands, and if you do for whatever reason need medical care, it comes with a sizeable cost, when it impacts our trip, and needs boats,cars ambulances etc, and if the accident or medical condition impacts the trip, we ask compensation for time and logistics helping out.

Boating has inherent risks, many slips, falls, propellers, and parts of the boat can cause injury. It’s easy to slip on a boat. Harm can happen, and we must please be clear, that if and when harm or loss does occurs, that by reading these, terms, or by buying and paying for this trip, we offer no indemnity for loss, damage, or harm due to accidental or negligent causes.

In Indonesia the liability legislation is way different to developed countries, and please understand that within this legal framework, there is very limited scope for compensation due to accidental or negligently caused harm, so we state this clearly here, so you please understand the risks.

In the event of a serious accident, we will do all we can to get you to a shore base, or fast boat to assist your evacuation, but we cannot help beyond that.

Our apologies if this all sounds not so comforting, but it’s best we are honest about what we can and cannot do, and to hopefully help you understand the reasonable expectations for the trip.

Things can and will go wrong at times, we ask your understanding of this as a condition of sale.

Please ensure that you read carefully and understand these Terms & Conditions prior to booking. ‘BIGKANU’ refers to the crew, owners, managers and partners to the Indonesian boat BIGKANU, (or MV Trybrid Equator)

1. Payment method and transaction:
   In order to confirm your booking on BIGKANU overnight cruises, a full prepayment is required at least 60 days before departure unless request for payment onboard is agreed between Client and BIGKANU. A 25% payment, of the total amount, is mandatory to confirm your booking if it’s made more than 60 days before departure, and by request and agreement between Guest and BIGKANU, payment of the residual 75% can be made on arrival at the boat in Indonesian Rupiah or Euros..
   Transfer Payments can be done through our payment to our Managers Singapore office, until the payment is received, the requested dates remains available for other bookings.
   • 1.1 In case of, 60 days or less before departure, where only 25% deposit is paid, BIGKANU is entitled to cancel the booking, keep the deposit and sell the cruise to another request if BIGKANU has requested full payment which was not paid, or where
2. Refund and cancellation policy :
   
   • If the booking is cancelled, from the client, more than 60 days before departure, a full refund will be provided
   • If the booking is cancelled, from the client, 30 days or more before departure, but less than 60 days before departure, 25% of the total amount will be refunded
   • If the booking is cancelled, from the client, less than 30 days before departure, no refund will be provided
   • 2.1 : Conditions of departure for any SHARED CRUISES : BIGKANU has the right to offer a full refund and/or post-pone the original trip to a later date, in case there’s not a minimum of 3 cabins sold for the original planned departure date. BIGKANU will contact each guest, within a fair amount of time, in order to offer one of these 2 options.
3. No show :
   
   • In case of No show with no notice, at the agreed time and meeting point, no refund will be provided and the cruise will be cancelled.
   • In case of late arrival, due to flight delay or any other transportation method, and if case the guest informed BIGKANU of the late arrival, BIGKANU will wait a maximum of 2 hours (Charter boat only). The itinerary might be modified and is at the discretion of the Captain. No compensation will be provided.
4. BIGKANU declines all responsibility in case of a cruise cancelation due a to force majeure event such as (but not limited to) extreme weather condition, accidents, fog, strike, earthquake, volcano, tsunami, …The clients will not be entitled to any compensation for the loss of the tour.
   If the tour is delayed by force majeure events, The clients will not be entitled to any compensation for the partial loss of the tour. BIGKANU will not refund or compensate the delayed time but will propose to extend the cruise upon availability of the BIGKANU boat.
   In case of a technical reason cancelling the departure, delaying the departure more than 3 hours, or cancelling during the cruise, the client will be entitled to a refund proportional to the affected cruise cost and/or replacement solution that can still offer BIGKANU guests.
5. Park entrance fee of 1,000,000IDR is not included in the price and will be need to be paid at the Park fees office, at the Waisai ferry arrival hall. 250,000IDR per guest is payable on the boat towards the shared costs of entry to Wayag, Pianemo and Kabui.
6. BIGKANU or its crew, managers or owners cannot be held accountable in any form for illness, accidents, or incident and their consequences that our clients undergo for the duration of the project.
7. A Client does not have to have travel insurance in order to take part in a tour organised by BIGKANU, on the understanding that BIGKANU does not provide any insurance. A Client is wholly responsible for arranging to to cover for medical expenses arising through illness or accident during the trip and loss of holiday monies through cancellation and curtailment of the holiday, or pay any costs due to accident, incident or loss of property , or physical harms while aboard of nearby BIGKANU.
8. All departure and arrival times provided by the airlines are estimates only. They may change due to air traffic control restrictions, weather conditions, operational or maintenance requirements. BIGKANU is not liable if there is any change to the flight schedule. BIGKANU is not responsible for any losses suffered if client delayed and misses any flight or a ferry to Waisai.
9. The date change of a cruise will be considered as a cancelation and a new booking will need to be made. The cancellation fees are applicable (see point number 2), unless agreed otherwise between BIGKANU and te Client.
10. The original itinerary can be change at any time, following weather and tide conditions. This is at the discretion of the Captain and BIGKANU is not liable for any compensation in case of the original itinerary is not respected.
11. In case of technical difficulties prior to departure, BIGKANU is entitled to a day of services with their technicians where the customer will be compensated for the time lost until departure.
12. BIGKANU reserve the right to cancel a cruise, with no refund, of one or multiple clients if the crew or cruise director feel that the behaviour or the health condition of one of multiple clients can impact the cruise and it’s safety.
13. BIGKANU is not liable in case of any damage or loss occurred to any belongings of the client, and BIGKANU will does not compensate clients for any accident or incident causing bodily harm or loss of property.

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