Is metal detecting legal in Singapore & Indonesia?

[cibean]

HI there,
I would like to ask native Indonesians and Singaporeans or someone who has been to these countries, if it is legal to carry your metal detector to these countries. I am visiting Singapore from the 19th till the 26th of November, after which i will fly to Indonesia for about 10 days.. I have heard good things about the beaches in these two countries and would love to do some metal detecting there.

Please let me know at the earliest. I shall be highly obliged.

Regards,

Cibean

 

[Craig in Alabama]

n/t

 

[Ed SW Fla]

.... then ask to meet the officer in charge, shake hands with him and slide a $20 bill into his palm then ask where it's best that you detect!

 

[cibean]

Are you sure mate? I can get arrested for bribing a police officer.

 

[Ed SW Fla]

n/t

 

[Tom_in_CA]

When questions like this have come up, for various countries, the knee-jerk answer often times is to ask the police, or ask a govt. official (consulate, bureaucrat, lawyer over there, etc....). And oddly, this sometimes has resulted in "no's", where in fact, there is utterly no prohibitions at all. And in fact, detectors could be a "common site" on the tourist beaches, and no one cares less. The reason for the "no's" could be that your question is being couched in terms of antiquity laws (ie.: raiding the pyramaids, shipwreck salvor stuff, exporting gold bars, blah blah blah), yet has nothing at all to do with casual modern fumble-finger losses.

So a better way than asking bored bureaucrats, is to find out if there's dealers in that country. For example, all the main manufacturers (whites, garrett, fisher, etc....) have lists of their dealers, in various foreign countries, right? Simply get ahold of them and see what the real skinny is. Or another way to look at it is: The mere fact that there is dealers (or clubs, or user/hobbyists, etc....) in those countries, by definition simply means that ....... doh ..... it must not be illegal, right? Of course like anywhere (even the USA) you use common sense and don't go tromping through archaeologically sensitive sites, practice discretion, etc.....