Hi again,

Upon returning to Darwin after my Kakadu tour I had a

pleasant reunion.  I met up with Diana who decided to

join me for a few days while I shipped the bike and

moved from Australia to Southeast Asia.  On Monday we

walked around Darwin and enjoyed some of the city (in

the rain!) before we flew to Singapore in the

afternoon.

According to legend, Singapore is called the lion city

because a Malay prince saw what he thought was a lion

while he was hunting on the island.  Singapore has no

native lions so it's not clear what the prince saw,

but it's a nice name for the city anyway :-)

The first view I had of Singapore was of all the

skyscrapers as you fly into the city.  I don't

remember seeing another city with so many tall

buildings spread over such a large area.

The next impression is of Singapore's immaculate

airport.  As you get off the plane you are immediately

presented with restaurants, shops, internet cafes,

banks - everything you can imagine.  And all of this

is before you even walk off the concourse!  Downstairs

we got our passports stamped - no visas required.  The

actual act of clearing customs was anti-climactic - we

picked up our bags and walked out of the airport - no

questions, inspections, or anything!

The next impression of Singapore is of its streets.

Since Singapore is so efficient I expected the streets

to be laid out in a grid pattern, or at least to run

regularly, but they are a veritable maze!  On top of

that, Singapore has a confusing system of electronic

tolls that are in effect at different times of the

day, and at different places.  All this was a little

overwhelming as I took it in from our bus to the

hotel.  The good news is that Singapore streets are

wide and clean and well signed.

The bus took us to our hotel which I had booked in

Darwin.  I hadn't seen the hotel before, but it turned

out to be a high rise hotel near downtown and along

the Singapore River.  We had a room on the top floor

(21) from which we had a spectacular night time view

of the city, including our own lightning show over the

skyscrapers.

Our mission for the next day was to pick up my

motorcycle and clear it through customs.  Singapore is

infamous for its red tape and regulations and clearing

the motorcycle was not going to be easy.  We surfed

the internet in the morning from our hotel to find out

what we needed to do.  We learned that we needed to

visit the local automobile association (Automobile

Association of Singapore or AAS) to get the driving

permits and insurance.  Luckily the AAS was only a few

blocks from the hotel so we walked over and took care

of all the permits and paperwork in about an hour.  So

far so good!

The AAS told us we needed to get an Autopass card from

the Land Transit Authority before we could pick up the

bike, so we took a taxi several miles to the LTA

office.  There are many taxis in Singapore - it's easy

to get them and they're cheap.  At the LTA they

informed us that we didn't need the Autopass card

until we were leaving the city.  Dohhh!!!  Apparently

there are so many confusing regulations even

Singaporeans don't understand them!

Now that we had our paperwork taken care of we were

prepared to actually get the motorcycle.  We took

another taxi to the city's air freight complex.  This

area is tightly controlled and we had to fill out a

questionaire and get special badges before we could

enter.  Once inside the complex it was like a huge

city itself.  There were blocks of warehouses and

offices stretching forever.  We had been told which

office to go to, but still it was difficult to find.

Eventually we found our way to the correct office and

presented the air freight number.  I felt much better

when the attendant immediately pulled up my motorcycle

information on her computer screen.  A few minutes

later they brought over the air freight container that

held my bike, and we unstrapped the bike and rolled it

out of the warehouse.  20 minutes later I had the

mirrors, windscreen, and battery reinstalled.  It was

that simple!  There were no additional charges,

hassles, or anything.  Life at the Singapore air

freight complex is good!

We rode 1/2 mile back to the entrance to the complex

where I got my carnet stamped, which took 10 minutes

and again there were no charges or inspections - just

a stamp and signature in my carnet.

My good luck continued.  Diana did not have a helmet

so she couldn't legally ride on my bike back to the

hotel.  We flagged down a taxi for her, and I just

followed it back to the hotel - I didn't have to worry

about navigation, remembering to ride on the left, or

anything!  It doesn't get much easier than that!  So

at the end of our first day in Singapore I had my

motorcycle safely back at the hotel.

After getting the bike we had some free time and had

planned to visit one of the local resorts near

Singapore.  We had heard that Bintan Island is quite

nice.  Unfortunately, the next day was a public

holiday in Singapore - Buddha's birthday - and all the

resorts were booked.  When we found that out, we

decided to go north into Malaysia instead.  We bought

a bus ticket for Diana to Melaka on Thursday and

stayed in Singapore an extra day to see a little of

the city.

We took a bus tour of Singapore on Wednesday.  Many

people think Singapore is just another big dirty city.

 While it is big, it is immaculate.  It's amazing that

they can keep such a big city so clean, but they do.

And it is very orderly and efficient.  We noted how

few car horns one hears, which is very different from

my experiences in large Latin American cities :-)

On our bus tour we stopped at several places including

the highest "mountain" in Singapore overlooking the

city.  The views of the city were quite impressive, as

were the views in the other direction towards the

resort islands.  Another stop was at the botanical

gardens where we visited the orchid garden and its

Cool House.  We also visited a Buddhist temple which

had special significance since it was Buddha's

birthday.  We also stopped at a jewelry factory where

they make amazing things with polished stones -

everything from clocks to globes to minature castles.

In the evenings we walked or took taxis to several

interesting restaurants.  We sampled vegetarian Thai,

Indian, and western food.  Singapore has lots of

different foods to try, but the nicer places are not

cheap.  Dinner for two people, including a drink could

run $50 - about the same as in a big city in the US.

The weather in Singapore is hot and humid.  There were

several thunderstorms during the few days we were

there.  When it's not raining, it can get very hot and

the humidity is very high.  Not surprising for an

island on the equator I guess!

Our visit to Singapore was a success.  We had

successfully moved the bike from Australia to Asia and

had enjoyed this spotless city.  Now it was time to

move on to the real Southeast Asia!  Next, Malaysia.

Story