Author: Neill

After Singapore we returned to Artemis and a broken fridge. We dismantled it, found the broken bit, ordered it, replaced it and left to go sailing. Once clockwise round Singapore.

The winds were light and the tides not too helpful so it took us three days to get around the tiny country. At one point we strayed fifty meters in to Singapore harbour waters and immediately there was a police boat telling us to move back in to the traffic lanes. We obviously got a bad name from then on as we were shadowed by a total of four police boats during our trip. Off the Raffles Lighthouse we were overtaken by a monster squall which brought howling wind and rain that reduced visibility to zero. This is less than optimal next to the busiest shipping lane in the world but at least the police could no longer see us as we moved away from the ships and back in to Singapore waters.

Once we left Singapore we continued to the first anchorage in Malaysia. More bad weather helped us sail along at a great speed but made anchoring unthinkable when we arrived. We hove to behind a giant ship and waited for things to calm down enough to anchor and weather a bumpy night exposed to the waves.

Day four we only wanted to travel through a short channel to re-anchor in a protected place but lost our nerve when the depths shown were almost equal to the depth of our keel. We turned round and sailed to Banana Island and anchored under the lighthouse. The currents were so strong that we didn’t leave the boat but we did enjoy a days rest. Another few difficult days of sailing and uncomfortable nights at anchor saw us hidden behind Besar Island. Three thunderstorms hit us there but the island took the brunt of the first two. Unluckily the third one came in straight from the sea during the night and was so strong that we dragged across the bay and in to deep water. Re-anchoring in wind, rain and choppy seas at night is never great fun.

The next day we moved on to Malacca and anchored in front of the city. Another rolly anchorage and more muddy water but we could leave the dinghy at the silted up marina and “do” the tourist bit. Malacca has an amazing history going back four hundred years but today it is a riverside lined with bars and a street lined with restaurants. Maybe we have just been away from reality for too long but we were glad to find a side street to buy fruit, vegetables and bread and return to Artemis. We did manage to buy some needed spares and met Alex who owns Explorer, a boat building company. He showed us around his factory set among the rice fields which was interesting and found the electrical parts that we needed.

From Malacca we sailed to Cape Rachado, past the Tanjung Tuan Whirlpool and then anchored off the beach at Tanjung Biru, also know as the “Blue Lagoon”. Here we are protected from the waves, the water is clear, there is a jungle on land to explore and no reason to set the alarm clock. Finally we are back on Island Time.

Back on July 7th I posted after our first week in Singapore. Since then I posted twice about our cycling trips. We finally left Singapore three days ago so it is time for a Resumé.

Our first impression was that Singapore is a jungle with a city in it. We have since been told that it was a jungle that had to make way for a city and then they wrapped a new jungle around the city. This agrees with what we saw on our daily dog walks in Bukit Brown Cemetery which is, so we were told, the largest Chinese cemetery outside of China. It was used for fifty years and there were 100 000 graves by the time it was closed in 1973. Now, fifty years later, it is once again a jungle but a jungle covering thousands of old graves. It would be a great place for a horror movie and no Chinese person will go near the place after dark.

Within a week we had noticed that the public transport is clean and incredibly well run. Now we know that is true of everything. Just a few examples:

• there is a glass wall that separates the underground platform from the rails. This has doors which align perfectly with the trains. They do not open until the train is stopped in the station and close before the train moves away. No suicides, no accidents and much less fire risk.
• there are rubbish bins that show how full they are with a display, have compactors to increase capacity and let the cleaners know when they need emptying. We never saw an overflowing bin in Singapore.
• you don’t need to buy a ticket or even know where you want to go when you get on a bus or train. You just tap your credit-/debit-card/mobile phone/kids-card as you get on and tap again when you get off. If you change to another bus or train then the “taps” get added together to one journey. The system charges you based on kilometers traveled. This makes public transport incredibly easy and delivers the bus operator with detailed data about exactly which bus or train is exactly how full every minute of every day.

At least once every day we agreed that it is amazing what can be achieved, if people want to achieve. And every day we reflected on other dysfunctional countries where people are too busy thinking up reasons not to achieve improvements.

Everyone knows that Singapore is an incredibly expensive country but it turns out that the average cost of living is not so different to Sydney or London. Rents are higher than Berlin but much less that New York. We were of course unbelievably lucky as Michael, Christin and Maxime lent us their beautiful home deep in the jungle for almost six weeks. For most of that time Ganis was also there to give us local tips and show us the places to see. We discovered that there is so much to see and do for free that you can just ignore anything that costs money. There are parks, beaches, tree top walks, botanical gardens and long bike paths that are all free. There are even sailing boats on the harbor that are extremely difficult to book but, once booked, free for a 40 minute sail between the incredible Singapore skyline. On Day One we made the mistake of ordering two coffees in Orchard Road and paying €18 but we quickly learned that by avoiding tourist areas and anywhere with Europeans then two coffees can cost €3. We never even thought about eating in a “tourist trap” but, by looking for a hawker center, we could find lunch for €10. Fun doesn’t have to cost so much, even in Singapore.

We cycled over 700 kilometers while we were in Singapore. 160 kilometers were commuting back to Malaysia to work on the boat but the rest were on the island. A bike is a fantastic way to explore any county but when the country is pretty flat and has a network of cycle paths, then it is amazing. We saw so many interesting little corners that even some locals have never been to including allotment gardens where we were given herbs, Buddhist temples where we were given bottles of water and an offshore island with a wicked mountain bike trail.

On our last evening it was Singapore’s national day and we were invited to watch with a group of locals on their “big screen”. It was an impressive event and you could feel the pride that those taking part and the spectators felt for “their” country. Singapore is not the most democratic country on earth but neither is it among the least. It is rated roughly “in the middle” but as someone quoted to us “we can’t demonstrate but what is there to demonstrate against!”

Singapore, an amazing experience.

Our best pictures are in our “Singapore” album at Google.

Singapore has a coast to coast trail. It is billed as a hiking trail but, as bikes are allowed to use pavements as long as they cycle slower than 10 km/h we decided to take the bikes out.

We are living in a house right next to the center of Singapore and the middle of the trail so we divided the tour in to two trips. The first time we headed west and the second time we west east.

Unfortunately Singapore is building a huge expressway across the island. The plans are to incorporate a dedicated cycle path in to the new connection but, right now, the old path is currently a long building site. This meant that on our first day we had to wind through backstreets and then take the main road. It was while we were winding that we cam across six Buddhist temples where we stopped for a look. The caretaker greeted us and immediately handed us each a bottle of water before explaining the history of the beautiful temples.

Once we were passed the building site, we moved on to the park connector network which are wide multi use paths that mostly wind through green spaces and parks. This one followed a river and then a canal through the new town of Punggol until we reached the sea and Coney Island National Park. As you cycle through the trees and passed all the greenery, it is hard to believe that there are six million people crammed in to this small island. But then you look at the massive skyscrapers that can each house a few thousand people and see how it is possible.

This being a hiking trail, you occasionally have to cross footbridges over six lane expressways. The bridges are high enough that a double decker bus can pass under them so there are plenty of steps to train your muscles on. Luckily many bridges and steps have an extra channel next to the steps to push the bike up and down. Another great idea is at the traffic lights. As a pedestrian or cyclist you can press a button so that the “green man” appears to stop the cars. If you are elderly or disabled you can hold your ID-card to the button and the green man stays green longer giving you more time to cross. They are not stupid here.

Our second trip also started on the roads but then moved us on to the park connectors and some relaxed cycling. It is funny that when the locals hear that we are from Germany they all ask how we are coping with the heat while cycling round. They obviously all assume we flew in to the tropics last week and can not imagine why we have not melted.

We cycled until the beautiful Jurong Lake and then around its shores. We found an area of tiny gardens which a lady explained the residents rent from the council to grow food. Her mini garden was growing like mad and the council had told her to cut it back a bit. As a result we cycled home with a bag of Thai Basel.

On the way home we diverted through the forest at Bukit Batok Nature Reserve and then again at Bukit Timah Nature Park. At the latter we met a mountain biker who showed us the start of a MTB trail. He looked young and fit so we asked if it would be OK for us. He replied that we looked fit and competent and it should be OK. The Bukit Timah Mountain Bike Trail has reviews saying “mountain biked in the past and believe my reflexes are pretty decent, but this trail is tricky“. The various sections are marked according to their severity and two black diamonds are definitely not for us. One black diamond was doable but “exciting”. Luckily each double black had a single black alternative. The whole trail was fun but the sweat was pouring off us all the way.

At the end of the trail and in the middle of the forest we realized that we had an hour until our online grocery order was due. We took just over half an hour to get back but arrived, after a total of 45 kilometers, as two balls of sweat who drank a liter each of water and a coffee and two cokes and ate all the cakes Ganis had made for us.

We are definitely seeing Singapore.

First track at allTrails (47 km)
Second track at allTrails (45 km)
Singapore pictures at Google

Another country where everyone tells you that cycling is unsafe and the heat will kill you. And about the fortieth country where they are wrong about both.

We have now cycled from Malaysia to Singapore twice and the other way three times. It is about forty kilometers each way and the best bit is as you pass the cars queuing for two hours at the border and sneak through the motorbike/bike lane. In Johor, Malaysia you are on the road most of the time but once you hit Singapore, then it is bike lanes a lot of the time. When you have to use the road the bus lanes are mostly free and available for cyclists.

We have been using the bikes for the ten kilometer round trip to the shops but have also been out adventuring six times exploring the hidden corners of Singapore. After only three weeks we are already telling residents where we have been and they say “Heard of it but haven’t been there.” Alternatively “Where is that?”

We have cycled along six lane highways, back roads cutting through the rain forest, cycle paths, footpaths and jungle trails. Often the distance from highway to trail is less than a kilometer. Similarly the price of a coffee drops from thirteen dollars to three just by moving a kilometer away from the tourist hot spots. Singapore is a vibrant city but also a place of huge contrasts. It is also amazingly green. There are rivers and canals running through the city and parks everywhere. If there is a space it has bushes, flowers and trees. They even plant trees on the skyscrapers and plants hang off them.

A bus driver was inconsiderate (twice, the same driver) but thousands of other vehicles have passed us with no problems. When you are moving in to the outside lane on a three lane highway to turn right, it is nice to feel that people are going to try and avoid you.

We still have another two weeks but are already fairly sure that if we are ever asked if we saw much of Singapore we can write “Definitely!”

Here are links to our routes at AllTrails
Malaysia to Singapore
Singapore to Malaysia
the botanical gardens
to the business district
Gardens by the bay
to Bukit Batok
to Coney Island
Singapore harbour

All our pictures of Singapore are in the Google album “Singapore“.

This blog is about the German Tax Office and is therefore in German. If you aren’t German, you probably wouldn’t believe that an organisation could be this disorganized anyway.

Vor ein paar Jahren war ich zu einem Treffen zwischen dem Finanzamt und den örtlichen Steuerberatern in unserem Teil Deutschlands eingeladen. Der Chef des örtlichen Finanzamtes stand stolz auf und prahlte damit, dass er eines der professionellsten und modernsten Ämter in Deutschland führe. Niemand lachte, aber niemand glaubte ihm.

Als Segler haben wir fast Alle, mit denen wir zu tun haben, erfolgreich auf “digitale Kommunikation” umgestellt. Meistens war es einfach, aber das Finanzamt hat gezeigt, wie schwierig eine Organisation es machen kann, wenn sie es wirklich versucht.

Das Finanzamt schreibt überall im Internet darüber, wie erstaunlich digital sie sind und dass du dich nur für ihr digitales System “Elster” anmelden musst.
Um Elster zu nutzen, registrierst du dich zuerst online und bekommst dann eine E-Mail zugeschickt, um zu beweisen, dass du es wirklich bist, und dann schicken sie dir einen Brief per Post, um zu beweisen, dass du es wirklich, ehrlich, wahrhaftig bist. Du brauchst gute Nachbarn, wenn du mit dem Finanzamt digital werden willst. Zum Glück sind Andi & Iris Experten darin, unsere Briefe zu öffnen und uns ein Foto per WhatsApp zu schicken.

Als Nächstes erhältst du ein digitales Zertifikat, das du niemals verlieren solltest und mit dem du dich einloggen und unter anderem dem Finanzamt digitale Nachrichten schicken kannst. Du lehnst dich lächelnd zurück und denkst: “Ja! Das war einfach. Ich bin ein digitaler Held.”

Ein paar Tage später schrieb ich unsere erste vollständig digitale Nachricht und sie schickten mir eine Antwort – als Brief. Daraufhin schickte ich ihnen die Umsatzsteuer, die ich ihnen schuldete, und eine digitale Erklärung für die Umsatzsteuer. Sie beantworteten dies mit zwei Briefen. In dem einen stand: “Ich soll ihnen kein Geld schicken” und in dem anderen: “Wo ist das Geld?” Wenigstens haben Andi und Iris nicht vergessen, wie man Briefe fotografiert. Ich schrieb ihnen eine weitere digitale Nachricht: “Wie kann ich euch davon abhalten, mir Briefe zu schicken und euch dazu bringen, mir digital zu antworten?”

Ein weiterer Brief (warum bin ich nicht mehr überrascht), in dem steht, dass wir Elster zwar benutzen können, um ihnen zu schreiben, sie aber nicht digital über ihr eigenes System antworten werden, weil “es nicht möglich ist”. ABER, wenn wir ihnen ein vollständig und korrekt ausgefülltes Einwilligung in den Versand unverschlüsselter E-Mails durch Finanzbehörden gemäß § 87a Abs. 1 Satz 3 Halbsatz 2 der Abgabenordnung (AO) senden, dann würden sie mit Emails antworten. Das haben wir natürlich getan.

Diesen Monat habe ich meine Umsatzsteuer bezahlt und die Erklärung digital abgegeben. Als “Dankeschön” erhielt ich einen Brief, in dem ich gefragt wurde, warum ich Geld gezahlt hatte. Andi und Iris zückten ihre Kameras und schickten ein Foto nach Singapur und ich schickte eine weitere digitale Nachricht mit den Worten: “Was muss ich noch tun, damit ihr mir keine Briefe mehr schickt?” Heute erhielt ich eine Antwort …

“Wir, das deutsche Finanzamt, sind nicht in der Lage, dir eine andere Antwort als einen Brief zu schicken. Wir haben keine Ahnung, ob und wann wir Sie jemals digital kontaktieren können.”

Das Schlimmste an all dem ist, dass die gesamte Organisation mit Steuern bezahlt wird. Wir brauchen keine höheren Steuern. Wir brauchen eine funktionierende Verwaltung.

We are back in Singapore. We have been invited to house and dog sit here for five weeks. Five weeks in a beautiful house in the middle of the jungle with limitless warm water and a washing machine. When asked, we both considered the option for two minutes and voted unanimously for yes!

And now we have been here a week.

Every one knows about Singapore. It is a huge city of skyscrapers and wide roads and everything works perfectly. It is therefore a bit of a shock when you actually reach the island and find that it is really a jungle with a city integrated. There is nowhere that is not green. Even where something has been built, it is full of plants. The expressways have trees on each side and in the middle and are often built on stilts with the jungle continuing below them.

The buildings have plants and trees growing all over them. We learned that some people rarely leave their skyscraper as they can use the gardens and playgrounds that are integrated in to the building. They also have shopping, medical center and a “village square” with food stalls integrated.

This week we visited a multi story business center. Imagine a high rise block of flats over five hundred meters long and seven stories high. Then upgrade the lifts to carry goods, widen the corridors, add wide double doors into each unit and put a business behind each door. Add a few food halls with a variety of food outlets, a children’s nursery and a tennis court.

Behind the house is an old cemetery in the forest which is the perfect place to walk the dogs. Around every corner is a new and interesting set of graves as well as monkeys and monitor lizards. The animals are obviously of the opinion that it is their home and while they will back off to let you past, they are not going to run away. It is a bit unusual to pass so close to a family of monkeys who look at you in disdain or warn you off with a smile full of sharp teeth.

Bikes are our preferred method of travel, and there are some beautiful cycle paths through the parks, but the public transport system is incredibly well thought through. We have a bus stop about a hundred meters from the house and the buses come every five to ten minutes. They connect with other buses or the underground which takes you everywhere. When you get on you tap your credit card or phone and tap off with the same. The fare is based on distance traveled.

The first week has been great fun but we still have so much to see and explore as we learn about this tiny but incredible country.

Our photos are in our Singapore album.

We have sailed two thirds of the way around the world and seen many wonderful places and yesterday we added another one to the list. We cycled through Johor to the Arulmigu Sri Rajakaliamman Glass Temple.

The idea of building a complete temple out of glass mosaic was ingenious. Light comes from everywhere and when that is added to the sound of the prayer bells then the whole effect is a little overwhelming.

Our next stop was the Old Chinese Temple where they said a prayer for us and the Indian Center which had even more gods than the previous two temples put together.

After so many temples we cycled to the bike shop and agreed that all Heidi’s bike spokes would be replaced as they are popping one after another.

Our route is at AllTrails

The Strait of Malacca between Malaysia and Indonesia is the busiest shipping channel in the world and most everything that passes through them then swings around the south coast of Singapore following a huge marine motorway called a traffic separation scheme.

As you can see in the screenshot above, the area is full of huge, fast ships going everywhere. It is not the perfect place to be in a small sailing boat and you get very good at calling ships on the radio to say “we are the little sailing boat being pushed along by the wind so please go round us.”

Once we reached the actual motorway the situation looked like in the following photo. I was watching the ships in the real world while Heidi was trying to decode the situation on the IT generated “radar” shown below.

The ships all keep to the right of the channel just like on a German motorway. They are all moving at different speeds but are trying to keep in lane or slowly overtaking like two lorries on a hill. And then we appear (we are the red boat). Theoretically the ships coming from the left should avoid us but they can neither change speed or course so that is academic. We looked for a gap in the traffic from the left and headed north. Unfortunately the red arrow ship from the left was very fast so we only just passed in front of him and that left us heading for a huge monster gas ship. We turned right to pass behind him and then accelerated north again to get just behind the right red triangle ship before a massive car carrier arrived.

We survived but we now have real sympathy with any hedgehog that ever needs to cross a motorway. And we never want to cross that traffic separation scheme again.

We have cycled in 36 countries:

and today we were once again out on our bikes. And for at least the 36th time we were asked “But isn’t cycling here dangerous?” And, as always, we pointed to the fact that we have not had an accident involving another vehicle in all those countries. Although we have managed to crash without any external help a few times and destroyed a few helmets.

Cars kill people. They kill lots of people in every country. In Germany they kill over 800 pedestrians and cyclists every year. Walking next to the road is a risk sport but not as dangerous as driving in a car. Cars kill three times as many car occupants than cyclists each year.

We have definitely been lucky but actually the huge majority of car drivers take special care to try and avoid us. Maybe they see us as an endangered species or maybe they worry that hitting a tourist will get blood on their car and get the police involved. Whatever the reason we, mostly, enjoy our cycling even on the roads.

The absolute best is when we are away from the traffic on a bike only lane – as was the case everywhere last week in Singapore – but when we have to share the road, then we try to make ourselves obvious, clearly signal our intentions and smile at every one. It has worked until now.

About seven years ago I met Christine and Michael in Allgäu (Germany) when their Internet wasn’t working on Christmas Eve. When I mentioned that I was soon leaving to sail round the world, they mentioned that they live in Singapore and said “contact us when you get there.” So we did. And they invited us to pop over for the weekend. So we did. With the bikes.

We cycled along the highway and through the back streets of Johor Bahru until we found the immigration and customs facility at the Malaysian end of the causeway. There were extra lanes for motorbikes so we followed that until a sign said “foreigners and cycles here”. A friendly guy stamped us out of Malaysia and we followed the motorbikes across the causeway and in to the Singapore immigration. They were just as friendly and stamped us in to their country with a 90 day visa.

From the north of Singapore to our destination in the middle of the island we used no roads. We either followed cycle paths next to roads, bike paths that connect the various national parks or mountain bike trails. In the beginning everything was as we expected with perfect tarmac between a forest of residential skyscrapers. We stopped to buy a drink and the little shop in the residential area took neither Visa nor Malaysian money. I explained to Heidi that we could not buy a drink and a 73 year old Buddhist overheard me and gave us ten Singapore dollars as a present. The drinks were less than five so we tried returning five but he said “You need to eat as well. Keep it!” Welcome to Singapore.

When we entered the park connector network the city disappeared and we entered “the jungle”. A few people but also monkeys and a few monitor lizards. It was strange to hear the city so near but be in the middle of a bamboo or rain forest. As we entered the “only for mountain biker” section we discovered why there is so much rain forest. After an incredible intro of thunder claps the rain started. We were soaking, the path was slippy and we couldn’t believe we were in the middle of Singapore. The monkeys were laughing at us.

We reached Christine and Michael’s house to be routed straight to the shower and then to a lunch prepared by their helper, Ganis. What a reception.

We had agreed we were staying the weekend but then it became a long weekend stretching to Tuesday. They took us to an outdoor concert in the botanic gardens by Veronica Fusaro inclusive picnic, to the neighbors for a barbecue and a great evening and to Sentosa Island to walk the beach with the dogs.

We used the buses to reach Orchard Road and watch people spending loads of money on loads of stuff among stunning skyscrapers. We bought two coffees. We used the underground to visit the Fort Canning Hill where the kings of Singapore had their residence and later the British built their fort. Five days before, a new audiovisual display had started in the old British command bunker that focused on the fall of Singapore to the Japanese. It was very interesting and thought provoking but also disturbing.

The public transport is absolutely amazing. No tickets. Just tap on and off with your Visa card or whatever you have. The tapping is the payment but also supplies data about the load so that they can add transport as needed. Everything looks brand new and everything works. In the underground there are no drivers and a glass wall in every station with doors that align with the train and only open when a train is there. Totally safe. Wheelchairs can get everywhere and the information systems make everything self explanatory. You can own a car but only after you buy a hugely expensive permit that lasts ten years. We have seen how public transport should be but I don’t see Europe catching up while I am alive.

We lived like kings with a constant stream of tasty meals and a selection of drinks. All we could do to repay so much kindness was cook a meal of Kässpatzen – a traditional Allgäu food – for our hosts and their neighbors on our last night.

On Tuesday we cycled back to Artemis. We took the non jungle route and didn’t get wet. Immigration was friendly again and the local drivers continued to treat us with respect and give us space as needed.

Our route from Malaysia to Singapore is at AllTrails here. And here is the route back.