A week in Singapore tagging along expat life

My dear friend Theresa unfortunatley is moving to London in July, so this was (we though) our last chance for another visit. Ir was my fourth visit over the last year, but this time I left Phil and Sophia in Langkawi.

Basically I just tagged alone with Theresas's expat easy life. As easy as anything with three little kids can be. Baby Martin was now half a year and the girls has improved their swimming immensely. They are little mermaids in the water, 3 and 4 years old and already great swimmers. I came along to the dentist, gym classes, kids party, Danish girls nights out and so on.

The reason I say easy life is because almost all expats (and many Singaporeans) have helpers, usually from Philippines. It's a massive help to have somebody cleaning, cooking and helping with the kids, six full days a week, but it's also interesting how much impact they have on their employers, or so it appears to me. Helpers are the topic of many expat conversations and it must be only natural as she is right there the whole time. I do wonder if Singaporeans who have had helpers their whole life pay less attention to them.

We're going to continue the success next week after I have been to Kuching for the rainforest world music festival. Yay, already looking forward.

I love how green Singapore is

Cruising expenses for November for Malaysia and Singapore

Our total expenses in November were NZ$ 1378. We spend half the month in Tioman island where we also left Sophia while we travelled to Singapore. Tioman marina is a tiny bit cheaper than Danga Bay to leave our sized boat at, so although travel expenses were higher, it was worth it to us, mostly because of timing.

This time I have kept our Singapore visit in amongst the other expenses and not as a separate sightseeing event. While we were in Singapore Phil flew to Hong Kong for a couple of days, but I have left out that expense, as it was pure business and I think even paid for itself as he carried sails back to Singapore.

All up we spent 22 days in marinas, which without a doubt is a record number. Our only big expense this month (besides transport) was miscellaneous, it's always surprising how all those little things add up, and well, shopping in Singapore is easy and fun (there's a Spotlight!!).

Across the Strait of Malacca

Well, if you're following us on facebook, you'd know it's old news that we sailed around Singapore (the around will be explained in a photo below). We actually did that over a week ago. Since then we have been in Danga Bay. It's a big marina in Johor Bahru which is in Malaysia, but just across from Singapore. We could literally see Singapore from the marina.

Phil has, again, fixed our engine rattle. The cheap stern tube that we got in Kota Kinabalu was totally worn out, so we're glad we got a new one via Phil's parents' visit to Singapore back in June. The New Zealand version was eight times more expensive (NZ$ 280) but hopefully it also will last at least eight times longer than the cheap one! We had hoped to only spend a few days in Danga bay, but an unexpected holiday and weekend meant we spent over one week in the marina.

While Phil was working on the engine, I popped over to Singapore for at quick visit, as exciting news had happened since we left: Theresa had a baby boy. He was very tiny and very cute and is lucky to have two sisters to adore him.

We are now on our way north, hopefully to as far as Langkawi. I'm flying home to Denmark for Christmas on the 12th December and Phil follows me a week later. It will be my first Xmas in Denmark in eight years, I have totally gotten used to warm Christmases with pool time and strawberries (NZ), but I'm really looking forward to the real deal (cold!!!) and to show Phil all our traditions, but mostly to seeing my nephews and niece.

This picture explains the sailing aorund Singapore. We started at the beginning of the red line in Malaysia at the last possible anchorage and sailed almost right around Singapore. Unfornatley because of the bridge, you can't sail the shorter way. It's approximatley 50 miles, so a fairly long day, although it is possible to anchor earlier.

Down town Johor Bahru (JB), has both an india and china town, all very central and close

Danga Bay marina has a lot of lights. It's a popular place for locals to visit and also pose for photos witht yachts in the background

Singapore in the sun rise.  JB has big ambitions and there's a lot of land reclamation going on

Home sweet home

We're now back on Sophia after having spent the last 10 days in Singapore with the same friend as last time. It really is such a luxury to stay in a real house (and furthermore a really nice one), in a bed that never moves, with toilets where you just push a buttom and showers full of endless water. There are also power plugs and you don't have to worry about draining the battery and internet in Singapore is fast! One of the biggest reliefs was the aircon. I kind of have a love hate relationship to those. It really is super nice to be able to cool down when it's 30-35 degrees outside (too hot) but at the same time I easily get super cold in A/C and need to dress really warm. All in all, living in a house (in the 1st world) really is a luxury, and it's nice to be reminded of that once in a while, just like it's nice to get off the boat once in a while.

I got lots of girly time with my friend and her two little girls (see photo proof below) and Phil got some computer time :-) He also went to Hong Kong to pick up some sails and did some racing at Changi with the new sails when he was back. We're now going to spend a few more days here at Tioman doing as much snorkeling as possible and then we are going to sail through the Malacca strait past Singapore to west coast Malaysia.

We visited the Singapore Art Museum and there was this, uhmm, funky, exhibition about a level on your head.

Little India

One food thing Phil and I agree on is Indian food :-)

Yay, Christmas decorations, haha

Singapore is full of trees, it's really nice. This is right on Orchard Road!

At Botanical Gardens feeding the ducks - turned more into feeding the turtles, they were plentiful and mean!

Riding the cable car to Sentosa Island (just fot the ride which the girls love)

so. many. cranes!!!!

rain gutters are serious business in Singapore and Theresa said this even sometimes overflows!

I got to take the girls to their swimming lessons, much to both their and my delight

I was lucky enough to celebrate my birthday while in Singapore

girly time, one thing I don't get to do with my four nephews (my only niece is only 4 months old)

Theresa, Saba and Lea with braids :-)

May's cruising costs for Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore

And wham, with NZ$ 2364 we're back with an expensive month. It all started when we stayed in flash Kota Kinabalu (KK), making eating out and marina fees our highest ever. Most items are more than average, but especially so boat parts and miscellaneous.

We spent almost $500 on boat parts, mostly the cutlass bearing and associated costs. It is 'funny' that the local cutlass bearing we got in KK was only $35 compared to $280 for the one we got from NZ (via Phil's parents). We didn't dare rely on getting a local one and in good enough quality, which is why we had to quickly order the one from NZ, so Phil's parents could bring it with them. Phil might change over to the NZ one next time we're on the hard. Phil's parents of course also brought along a bunch of other random boat bits (and other unexpected NZ goodies such as kiwi dip!). We love visitors :-)

The other very expensive item is miscellaneous, $845. We did go on a bit of a shopping spree in KK buying all sorts of various things, none very expensive, apart from a new hard disk for Phil's computer, but it all adds up. I also added our Singapore trip( $505) under there and not under sightseeing, as it really mostly was to see Phil's parents and get all the things they had brought for us.

The only item that was exceptionally cheap is fuel. Diesel, petrol and LPG were all filled up, which is also quite rare that it all happend in one month: both gas bottles, petrol cans and 100 litre of diesel, but thanks Brunei's extremely cheap fuel prices (30 cents a litre of diesel), it was very cheap.

Next month will be our 12th month, and I'll make an additional yearly overview and averages etc.

A week of luxuries in Singapore

We are now back in Brunei on Sophia after a week in Singapore (by air). It's been a week full of luxuries, big city and lots of fun. We were so lucky we could stay with my friend Theresa in a real house and enjoyed that immensely. Things that most people take for granted such as fresh water showers, lots of power to charge the laptops, internet and air con are now big privileges for us. 

It's all relative though, because normally we feel very lucky living on Sophia, even more so after visiting local people in the country we visit, especially Melanesia. At least we still have some electricity (just not unlimited), clean water and soft cushions which is an awful lot more than the far majority of the people we have visited on our way. 

With Theresa and her two girls Saba and Lea

I was even cold quite often because of the air-con, we're simply not used to it, and didn't even have it on at night! On the trip home in airports and on planes I was wearing a fleece jacket and was still cold. I do wonder how we will cope when we go to Denmark on visit, it will be the height o the summer, but it will still be far from the temperature we're used to.

The real purpose of the trip was to see Phil's parents who had one day's stop in Singapore on their world cruise! Naturally they carried a lot of random boat parts for us, as well as a bunch of other goodies. Typically Singapore we actually spent a bunch of time in traffic, especially on the MRT, but that alone was also an experience for them, people watching and seeing all the Singaporean efficiency. It's quite funny that we'll next see them in Denmark when they have one day's stop in Copenhagen on 15th July.  I was even cold quite often because of the air-con, we're simply not used to it, and didn't even have it on at night! On the trip home in airports and on planes I was wearing a fleece jacket and was still cold. I do wonder how we will cope when we go to Denmark on visit, it will be the height o the summer, but it will still be far from the temperature we're used to.

The real purpose of the trip was to see Phil's parents who had one day's stop in Singapore on their world cruise! Naturally they carried a lot of random boat parts for us, as well as a bunch of other goodies. Typically Singapore we actually spent a bunch of time in traffic, especially on the MRT, but that alone was also an experience for them, people watching and seeing all the Singaporean efficiency. It's quite funny that we'll next see them in Denmark when they have one day's stop in Copenhagen on 15th July.

Phil's parents and 'their' ship!

Visiting Eli and Jan in One 15 marina on Sentosa Island

 We also went to see Norwegian Jan and Eli on Jenny in One 15 marina on Sentosa. Sutera Harbour's extreme luxury totally fades in comparison to that marina, boy oh boy, there are some rich people in Singapore! After a delicious lunch we got to hang out in the super cool see-through pool. We might seem them again later when we get to West Malaysia, but maybe not, as they are heading to South Africa later in the year.

Unfortunately we had to rush on to Changi yacht club. Phil had arranged with an Assiue Young 88 owner that we could race on (another) boat as his was on the hard. We totally underestimated how long the transport would take (2 1/2 hours) so when we finally turned up, the race was almost over! The silver lining was that a Sumatra squall hit the race and we would have gotten more than soaked and we didn't have a dry clothes. We still got to meet and a bunch of other club members and had a fun night.

Otherwise we have mostly been hanging out with Theresa and her two cute little girls and seeing what their expat life is like. We will even get to see them again in Denmark as they are visiting at the same time as us, and we'll also stop by Singapore with Sophia when we're are sailing up to West Malaysia and Thailand.

We are now just going to do some more bumming around this area before participating in the Borneo Race in the first week in July. It finishes in Kota Kinabalu and then we'll sail back to Brunei and leave Sophia on the mooring here again while we go to Denmark. We'll be back mid August and then we'll keep going as planned. As usual more photos on facebook.

East Coast park has a lake with automatic wake boaring towing!