Splendid Singapore
After months of transiting the enormously dispersed and most diverse country of Indonesia, with its 17,000 islands and one of the rare remaining destinations in the world where a cruiser can see little to no influence of the modern world, we were exhausted in every which way by the time we reached Malaysia; mentally, physically and emotionally, a culmination of a number of factors.
Firstly, we’d basically been continuously on the move for sixteen weeks since arriving in Debut, our Port of Entry, never mind the weeks it had taken us to reach Thursday Island in Australia from Port Macquarie. With the exception of a few weeks here and there, where we stopped to enjoy the areas of Indonesia that we wanted to see, we hadn’t stopped for more than an overnight anywhere. It had been a very long, arduous sailing season in an extremely difficult and dangerous sailing environment, yet full of the most diverse experiences and encounters along the way, together with the most spectacular sceneries, magnificent snorkelling adventures and fabulous cultural exposures.
Secondly, there were aspects of this country that had a profound impact and ultimately dictated our entire experience of Indonesia; aspects which we, unfortunately, learnt the hard way, but, had we known upfront, we would definitely have been more vigilant in avoiding the pitfalls as best we could. However, since this kind of pertinent information was not provided to us by the Sail2Indonesia rally organisers, we were left at the mercy of a population that was extremely unhealthy, given that most lived in completely unsanitary conditions and most suffered from chest complaints due to the smoke from the fires that burnt continuously. In fact, in all our travels, we had never experienced toilet facilities like those we saw in Indonesia and not a smidgen of soap to be found anywhere. Being forewarned would have afforded us the opportunity to give the local toilets, the local (coughing) population, the food and the drink, a wide berth.
We weren’t the only cruisers to fall victim to this aspect of Indonesia, though, with the entire fleet ending up with either chest infections, sore throats or food poisoning or, in many cases, all three, but in Elaine’s case, an additional severe UTI (Urinary Tract Infection), coupled with multiple bouts of food poisoning, no matter how careful we tried to be. All of which spelt disaster for her autoimmune conditions and sent everything into free fall, making it extremely difficult to get her conditions back under control. This resulted in our decision to change our itinerary and head for Bali as quickly and as safely as possible to obtain medical care.
Unfortunately, having eventually reached Bali and received care at the BIMC Hospital in Nusa Dua, a full physical examination and blood test results confirmed our worst fears; Elaine’s inflammatory indicators were the worst ever; in fact, seven times worse. With only a plan of action that would tide us over until we had the opportunity to access the medical services of Singapore, where a full reassessment had definitely become a priority, our dreams of continuing our circumnavigation were in serious jeopardy, the reality and gravity of which really only hit us a number of weeks later after leaving Bali, bound for Singapore / Malaysia; firstly, on Wednesday, 9th October 2019, as we transited Salat Karimata and transitioned to the South China Sea from the Java Sea. This was a passage we never imagined in our wildest dreams. We never imagined ever sailing in the South China Sea or, for that matter, towards the heart of Southeast Asia, under circumstances we never envisaged in our wildest dreams either. While it was a major milestone on our circumnavigation and one we’d achieved against the odds, it was never planned when we embarked on this adventure nearly six years ago. It was also hard to believe we were saying goodbye to the Southern Cross and the Southern Hemisphere. With less than 200 NM to go, we’d be crossing the equator for the second time on our circumnavigation, as we headed to Singapore / Malaysia and back to the Northern Hemisphere, with no idea as to whether or not we’d have the opportunity to return to the Southern Hemisphere again, as so much of our vagabond lifestyle hung in the balance at this stage. While our heart’s desire was to continue on, the practical health matters threatened to supersede those desires, but we remained hopeful that the medical fraternity in Singapore could work some magic!
A few weeks later, on Tuesday, 22nd October 2019, the reality and impact hit us again. Having decided to celebrate our second equator crossing with everything we loved about our adventures in the Southern Hemisphere, shortly before noon, we bid our farewells to the Southern Hemisphere as we played our all time favourite song, Southern Cross, with Elaine dancing in the cockpit and Roy navigating us through all the crab pods and, at a few minutes past midday, to the beat of our favourite Samoan song, we crossed the equator on Paw Paw and returned to the Northern Hemisphere. At the time Elaine was dressed in one of her swimsuits purchased in Australia, sporting her tattoo from the Marquesas, her sarong from Bali, her gift of earrings and a hair clip received from a beautiful lady in Nuietapotapu, Tonga, her gift of a neckless and bracelet received from our hosts in Soso Bay, Fiji, a flower in her hair as a reminder of all our wonderful times in French Polynesia and drinking a glass of champagne. Roy, on the other hand, was wearing his Hinano beer t-shirt, sporting his Hinano Girl tattoo from the Marquesas, his head dress from Bali and his gift of a shark’s tooth necklace from our hosts in Soso Bay, while drinking a beer in his Hinano beer glass. While it was a fitting tribute to toast Neptune, it was the rush of all the fabulous memories we were taking with us that had us acknowledging the lingering thought and acknowledging our hearts that were tinged with a little sadness, as we wondered; will we ever cross the equator on Paw Paw again.
By Tuesday, 29th October 2019, though, after clearing out on the Monday evening, we were up with the birds for our early morning departure; full of hope and thankful that we were eventually leaving Indonesia, which couldn’t have come soon enough, especially, since our arrival at Nongsa Marina and Resort, we could see the lights, across the Singapore Strait, beckoning us! Our first hurdle, however, once we were out of the marina, was running the gauntlet across one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, the Singapore Strait. As luck would have it, we really only had three cargo ships heading east and six heading west to deal with and all but one passed ahead of us. By 0700 we’d made it across the Strait without a cargo ship hitting us and as we meandered our way between the ships at anchor, we only had two more to deal with that were coming out of the anchorage areas. All in all, it wasn’t as hair-raising an experience as we had envisaged. The only opinion we have on this particular crossing was how useless the VHF radio Channel 16 proved to be, with everyone talking over everyone else as we listened. It was ridiculous!
By 0830 Indonesian time / 0930 Malaysian time, as we’d lost an hour, we were anchored at Tanjung Pengelih, a ferry dock and marina and a one-stop shop for clearing in to Malaysia using the government run CIQ facility which didn’t cost us a penny. Within an hour the very friendly and efficient staff had helped us complete Harbour Master clearance, Immigration and Customs. The strange thing was that there was no Biosecurity at all and no one came out to the yacht; we simply dinghied ashore and all the paperwork was handled in a single complex of offices, with an office we had to visit on each floor.
Once back on Paw Paw we started the long meander up the Johor Strait, which wasn’t much more than a nautical mile or two wide, with Singapore to our port side and Malaysia to our starboard. We passed the Singaporean islands of Tekong and Ubin before seeing the main island. There was, however, a stark contrast between the coastlines of each country; Singapore was mostly lush green vegetation with a barbed wire fence running the full length, interspersed with multiple high-rise buildings and some new development, while Malaysia was very industrial, with a petrochemical plant, a number of cargo terminals, loading and unloading containers and all sorts of cargo from all over the world, including freezer and refrigerated containers, as well as numerous mussel and oyster farms.
As we progressed further along the Strait, we started to see the high-rise buildings of various residential developments in Malaysia and downtown Johor Bahru, known as JB and the capital city of the southernmost Malaysian State, Johor. JB is connected to the island nation of Singapore via “The Causeway” with a CIQ checkpoint on either side for easy movement between both countries. The Strait was also the location of the Senibong Cove Marina, part of a luxury waterfront residential development carved out of the mouth of the Lunchoo River, one of the five economic zones earmarked by the Malaysian government for infrastructure development and our home for the next few months. The reason we had chosen this particular location was primarily for the shorter distance via “The Causeway” to the hospital and clinic in Singapore for Elaine’s medical care, where we’d obtained appointments with a rheumatologist and a naturopathic physician, respectively, prior to our departure from Bali at the beginning of October.
It was rather odd, though, that every ferry we saw as we came down the Strait was Indonesian flagged, but later learnt that there is a 3000-passenger-per-day ferry terminal near the Puteri Harbour Iskandar Marina, on the other side of “The Causeway” and the Tuas Second Link bridge, offering daily fast ferry links to the Indonesian islands of Batam and Bintan, used by migrant labourers working in Malaysia.
Fortunately we had the tidal current with us and by 1400 we were tied up in our marina berth. However, our first impressions were not good, given the very poor assistance we received with our docklines, which definitely left much to be desired and had Roy swearing and cursing as we tried to explain that the lines needed to be cleated off and not just loosely held as Paw Paw veered this way and that. It was very bizarre! Then a cursory view of the surroundings from the helm station portrayed a completely deserted scene. Although there were yachts in the marina, they all seemed unoccupied and all the buildings along the waterfront seemed closed. It was at that point we had a “Bonaire moment”; that exact same feeling we had following our arrival in Bonaire in June 2014 after our friends, who’d crewed for us, had left. A feeling of being totally alone, miles from our loved ones and wondering what the hell we were doing. With that Elaine started to cry. Fortunately, as with Bonaire, things improved exponentially after that and, to this day, Bonaire is still one of our favourite destinations. We’d hoped Singapore and Malaysia held the same appeal, but after what we witnessed in Indonesia, we held our breath, nonetheless!
It wasn’t until we spoke to the security guard afterwards, who had our access card to get on and off the dock, that we subsequently learnt it was a public holiday and that our two dockline helpers were, in fact, the security guard and the gardener, as the marina was actually closed, but the “skeleton staff” had been informed of our arrival. Who knew!
With further help from the security guard, however, we arranged a Grab, Malaysian’s equivalent of Uber. The security guard then proceeded to explain to the driver that we needed to get to an ATM, a mobile telephone store and a supermarket and that the driver would only be paid once we’d drawn a few Malaysian Ringgits. Turned out the driver knew exactly where to take us; a local shopping mall and within an hour we had money, local sim cards, a few groceries to tide us over and we were in another Grab taking us back to the marina. It’s fair to say, though, we were definitely relieved at our first sights of Malaysia outside the marina complex. We were, not only pleasantly surprised to find a clean, civilised, modern city with decent roads and highways, modern homes, beautiful gardens, restaurants, cafés, shops, etc, but the grounds and complex around the marina were also lovely and, by the time we returned to the marina, all the cafés and restaurants were open as well, with people enjoying sundowners or an early dinner at the various upmarket establishments. So, with that, dinner plans to eat onboard changed immediately and, instead, we enjoyed a “we got here drinks and dinner” at one of the restaurants, The Bierhaus. Things were definitely looking up! All in all, we could have been in any modern western country anywhere in the world, which was a far cry from Indonesia and certainly welcomed!
The following day we decided to explore the surroundings of the Senibong Cove Marina and the residential development by foot. First stop was the marina office to finalise their paperwork and get the general scoop on the usual services we needed, as well as obtain clarification on the water and electricity supply. Next stop was the Vanilla Bean café for a mid-morning coffee and ended up enjoying a baked delight we weren’t expecting to find; a slice of freshly made cheesecake for Roy and a warm croissant for Elaine. We also met a delightful lady from South Korea, married to an Irishman from Kerry, and their 4-month old baby girl, expatriates living in one of the high-rise apartment complexes for the past year. She was extremely helpful in providing us with information on the better malls, grocery stores, medical facilities, water quality, etc. We’d no sooner returned from our walk when we also met some cruisers off one of the yachts we’d assumed was unoccupied and received more information on the area, particularly on where to source marine supplies. Soon thereafter another yacht arrived. We were delighted to realise that, in this instance, first impressions were definitely not lasting impressions, thank goodness! Our delight was only superseded by a chat to Keenan and the grandsons, who were on their way to practice for their bicycle race, as well as receiving a phone call from the family in Ireland.
By Saturday, 9th November 2019, having settled in to our new home, we were ready for a day trip to Singapore. We’d decided to undertake a dry-run of this journey, in preparation for our next trip to the Mount Elizabeth Hospital for Elaine’s medical care, but doing so specifically on a Saturday during peak hours, in order to ensure we were aware of the worst case timings, all the nuisances and to simply enjoy a day out.
Beautiful Bali
Indonesia, although it involved extremely difficult and dangerous sailing, which we soon discovered, it was also the most diverse country and, on hindsight and reflection, one of the rare remaining destinations where a cruiser can see little to no influence of the modern world. It was also difficult to perceive that it is one country, as every island we visited was completely different with the exception of, possibly, the food and the language, although the latter has many different dialects. Everything from the shape and style of fishing boats, the shape and style of FADs (Fish Accumulation Devices), the landscape, the traditional dancing and outfits worn, the fruits grown, the livestock farmed, the colour and texture of the beaches, the vastly different colours of water ranging from deep blue to green to turquoise, weather ranging from warm and dry to hot and humid, wind that ranged from absolutely nothing, which had us motoring for hundreds of miles, to wind and current that was so strong we couldn’t slow Paw Paw down to ensure daylight arrivals. Add the diversity of the stunning underwater world, where snorkelling revealed fish and coral species, not only varieties which we’d never seen before, but each new snorkelling spot revealed something new and unique and then, of course, the magnificent sunrises and sunsets, the natural beauty of the towering volcanoes and the diverse wildlife, from flying foxes to whale sharks to Orang-utans to Komodo dragons. But, it was Bali, which, not only captured a place in our hearts, it felt like an entirely different country.
There were aspects, though, which we learnt the hard way and which ultimately dictated our entire experience of Indonesia. Had we known upfront about these, we would definitely have been more vigilant in avoiding the pitfalls as best we could. Unfortunately this kind of pertinent information was not provided by the Sail2Indonesia rally organisers, leaving us at the mercy of a population that was extremely unhealthy, mostly suffering from chest complaints, the underlying reason of which became apparent as we progressed through Indonesia; the smoke from the numerous burning fires, and the fact that most lived in completely unsanitary conditions. In all our travels, we had never experienced toilet facilities like those we saw in Indonesia and not a smidgen of soap to be found anywhere. Being “forewarned, is forearmed” would have afforded us the opportunity to give the local toilets, the local (coughing) population, the food and the drink, a wide berth.
We weren’t the only cruisers to fall victim to this aspect of Indonesia, however, with the entire fleet ending up with either chest infections, sore throats or food poisoning or, in many cases, all three, but in Elaine’s case, an additional severe UTI (Urinary Tract Infection), coupled with multiple bouts of food poisoning, no matter how careful we tried to be. All of which spelt disaster for her autoimmune conditions and sent everything into free fall. Couple that with non-existent adequate healthcare available for thousands of miles from where we were in the Kai Islands, having cleared in to Indonesia in Debut, getting to Bali as quickly and as safely as possible was our only option, but we’d hoped the assistance and medications received from other cruisers on the rally would preclude us from having to pursue that option.
However, after setting sail to the Banda Islands after the completion of the Welcome Ceremony and rally festivities in Debut, the morning of 31st July 2019, confirmed our worst fears; unfortunately Elaine’s health woes had continued, specifically the UTI, forcing her to switch to a stronger antibiotic in the hopes of shifting it sooner rather than later. This also cemented our decision to change our itinerary, leaving the rally temporarily and heading for Bali, given that we had no idea if the latest course of antibiotics would, in fact, do the trick. It didn’t help either that this was all fuelling her flareup and making it extremely difficult to get her conditions back under control. Our hope was, however, that by skipping a few destinations, Elaine’s health would improve and we’d also have the additional benefit of enjoying sun, sea and beaches, rather than villages and towns, full of sick people.
The new itinerary we had decided upon basically involved heading west to the Wakatobi Island group and from there heading south to the eastern end of Flores Island, work our way along the northern coasts of Flores and Sumbawa Islands, stopping at the Komodo National Park in between and onto to Lombok and Bali Islands, where Elaine could get her medical treatment and we could rejoin the rally in Lovina on the northern coast of Bali. On hindsight this turned out to be a fabulous option for us as we actually got to see the best of what Indonesia had to offer at our leisure, with a few exceptions. With the benefit of hindsight, we definitely would not have wasted our time doing the northern coast of Flores Island, but rather have headed straight to Labuan Bajo on the western side of the island, stopping at the Bonerate National Park en route. This latter destination is something we regret missing, although, at the time we didn’t know about it and the rally didn’t provide this kind of information. Skipping the Flores northern coast, would also have provided us with more time to spend on Belitung Island and in the Riau Group. Regardless, our new itinerary gave us the option of lingering longer at places we chose, especially since Elaine’s health did improve somewhat.
However, by the time we reached Lombok Island on Sunday, 1st September 2019 events were about to overtake us again. While we were delighted to have arrived with time to explore the area at our leisure and commence our visa renewal process, our road trip to Mataram on Tuesday, 3rd September 2019 from Medana Bay Marina to undertake the latter unfolded; an experience we can best describe as a cluster of monumental proportions, but the pre- and post cursors added to the disaster.
