The Ghan

That's what happens when you are coming from the comfort of your Air Conditioned vehicle and want to take pictures outside. If I was wearing glasses it would be the same. Fog on the lense! Anyway, above is the foggy picture of famous Ghan that goes from Darwin to Adelaide. It takes two days to travel the 3000 kilometres that separate the two cities. It also is the reason why there are so many wild camels in Australia since they were used during the construction of its rail line. It additionally gave its name to the service - originally The Afghan Express - since the camels used for that purpose were imported from Afghanistan. The connection to Darwin was only in service in 2004, so it is quite recent, and even though I drive past the station several times a day I do not have the opportunity to see one of those very often as they only depart from Darwin twice a week (on Wednesdays at 10am and on Saturdays at 9am).

Road Trains

In view of the big distances to be covered in this country, one of the amazing features you can't help but notice is the Road Train. There are literally trucks tracting as many as 5 or 6 trailers. The only thing is that the real trains here can be several kilometres long. As any other mean of transport you can find magazines, websites and DVDs dedicated to those amazing monsters. And some even try to break some records like the sponsored Hog's Breath Cafe 1700 meter road train, made up of an estimated 120 trailers!

Indonesia

It is probably one of my last official missions to these surrounding Indonesian islands. It has always been interesting to visit these places but I definitely can't picture myself living there. That's the 'Port' of the main city, Balai, and the facilities you see here are at the image of the rest of the existing infrastructures. Such a culture shock just over an hour away from Singapore. Exotism is enjoyable when it is for pleasure but when it is work related it can be quite tiring and frustrating.

Indonesian Transports

If the sea transports between Singapore and Indonesia are usually 'top class' once you change for a domestic connection it is another story entirely. The terminals are busy, dirty, disorganised and grotty. There is surely no yield management. The boats used to ferry passenger around are disused. For example between the Riau Islands you can take the Miko Natalia which supposedy has a fixed schedule but which can be up to an hour or two early or late. Once on board, if you are lucky you will get a smelly seat, if you are a bit less lucky you can get a plastic chair in the corridor and if you are less lucky you will have to stand somewhere in between the cargo or on the deck. Luckily, I took the Natalia from Batam at a reasonable time today and it was not too crowded and only 30 minutes late but I can tell you I had some funny and interesting experiences in the past!

Bugis Junction

The crossing at Bugis Junction has been an ongoing problem. It sometimes takes up to 10 minutes to cross that section of the road since barriers in the middle of the island restrict the passage to a narrow lane and the hundreds of pedestrians get blocked in the middle. You often have to wait for two or three traffic lights before progressing to the orther side. I am surprised the Singapore Land Transport Authorities are reluctant to take actions for a problem that has been plaguing this very touristical area for years.

Cruising

This morning after departing from Harbour Front on my way to Batam, we remained on stand-by for quite a while to make way for a Star Cruise ship to manoeuvre freely. it is actually quite frequent. I am not attracted by cruises but I am always impressed by the majesty of those luxury floating hotels. Those ships usually cruise around this part of the world from Japan to Singapore through Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia. There is hardly a day without seeing one at Singapore cruise centre.

ERP

Well before the infamous London's congestion charge, Singapore innovated as far back as 1998 with an electronic road pricing system logically called the ERP. It was the first automatic road charge syste in the world. Its aim is to 'ease' the traffic during peak hours. I have to believe the statistics saying that as a consequence the number of vehicles has decreased and the average speed came up during these busy periods thanks to the ERP even though I think it actually more likely results into a huge additional revenue for the LTA (Land Transport Authority). Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against it as long as we know the money is reinvested to develop public transports for example. Anyway, if you happen to rent a vehicle in Singapore do not forget to buy a cashcard that will have to be inserted in the specially designed box in the vehicle in order for the gantries to detect it and deuct the necessary amount while driving under.

11300 kilometers away...

It is always amazing how relatively quickly and smoothly we can cover such distances. I know it has been a while since airlines have been able to cover lots of ground (the longest flight currently being the incredible direct Singapore-New York flight by Singapore Airlines) but we always expect progress. When the A380 started its service I was more than happy to enjoy the supposedly airlines revolution, but a trip in that plane quickly made me realise it was only an advantage for the airlines not for the customer unless you are flying First Class. Economy and Business Class remain exactly the same except you are sharing the cabins with many more passengers. A real revolution for the passenger would have been to double the speed. Why didn't we make any progress in that field since the Concorde? Airlines are fast to blame the fuel efficiency / consumption for this but the truth probably lies more into the fact that they are more than happy to get super jumbos transporting masses rather than smaller jets transporting their customers faster.

Allo Taxi

Taxis are a well developped way of transport in Singapore. There are nearly 30,000 taxis cruising the streets and I remember reading somewhere that it was the city with the most cabs per person in the world. They all are air conditioned and they all are metered. Not all are good drivers though and many have a few problems with gears but most are very honest. Nearly all the lost / forgotten items are returned to their owners if claimed. They also remain a comparatively cheap way of moving around even though the fare hike that took place at the beginning of the year made more than a few passengers unhappy.

Containers

I know it is quite a common sight for many but today I happened to drive past the Port and there was this big container vessel loading its shipment so i could not resist. I have always enjoyed the sight of all those colourful boxes stacked on top of each other.