Quick Spin to Malaysia

Singapore is a city-state. This can be a bad thing, it is a bit of a bubble, and you can’t really get away from the ‘big-city’ feeling very easily.

But it’s also a good thing, it’s really easy to go away for a short break, Peninsular Malaysia is just to the north, and Indonesia lies close to the south and south-west, so you don’t have to go far or spend long traveling to get another stamp in your passport.

There are places to go to ‘get away from it all’ in Singapore. Perhaps the most obvious place is Sentosa, a small island just south of the CBD which has been given over entirely to the leisure industry. It’s a complex of beaches and such attractions, and as with everything in Singapore, is a historic site with a man-made gloss. I’m sure the island has had many uses over the years, but in recent times it was a British military base. It’s now a synthetic haven of pristine beaches and perfectly spaced palm trees. But it’s right on my doorstep, and it’s good for a quick few hours on the beach.

Another man-made wonder is East Coast Park. This is a six-mile strip of reclaimed land with a man-made beach. It’s wonderfully (or patronizingly) organized, with marked lanes for cycling, running and roller-blading, barbecue pits, picnic areas, exercise areas, the list goes on. The beach is a bit filthy, and it’s right next to the airport motorway, but it’s a nice place to catch the breeze and watch the ships go by.

Thinking of the motorway…
Singapore has got to win the award for the prettiest motorways in the world. The one that leads to the airport is a stunner, three lanes of expressway lined with purple-flowered trees and other greenery. The central reservation would win the Chelsea flower show. Many of the motorways in Singapore are like this, the UK could learn a thing or two, and it certainly makes you feel better as you cruise along.

This weekend I decided to add riding across an international border to my cycling claims to fame. To the north of Singapore lies the Causeway, a road and rail link to Malaysia. It’s only about 16 miles from where I live, so I decided this was the ride to test my new chainset out with.

I’m sure there is a lovely picturesque route that I could take to get to the crossing, but as in London, I prefer to stick to the main roads. Not only are they faster, I reckon they’re safer. The roads are nice and wide so people have the chance to give you room, and people don’t fly around corners as they do in back-streets. Nor are there parked cars obscuring people’s view. All in all, it’s safer on the big, scary busy roads. I can understand why people think the back-streets are safer, but they are simply not. They’re for pootlers, and I’m not a pootler!

The border check is a good laugh on a bike. The queue of trucks stretches back a good four or five miles, and the car and scooter queue is not much better. But on a bike you can get into the car lane and filter all the way to the front, get your passport checked, roll over the bridge, and within ten minutes you’re in Johor Bahru, Malaysia.

It’s only when you get out of Singapore that you can appreciate Singapore. It might be an authoritarian nightmare, but it’s damn clean, and you feel safe. Johor is by no means a bad place, but their tarmac could do with a being looked at, and their drivers could do with a lesson or two. Singapore drivers may leave a lot to be desired, but at least it’s not all a big race to them. The main strip in Johor is a bit of a drag strip, except everyone is crammed in and getting nowhere fast. I don’t reckon they get many white guys flying through the gaps on bikes either……

There isn’t much in Johor, I rode up to a nice mosque overlooking the strait which separates Singapore, and there’s a nice palace of sorts, resplendent with crocodile, and there’s a zoo which makes the cardinal mistake of allowing the elephants to be seen for free from the road. No way I was paying to get into that zoo after seeing the main attraction!

The biggest surprise was lunch. A main dish, four drinks and an ice cream, all for what the main dish alone would have cost in Singapore. Methinks it’s time to look into living in Malaysia, would save a decent bit of cash!

Rode the same route home out of a desire not to get lost. It was then that I realized the stupidity of riding flat out on the way there, having not ridden further than 10 miles in one go all year. Still, sheer determination won the day. This is especially true during Tour de France time, seeing those guys do that kind of thing day in, day out makes you ashamed to consider getting off the bike on a poxy 30+ mile ride. So thanks Carlos Sastre, you got me home without resorting to a taxi!

Cycling in Singapore

For most of 2008 I hadn’t been on the bike much, January saw me moving to Beirut in the Lebanon, and there’s not much chance of riding a bike out there! It would be a lovely place to ride, but the fact that no one rides a bike out there means that no one is expecting to see a bike. Everyone wants a Mercedes in Lebanon, and for a tiny country you would be amazed at the number of cars there, I guess it affords you a level of protection from bullets that a bike can’t provide.

Anyway, the job in Beirut wasn’t that great, so when I got offered a new post in Singapore, I jumped at the chance.

I had never been to Asia until I arrived in Singapore, but it was pretty much as I expected. Everything goes up, and it’s damn humid. However, it is flat, so I boxed up the fixed wheel and had it shipped from London. It arrived intact (Thanks Excess Baggage Company!), so I quickly built it back up and headed out for a spin.

The first thing you have to realize about Singapore is that it’s damn hot, all the time. The temperature is a pretty constant 30 degrees, occasionally dipping to 28, and rising to 35 or so every now and then. It rains most days, real downpours, but it clears up quite quickly and the roads dry out fast.

But it’s the humidity that kills you, there is no relief, it’s always humid. Every ride, even a quick spin ‘round the block’, I come home drenched in sweat. I’m still sweating after a cold shower, so the only solution is to spend 10-15 minutes in the pool after a ride. I’m normally still a bit hot, but no longer pouring sweat.

This also means riding in minimal clothing. I’m still not up for the full lycra look, I brought all the kit out here, but something is stopping me, possibly the fact that I’m using ‘trainer’ style SPDs, and they just don’t look good with lycra, so I’ll have to invest in a new pair of SPD shoes! So for the meantime I’m the guy powering around Singapore in a ‘wife-beater’ vest, a pair of beach shorts and some rugby socks…

In many ways Singapore is great for cycling. It’s mostly flat and the roads are great, well maintained, wide and well signposted. As with most places in the world, it’s the drivers that are the problem. This is mostly their own fault, but it’s also Singapore cyclists’ fault, because most of them never exceed 3mph, and the drivers expect this of everyone on a bike.

In Singapore, ‘might is right’. If you’ve got a bigger car, you should have priority, you ought not to be impeded by someone on a bike or in a Toyota Starlet if you’ve invested thousands in a big BMW. It’s understandable in one way. Singapore, being tiny, attempts to discourage car use/ownership. You pay twice as much as anywhere else in the world to buy a car here thanks to a strict tax system. You are only entitled to own a car for 5 or 10 years, then you have to buy a new one. And you have to pay road tolls all over the place. Singaporean drivers burn through cash as fast as they eat their noodles, and as a result they really do think they own the road. But this just means it’s even more satisfying when you overtake one in the jams on Eu Tong Sen street!!!

Many drivers to treat you badly, but it’s no worse than any big city, and the majority treat you quite well. There are always idiots out there!

Off for a ride now, will tell you more another day, if i live to see it!