Singapore Parkinson’s Disease Society meets Drive Around the World.

Journal and photo by Todd Borgie

We have hit Asia by storm. After being taken care of on a ship for 5 days, we have now arrived in Singapore. Chanda fixed us up with an amazing hotel called the Goodwood Park Hotel, and we all love where we are staying. Yesterday we had a couple of “Take Me With You” guests join us: Larry from Land Rover, and Sue Mead, an independent journalist. After recovering from their long flights from the USA yesterday, they are ready to join us today in order to gain a glimpse into our daily lives on the road.

A visit with the Singapore Parkinson’s Disease Society was scheduled for today. They knew we were coming, but I never quite know what the local Parkinson’s groups expect when we schedule a visit. I communicate our story, our program goals, and how they can help, but what kind of person would you expect to jump out of Land Rover after seven months of travel, especially one that is part of such a unique project like Drive Around the World?

This morning, six of us jumped out of taxis and entered the Singapore Hospital. After asking a couple of questions, we found our way the meeting place, slightly tardy. We first met Dr. Louis Tan, who unbeknownst to us, had worked with Dr. William Langston and the Parkinson’s Institute, the main beneficiary of this project. The meeting was great; it featured a slide show and words from many people in the Parkinson’s community including two doctors, two nurses, one social worker, and three People with Parkinson’s disease. They told us about their program, and we asked a lot of questions about the Parkinson’s experience in Singapore. It was Larry and Sue’s first time at one of these meetings, and it was great to show them first-hand some of the stuff we learn along the way. One of the Parkinson’s patients we met told us that Parkinson’s disease is one of the best things that have happened to him. Having been diagnosed six years ago with Parkinson’s, he believed that his condition allowed him to have a child, who is now four years old. He, along with his wife and other children, is able to take care of this child, one of the major joys of his life. The visit couldn’t have been better; I think Larry and Sue gained a much better understanding of the disease and what we are doing here on the road. Thank you very much, Singapore Parkinson’s Disease Society!

After returning to the hotel, everyone took off to eat; however, by this time, Nick had tracked down an elusive phone number and scheduled and appointment for me at the Tropical Marine Science Institute. I caught me breath and was off in a taxi once again. “Fourteen Kent Ridge Road”, I said to the cab driver, as I showed him the address. At 2:00 p.m. (the time of my appointment) we were pulling up to Cambridge Rd. It didn’t look like a university, so I asked if this was 14 Kent Ridge. He said, “Kent Ridge? This is Cambridge”, he apologized and soon we off to the other side of town. Twenty minutes later, we arrived at the University of Singapore, and a campus full of streets named Kent Ridge. I saw Lower Kent Ridge Rd, Kent Ridge Circle, Kent Ridge Crescent, and many others. After consulting several people and several maps, I arrived at my destination about a ½ hour late, uffda!

I learned much about much about the Tropical Marine Sciences Institute’s programs (www.drivearoudtheworld.com/education/sea/tmsi/FrameSet.htm).

The afternoon ended with a visit to Land Rover Singapore and finally to the famous Raffles Bar. This bar used to host the likes of Rudyard Kipling and Joseph Conrad. It was fun to imagine these guys having a famous Singapore Sling here, and it was fun to see the architecture style that has been copied so profusely around the world.

My favorite part of raffles was the fans. There was a series of blades (shaped like hand fans) that were attached to arms that moved back and forth. Four blades were connected over an area of about eight feet and in a straight line ( a blade every 2 ft). All they did was move back and forth; however, their synchronicity lured me into watching them. I want to build a fan like this in a house that I will own in the future.

We had our final team dinner, for our final continent. We have a lot of distance to cover on this new continent, but the mysteries it holds will be a great incentive to keep rolling.

Logbook for May 26th, Day 208
Start: Singapore, Singapore
Time: 8:00 a.m.
N: 01* 16.695
E: 103* 46.855
Finish Singapore, Singapore
Time: 12:00 p.m.
N: 01* 16.695
E: 103* 46.855
Mileage: 000
Notes: Team hard at work. TMWY! guests received an orientation briefing and then the team went out for dinner at Boat Quay, stopping for peanuts and a Singapore Sling at the historic Raffles Hotel.

(N.O.)

Help support our cause: The LONGITUDE Expedition is the longest journey ever attempted with a focus on Parkinson's Disease. The Drive Around the World team aims to raise money for Parkinson’s Disease research by driving four certified pre-owned Land Rover Discoverys around the globe following lines of longitude. Readers are encouraged to pledge small amounts of money per expedition-kilometer via a pledge form that can be found on our Parkinson’s page by clicking here. 100% of donations received go directly to Parkinson's research and all who donate $10 or more will be entered into a raffle to win an expedition-equipped Land Rover Discovery.

The vehicles and team unload in front of the posh, 5-star, Goodwood Hotel. It caused quite a stir. But, hey! The rooms are being comp'd!

Journal and photo by Adam Burgess

Singapore is a perfect stepping stone for first-timers to Asia. It offers the chaos of densely packed people expressing a mild version of Eastern culture while offering a sterile environment filled with fancy cars, nice hotels and $16, 12-ounce, draft Tiger beer. Only a high roller can buy the Heineken, and although we appeared to roll high thanks to Chanda, we were quite the contrary. A week before, Chanda had blasted all Singapore hotels with an email explaining that we are a group traveling around the world in order to do research for a book that recommends hotels and routes for overlanders (world car travelers). So, she managed to get a response from the Goodwood Hotel. They had offered us rooms for four nights in return for a tour of their facility, which I said I would film for our television show. Quite a simple promise, considering the rooms were $435 each per night.

Yesterday, we rolled up to the red-carpeted steps and clambered out of the Land Rovers and began dragging rucksacks, guitars, and dusty cases past the 2004 Silver Shadow Rolls Royce and into the lobby. Heads spun as we stood there in shabby in filth-covered cargo pants and flip-flops, but we were greeted by the staff with a very pleasant reception. They appeared to love us and tip-toed around our every need, because, well…after all, we are filming them for US television…

Logbook for May 25th, Day 207
Start: Singapore, Singapore
Time: 5:00 a.m.
N: 01* 16.695
E: 103* 46.855
Finish Singapore, Singapore
Time: 8:30 p.m.
N: 01* 16.695
E: 103* 46.855
Mileage: 080
Notes: Team picked up Take Me With You! guests Larry Rosinski (Communications Manager, Land Rover North America) and Sue Mead (Freelance automotive journalist from Massachusetts). Once everybody was settled, team members visited the National Neurological Institute and the Singapore Parkinson’s Disease Society. Team also toured the Goodwood Park Hotel and did some “Cribs-style” filming. In the evening, the team and guests visited Chinatown and had a “tea experience” at a famous tea house.

(N.O.)

Help support our cause: The LONGITUDE Expedition is the longest journey ever attempted with a focus on Parkinson's Disease. The Drive Around the World team aims to raise money for Parkinson’s Disease research by driving four certified pre-owned Land Rover Discoverys around the globe following lines of longitude. Readers are encouraged to pledge small amounts of money per expedition-kilometer via a pledge form that can be found on our Parkinson’s page by clicking here. 100% of donations received go directly to Parkinson's research and all who donate $10 or more will be entered into a raffle to win an expedition-equipped Land Rover Discovery.

A Drive Around the World vehicle peers at the city of Singapore. Freeing the vehicles from customs was an all-day event.

Journal and photo by Neil Dana

Today is a day that reminded me of Central America a bit, only in the sense of dealing with major border hassles. Singapore is a place that has more controlling laws than living organisms! We awoke today at 7AM and were out of the hotel at 8AM to head to our first of 4 stops in order to get our vehicles out of the Singapore port and onto the roads. Nick, Justin, Nancy and I were involved in today's activities since we are all the "drivers" on paper. Our vehicles have been stuck in port since yesterday. Apparently, we needed some other paperwork, an International Circulation Permit, that we did not have upon arrival, and the place to obtain it was closed yesterday, Sunday.

So at 8AM this morning, a representative from Wallenius picked us up at our hotel, which is an amazing hotel by the way. You will hear about it in later logs throughout this week. So, when he arrived, we were planning on going straight to the AAS, which is like the AAA of the USA. However, our buddy took us to another guy first in some other building that was supposed to have the correct paperwork for us. When we walked in, the man there spoke to us in pretty decent English, as most of Singapore speaks English. We told him what we needed, and he looked at us and said that there is no way we could get that paperwork, and our carnet wouldn't work. "Oh no, you cannot drive in Singapore, we can tow your cars to the Malaysia border though." What? Nick quickly maneuvered around this and explained to the man that we needed to go the AAS and figure out a solution. It was obvious this guy couldn't help us out.

So we went outside and got in a taxi towards the AAS. Our rep had left, so we just took taxis the rest of the day. All the taxis here have different colors and themes, so it is always interesting to see them all. There was one from Brasil, painted as the national flag. After 20 minutes, we arrived at the office. We were a bit nervous, since we were not sure what the outcome would be here. Well, after I ate breakfast and lunch while waiting for Nick and Justin to handle all the discussions and paperwork, it was 3 hours later. The women at the desk were extremely helpful and went out of their way to make sure we could get the proper paperwork.

At first, they wanted to charge us $30 a day per vehicle to drive on their roads! We told them we would not drive on the roads, and we would be taking the subway everywhere. When all was said and done, this was reasonable for both parties and was agreed upon. We did have to purchase insurance for the vehicles though, another $500!

So after this, we had to go the customs office. We took another taxi there, and met a man who was recommended to us from the previous office. He told us that we had to go the Land Transit Authority, so we thanked him, "Tera Makasi" and caught another taxi. Once we got there, we had to fill out some more paperwork with information from our vehicles. This took about another hour. We were all getting pretty tired by this point. Finally, when we finished up there, we headed to the actual port where our Land Rovers were parked.

At the port, we had to take some pictures that they put on a piece of paper, which was a temporary driving license for Singapore. And then we finally got our vehicles! We also got the lowdown on the ERP. The ERP is a system to control the amount of traffic in the city. There are certain roads, like the whole entire middle of Singapore, and others that you have to pay for to use. They install a small electrical device in your car that keeps track of your driving on the ERP. Whenever you enter an ERP area, there is a monitor that picks it up and registers it. You pay later, or beforehand, for the amount of time you use. We didn't have the ERP, which is what the $30/day would have given us. To get to our hotel, we didn't need it though, so we were in good shape.

So finally, at about 6PM, we arrived back out our hotel, Goodwood Park. Our work was not done yet, though; we still had to wash the vehicles for our guests' arrival tomorrow. Adam and Colin and a few others wiped down the vehicles and gave them a sparkle. Then we went out to eat some delicious food, mmmnn. There are food courts here that have Indian, Thai, Chinese, Italian, you name it, any kind of food, for anywhere between $1.50-$4.00. We ate some Thai food, and it was what I have been waiting for. I am so excited to be able to eat all these different Asian foods for the next few months. Every meal is a fantastic treat.

Well, those of you who are planning to bring a car to Singapore, I have some advice for you......Don't. Leave it at home and bring a big appetite for great food.

Selamat Tingal,

Neil

Logbook for May 24th, Day 206
Start: Singapore, Singapore
Time: 8:30 a.m.
N: 01* 16.695
E: 103* 46.855
Finish Singapore, Singapore
Time: 6:30 p.m.
N: 01* 16.695
E: 103* 46.855
Mileage: 010
Notes: Team collected vehicles from port, finally, at about 6 p.m., after having spent the entire day running around the city to visit the customs office, the port offices, the transportation office, and some other important offices. An education visit was held at the American School in Singapore.
(N.O.)

Help support our cause: The LONGITUDE Expedition is the longest journey ever attempted with a focus on Parkinson's Disease. The Drive Around the World team aims to raise money for Parkinson’s Disease research by driving four certified pre-owned Land Rover Discoverys around the globe following lines of longitude. Readers are encouraged to pledge small amounts of money per expedition-kilometer via a pledge form that can be found on our Parkinson’s page by clicking here. 100% of donations received go directly to Parkinson's research and all who donate $10 or more will be entered into a raffle to win an expedition-equipped Land Rover Discovery.

The Certified Discoverys in front of the Wallenius Wilhelmsen ship that carried them to Singapore.

Logbook for May 23rd, Day 205
Start: Singapore, Singapore
Time: 7:00 a.m.
N: 01* 16.695
E: 103* 46.855
Finish Singapore, Singapore
Time: midnight
N: 01* 16.695
E: 103* 46.855
Mileage: 004
Notes: Team unloaded vehicles and entered Singapore customs. It was determined that a particular type of permission document needed to be obtained before we could drive out of the port. Singapore is quite picky about their driving regulations, and there are more rules here than anywhere we have been or want to go. The team taxied to the beautiful Goodwood Park Hotel, where four accommodations have been donated to the team by the hotel management. This 5-star hotel is a real treat for the team! Team ate some dinner and held a team meeting to go over taskings.
(N.O.)

Help support our cause: The LONGITUDE Expedition is the longest journey ever attempted with a focus on Parkinson's Disease. The Drive Around the World team aims to raise money for Parkinson’s Disease research by driving four certified pre-owned Land Rover Discoverys around the globe following lines of longitude. Readers are encouraged to pledge small amounts of money per expedition-kilometer via a pledge form that can be found on our Parkinson’s page by clicking here. 100% of donations received go directly to Parkinson's research and all who donate $10 or more will be entered into a raffle to win an expedition-equipped Land Rover Discovery.