Well by boat, wait, walk and wait and then by bus to Larcom Terminal at Johor Baru and quickly onto another Bus for Singapore, off the bus at the Causeway to clear out of Malaysia, on the bus to the other end of the causeway, off the bus to clear into Singapore and back onto the bus to head into the terminal "just around the corner" from Bugis Street. Great finally here maybe about 2000 hours on Saturday night but I want to find and check out Raffles marina and Chandlery so I can make a quick start in the morning being Sunday. So I hit the MRT with bag in tow which contains a heavy hydraulic ram and gear, a water pump, an alternator and a very small bag of a change of clothes for a night or maybe two. Now it turns out Raffles Marina is right back next to the Causeway I had come across about an hour ago on the Western Side of the Island and a fair taxi ride from the end of the MRT (train system). So I get there, suss the place out, find out that yes the chandlery does open on Sundays as I figure they can give me some leads on where to get things done, and then getting weary after dragging the bag all day and think about sleeping on a park bench at Raffles, but being Singapore thought the consequences may not be attractive so head back down the Raffles Marina ( now this IS a world class marina!!!) grand entrance when the trusty bag gives up the ghost and blows a wheel, in fact shatters it. So here I go skull dragging the bag down the road on one wheel and a broken stump! The gateman tells me I can catch a bus so I head to the bus stop, catch the bus to Boon Loy MRT and head back to Little India to find a cheap room knowing that I will have but a few hours to put in there. Skull drag the bag to Fragrance Backpackers - very clean very reasonable but they are doing their night audit and it takes about half an hour to check in. Then head down to Mustafa all night shopping to buy a bag or bag trolley (which is what I ended up with as skull dragging the bag is not much fun!). A bit after 0200 hit the pillow and up before 6 to head back to the Marina. Called the Marine Diesel Nanni Agent on Sunday morning, and yes they will even talk to you on Sunday's up here and arrange to meet early on Monday morning. Head to Raffles and fortunately could buy an electric water pump and other stuff there which was all good. Research Wagner for Rams and seals and other suppliers ready for the Monday onslaught and finish up around 2300 - decide to do a hotel to catch up on some sleep and internet as Lloyds behinc Orchard Road I knew had a Internet Hotspot. Turn in around 11.30 and head off at 0530 on Monday to Marine Diesel. YES they can do the pump AND the RAM and are great people to deal with, most helpful and friendly (of course our diesels are toys to what they normally deal with!!), take the alternator to Dieseltech where they test it and find it not producing and will get back to me later in the day whether it can be repaired or cheaper to replace. They do call back and pronounce it dead and will see if they can find a replacement, joy of joy they do as their none available in Australia! Back to Marine Diesel to see how they are going with pump and Ram, they have dismantled both and diagnosed and can repair both! Back to Dieseltech and get the new Alternator, they take me to the MRT and I go to coffee shop with internet access and do some research and work. Head back to another night in the backpackers as it will be after midnight again.
Tuesday mor ning, not much need to rush as I have been told the seal for the ram will not be available until Wednesday morning. Ok sounds like a good time to sort out a little issue with Telstra as I have acquired a Malaysian Sim for my wireless broadband and found that my modem is locked to only Telstra Sims. Thanks Telstra. Anyway this should take about ten minutes on the phone. Ha! Ha, ha ha, whatever takes ten minutes with Telstra. Anyway as the morning wore on and I had spent 2.5 HOURS on the phone to Telstra and spoken to over 30 consultants (AND I was still calmQ!) I had been told by various Telstra experts that: you can't unlock modems, talk to Bigpond (it actually has nothing to do with them as it is a Telstra Modem!); we can only do it with prepaid modems, they aren't locked, it is impossible to unlock them, there is an unlock fee of $100, we don't do it, talk to the "unlock people at prepaid" and they just kept telling me they would refer me to the appropriate section but just put me back in the queue on the standard enquiry line. Anyway when I had decided I hated TELSTRA with a passion the phone was answered by a guy who apologised and offered to help, NOW that was a refreshing start to progress AND he did. He asked me to wait two minutes, well I didn't mind that after being on the phone for 2.5 hours and then he came back and said he had been put onto the wrong section (surprise surprise) but if I would wait another two minutes he would track down the appropriate section AND HE DID and he stayed on and introduced me to the far away lady who could fix it AND she DID in just two minutes and we tested it and it worked! And he stayed on and she left and we all parted company. Thank heavens for Skype - Imagine what it would have cost if I was on a Telstra mobile call from overseas may be $300 to $400 for the call alone. Imagine what happens to people who believe the TELSTRA BULLSHIT that you can't do this or you can't do that and nothing happens. What gross incompetence exists in this organisation but I was just lucky enough to find the only one person in Telstra who actually was prepared to help a customer!! I was on the verge of going out to buy another modem but I just knew it could be done - just the Telstra experts didn't.
After that it was off to Boon Lay by foot, MRT and then by cab to see how things were progressing with the pumps, water pump done and ram awaiting the seal, all good. I even managed to get lunch in - it is hard to be in Singapore and not enjoy the food.
Back to Joon then to Boon Lay to settle into Starbucks for internet access for the afternoon to catch up on a few things and email etc etc. Starbucks is great for internet, yesterday I spent some hours in another coffee shop in the centre with wi-fi.
Back to Boojis Street to get back to accomm. Now about 11.45 and Caroline has an 0800 appointment for me on Skype so better go and shower and off to bed.
Hopefully tomorrow after picking up a spare pump impeller from , affles marina, I guess an advantage of being delayed as they didn't have one on Sunday but will have by tomorrow pm, I will have pumps, ram , new alternator, a very heavy bag and be ready to hit the road back to Mersing and Tioman. Let's see what happens!