FOR someone who is compulsively self-reliant, Dr Olaf Duebel had a Singapore "surprise" when he and his wife - newly arrived and with four children in tow - were poring over a map in busy Orchard Road.

"People stopped and asked if we needed help. That impressed us," said the German managing director of Volkswagen Group Singapore.

He explained that Germans tended to shy away from open displays of conviviality. But he hastened to add that his countrymen have loosened up since Germany hosted the World Cup in 2006.

"People understood then that it's not a bad thing to be open and friendly," said the 41-year-old.

Singapore was his first taste of Asia, and he had no idea what to expect when he moved here in 2002.

He had, of course, heard that it was clean, safe and well-organised. Or, as one friend put it to him, it was "Asia for beginners".

"I didn't know what he meant at that time. But after a year, it became clear.

"You can go deep into culture which you can find in corners of Chinatown for instance, but you can also step out easily and go to the Swiss Butchery in Greenwood Avenue."

That's where he gets his trusty supply of German sausages.

His other source of home connection is soccer on Thursdays at the German School, played with about 25 other Germans.

At 1.9m, he is a shoo-in for goalkeeper. He had also trained with legendary former German national team goalkeeper Oliver Kahn in the 1980s.

After a game, the team usually heads to a nearby hawker centre for beer: Tiger Beer, not German lagers.

"It's not too bad," he said of Singapore's most famous beverage export.

"I've since never felt the need to have a German beer."

But he does miss one thing about home: the German soccer league, which he hopes to be able to catch over the Internet when it starts its online broadcast this summer.

Weekends here are family affairs with his homemaker wife Silke, 42, and four children aged five to 17, spent either at the movies, malls or East Coast Park.

The car company head honcho, who grew up in Cologne and who has a PhD in mechanical engineering, is well-known for having German sweets called Gummi Bears at lunch and sometimes at dinner.

And while he loves local food, he swears he will never go near a durian again.

"Once is enough. You have to first overcome something so smelly before you even attempt to put it in your mouth," he said, recoiling at the thought.

His mother, who was visiting, once bought one and left it in the fridge.

But he has got used to something else about Singapore and can even claim to have adjusted well - driving here.

Dr Duebel, who drives a Volkswagen Eos convertible coupe, has no issues with the welldesigned roads.

"Compared to other Asian cities, you can drive in Singapore because it's not stop and go," he said, adding that densely populated German cities like Berlin, Munich or Cologne also have to deal with the traffic jams.

But the road users are something else. Referring to taxi drivers here, he said with a laugh: "When you indicate to change lanes, they speed up. So, it might be better not to use the indicator at all."

This article was first published in The Sunday Times on Mar 23, 2008.