Singapore

---

CLEAN! My first word to describe Singapore. Only a three hour flight away from North Vietnam and I can tell I am in a totally different world. So organised and sooooo clean! Singapore reminds me very much like Hong Kong but less busy. I only spent a couple of days here so didn't do an awful lot but have a really good opinion of Singapore from my short stay.

I stayed in a ten bed dorm in China Town. I thought this would be a bit of a noisy hostel as it was really near Boat Quay but it turned out to be very quiet, but a nice hostel all the same.

The first night, I walked down Boat Quay towards Marina Bay Sands with Maikel, a Dutch guy I met in my hostel. We went out for dinner where I tried to teach him to use chop sticks as he had never used them before (you can tell this was his first visit to Asia!). Was very funny watching him and he finally gave in and asked for a knife and fork! We watched the light show that came from Marina Bay Sands hotel that wasn't as fascinating as I thought it would be but the view was very nice.

The next day, I went to Santosa Island. Before we left, it was lovely and sunny but as soon as I got to the beach and put my towel down...rain!!! I decided to have some ice-cream under the shade of a cafe! The odd thing about Singapore is that the posh places have something called plus plus (++). This means that a 10% service charge is added to your bill and then a further 7% tax is added. It is beyond me why they don't just include it with the price but maybe it is there to confuse foreigners. This means that everything is a lot more expensive than you think!

The next day, I walked around China Town (the cleanest China Town I have seen in the world!) and also walked around Marina Bay Sands area. Behind Marina Bay Sands hotel there is a beautiful garden, called Garden by the Bay, with lots of different plant areas and art. My favourite part was the statue of a giant, sleeping baby that looked like it was floating in mid air. On closer inspection, I saw that it was being held up by just one hand! Amazing. Apparently, it was on display in Chatsworth House in 2008 so some of you may have seen it already. I stopped around the Marina Bay area in the shopping centre to have a look around when a woman stopped me to give me some free cream and then asked me if she could show me something. It was a salt scrub from the Dead Sea in Isreal (I only remember this because she was making such a big deal that it wasn't from anywhere but Isreal!). She then asked me to put it on my hands and scrub. Pointing at my freckles, she told me that using this scrub only once a week would get rid of my freckles forever! You should have seen my face trying to stop myself from laughing! She even told me when I washed it all off that she could see a difference already (yeah they looked redder!). $200 she tried to sell me this for. I'm not very good at saying no as I knew she would try and hassle me more so I made up a little white lie and said I would have to go and ask my boyfriend as he would have to pay for it- then quickly walked away!

I then made my way to the airport and checked myself in at the airport lounge to have some free food and some hot milk before my flight.

I am now in Melbourne staying with my sister. It is their summer now so it is going to be strange having a warm Christmas! Not many blogs from me for now as I am not sure what I'll be getting up to but will try my best to keep you all updated!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I'll have a shrimp on the barbie for you all!

Lots of love xxxx

---