Spicy Singapore

We decided that before we hit the main Asian leg of our trip a few days in Singapore to acclimatise would be an excellent idea. We has decided to stay in the Little India area of Singapore. Being a lover of Indian food myself, I couldn't resist and Rory and Aoife will tell you that I didn't. There was restaurants and street vendors galore, I was in heaven!

All of us being new to Asian we thought a trip to Asian Civilisations Museum would be a good starting point. There we learnt all about the cultures, religions and practises from India to Vietnam and from China to Indonesia. We were shown an overview of vast differing aspects of region. Singapore itself is a melting pot, there has and continues to be a lot of immigration, Indians, Chinese and ex-pats just to name a few. We also visited our first Budhist temple, Aoife was much impressed with the use of fairy lights.

We walked around the city, through vast shopping malls which are connected by underground tunnels and trains. All this sounds elaborate but when you are dealing with the heat and torrential rain you can see the reasoning behind it all. We actually found a Marks and Spencers which made Aoife very homesick and i was disgusted that they didn't import french fancies. That night we went to Raffles Hotel, the birthplace of the famous cocktail "Singapore Sling". The hotel was a classy affair where you are apparently required to wear long pants and a shirt but it was okay to dispose of our monkey nut shells on the floor, very odd. The cocktail was delicious but a bit pricey, we nursed ours for an hour as watched more money happy tourists knock back four!

The next day we went to the Singapore Zoo. We had heard much about this zoo and weren't disappointed. The place was amazing, not just variety of animals there (which there is) but the amount of interaction you get with them as well. The shows put on were really good too. My personal favourite was the polar bear where the keeper threw in a live fish and polar bear hunted it in his enclosure. The fish didn't stand a chance. As you are walking around the zoo the orangutans climb above you on ropes strung from tree to tree, we got quite the surprise when we realised the orangutan was directly above us. The highlight of the day was the Night Safari, we walked around the a separate safari park to observe the animals at night. The animals were a lot more active, the hippos were out and munching on the greenery and the jaguars were prowling the trees.

The next day we decided to relax and went to Sentosa Island. This is holiday for the natives to escape the heat and city life. The island has man made beaches and resorts are being constructed. The island has a family atmosphere mixed with an Ibiza chill out club. We had loads of fun and jumped about in the sea though it was a tad odd as on the horizon were dozens of shipping freighters. It was a very relaxing way to he end of our short time in Singapore.

Next the maddness of Bangkok...

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