Singapore

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Hello everyone,

After the relaxing beach time and running from ladyboys in Ko Samui, Rich and I arrived in Singapore slightly earlier than planned. This was mainly due to us being a couple of pansies that coundle handle a 24 bus journey to Kuala Lumpur (turns out its much like Singapore and the Petronas towers aren't as tall as buildings we saw in Shanghai anyway).

Checking into our hostel was a nightmare, as we had changed plans we had booked an extra couple of nights in Singapore and had received confirmation. However when we tried to check in, we were met with a blank expression. Turns out someone forgot to pass on the message. We were then told we could stay at the hostels sister building in Geylang, just a short metro ride away. We then walked straight past the hostel and wandered around for half an hour dripping with sweat before realising where it was. The number of rules in the hostel was ridiculous and typical of Singapore. I made a rather horrendous faux pas by commenting that the hostel was like living in Nazi Germany, whilst in the presence of two German girls. Oops. Richard made a similar blunder saying some rude French words in China. C'est la vie.

All of the rules mean that Singapore is spotlessly clean but it feels clinical and a little a boring. I can't believe I find myself saying that Singapore is boring but it certainly lacks the charm of many of the places we have visited already.

One of the best things about Singapore is the street food vendors. It's basically just fast food oriental style but it is very tasty, unbelievably cheap (around £1) and probably healthier than McDonalds.

We visited the night safari one evening, which was quite interesting. The animals are bathed in a fake moonlight and you can take trails past the various exhibits or jump on and off the train. The leopards, asian elephants lions were memorable but I was most impressed by the bats. The were fruit bats and malaysian flying foxes, one of the largest bats in the world. They were like flying cats! It being dark they were feasting on pieces of fruit and small children and swooping past at head height. Thankfully their sonar seemd to be in good working order.

We wandered around the city, took in a few shops on Orchard street, admired the architecture of the theatre saw the area where the night grand prix will be taking place later in the year. During a visit to a shopping centre Rich had a go on the f1 simulator round the Singapore track. As the the simulator involved sitting in full size f1 car replica I had no chance of fitting in. Shame really as I am certain I would have comprehensibly beaten Rich! His time was however one of the better ones that day (even though spun out many times) and this won him a lovely polo shirt.

On the Friday evening we dropped into Raffle's Long bar for the obligatory Singapore sling, or two. The slings were lovely but ridiculously expensive at around £10 each! Obviously we made the most of the complimentary nuts, discarding the shells on the floor as seems to be the tradition. Later, after a bowl of porridge and shredded chicken we found ourselves in the Ministry of Sound where we met a Singaporese who studied at Dundee University! That is an indication of the excitement on offer if people leave Singapore for Dundee of all places.

Next stop Sydney.

Al.

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