For the price of a Singapore Sling you can buy a house in Laos

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So I'm sitting at the bar in Raffles enjoying the fact that I can thrown the peanut shells on the floor in this smart institution when lo and behold 2 girls I knew at university come and sit next to me. They didn't spot me and I wasn't 100% sure it was them either. Fortnately the Long Bar has mirrors behind it which allowed me to study them in order to make a positive identification. Anyway, it was them, I said hello and it turned out one of them was living and working in Singapore whilst the other was just visiting her. What this shows is that there is a vast expat community here and you are as likely to bump into someone you know here as you are in your home city... well, nearly!

Little India, Chinatown, Orchard Road, the Harbour and the Colonial District are on the agenda for anyone with a few days to walk around Singapore - it's an interesting place. I can't accept people staying it is dull and sterile. I simply won't have it!

I stayed in a really clean and efficient hotel come hostel in Little India where on night one I found myself alone in a six bed dorm with a chap from Sierra Leone who lived in Belguim and was here trying to set up an import/export arrangement with a new mp4 player! We were sleeping peacefully at other ends of the room when at 3am we were rudely awakened by the entry of 4 giggling Korean girls. My friend wasn't impressed and, as soon as the Koreans had gone to get some food, he called across 'My friend. The yellow people are so uneducated.' Not 100% politically correct by any stretch of the imagination!

I allowed myself day one to chill on Orchard Road meaning that I wandered from one of the 19 shopping malls to another in air conditioned luxury, eating and browsing. Admittedly it wasn't a day where I gleaned much about the history and culture of Singapore city but on the flip side I did learn that a Subway breakfast is disappointing.

Singapore zoo is a must for anyone visiting. It's a good zoo and I managed to spend a happy five hours there. Next door is the night safari which I had a go at too. It comes highly recommended so I assumed that the authorities there would have devised some clever way of countering the basic premise that it is difficult to spot animals in the dark. They hadn't. However the porcupines were active and interested in me and the flying fox enclosure was quite an experience - enormous dive bombing bats whooshing past my ears.

The Lonely Planet 'must do' is to have a Singapore Sling at Raffles. Firstly, Raffles look like an amazing hotel from the outside - if you can stay there you know you have made it. The Sling was of course a massive rip off costing something extortionate. For the price I wanted to see the barman make it in front of me, perhaps bouncing the cocktail shaker off the roof and catching it in his teeth whilst doing a star jump. Instead he handed it over pre-made from a tray. Disappointing. However the girl living in Singapore took us to the New Asia bar on the 71st floor of the Standford Hotel - talk about a view! So, it turned out to be a pleasant night.

They say the food in Singapore is amazing. 75% of my meals were taken in well known fast food chains and I have to say, they were nothing special!

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