Australia in 4 hours

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Getting ready to leave Christchurch, the contrast between my starting and finishing points today was so clear. 'Have a good trip Keith' said the New Zealand airport official as he scanned my boarding card, then 'Seat 46F, on the right sir' added the Singapore Airlines hostess. Absolutely different worlds, and only 11 hours apart. And on this flight, inbetween eating, drinking and watching films, I took the occaisional look out of the window and for around 4 of the 11 hours, a big dry red land mass that is Australia lay below. I hear many good things about Australia, but have to confess that from 40,000 feet, it looked far too hot to be much fun.

Talking of heat, Singapore is located near to the equator, so the temperature is always in the high twenties year round. Arriving there, you realise the value if air conditioning, and pretty much every shop, bus, hotel and public building has it. Another thing you notice when arriving in Singapore is the quality of materials used in public buildings. Floors, walls, decoration - its all there, and all very impressive. In some ways, Singapore looks more sophisticated than western Europe, and in all ways, it's much cleaner and orderly.

I have a hotel slap bang in the city centre, with an incredibly good deal from Singapore Stopover Holidays. St Andrews Cathedral is just over the road, and this white stone building looks so odd surrounded by tall modern glass fronted offices and hotels. The City Hall metro station is round the corner, and a handful of bus stops are within 5 minutes walk. Old and new are here in Singaore, all in good condition.

There's just time to head out and find a bite to eat. Even with all the flashy architecture and orderly citizens, food must be the biggest draw of Singaore. There is so much variety here, especially from China, Japan, Korea, India, Malaysia and Indonesia, and I found an amazing place where all these cuisines come together in an old iron and glass market building called Lau Pa Sat. You can take your pick from maybe 50 different stalls, sit in the middle of a swarm of other diners, and an evening meal will cost around 6 Singaporean dollars (3 Euros). It seems as if much of the public transport follows a clockwise circular route, and as my hotel is the other way, it's a bit of a long walk back. It's a good way to see the city though.

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