Now the trip was to start again after my break in Sydney. I was still being eased in gently though as I was going to stay with one of Ruth's friends from HK (Blondie) in Singapore. I used the 8 hour flight to catch up on some of the films I'd missed in the cinema, even though this did mean the air crew shutting down all the passengers screens for half an hour so they could fix mine! Luckily I don't think the other passengers realised it was my fault! I arrived in Singapore airport and caught a cab over to Blondie's house in the suburbs. It was so lovely of them to have me and they made me feel really welcome in their home, it definitely made the transition into Asia easier!

In the morning I grabbed a lift into town to Orchard road with Blondie and had a wander along, looking at all the huge shopping malls along the way. It was a funny place, obviously westernised, but still very Asian at the same time. I headed straight for the massive Japanese bookshop to get myself a guide book as I was pretty ignorant about what there was to do in Singapore! Afterwards, still having had no breakfast I took the easy option and found a comfy sofa in Starbucks to avoid the heavy rain and to read up about what I should be seeing and doing! After a fair wait the rain showing no sign of easing I just headed off anyway and bought myself a ticket for the most obvious rainy day activity - open top bus ride! It was a hop on hop off thing so I decided to do the whole loop before making any decisions about what to do for the rest of the day. The bus left from Suntec city where there was a kind of food court/hawker market so I made myself get my first (of many) chicken rice. I figured I was going to be OK with the food in Asia since rice is pretty much my favourite food! The bus took me all round town, passing Little India, Raffles hotel, China town etc. I stopped off at the Esplanade by the Sydney opera house look-alike-but-not-really theatre and caught the tourist boat up and back down the river. By this time I was pretty much sight seeing-ed out and after a quick walk through Fort Canning park and China town I head back to Blondie and James' house.

The second full day I borrowed Blondie's bike and cycled over to the Botanical Gardens where I realised bikes weren't allowed - either was chaining your bike to things!! After pushing it through half of the gardens I gave up and chained it to a slightly hidden lamp post and hoped for the best. I then went on to the National Orchid garden, which was really cool, I've never seen so many beautiful flowers! There was even a section where they named new hybrids after celebrities, like Ricki Martin??!! I got one deep fried banana and one piece of deep fried tapioca for lunch (thus continuing my amazing new diet) then had a cultural afternoon in the Asian Civilisations Museum. I finished off by heading into Little India, determined to get some proper Hawker food, but then was disappointed to find they seemed to be ripping the heart out of the Tekka cente and were rebuilding - so no food court! I didn't have a plan B so wandered around the streets with every other Indian restaurant trying to make me come in. I had nothing to help me decide which one to go to, so after a last desperate attempt to find out if I'd missed the entrance to the Hawker market i wandered back in that direction, taking a different route. This is when I came across the temporary Hawker market - even more scummy than a normal one, in a massive tin shed on a piece of disused wasteland. I made a beeline for this, found myself to be the only white person in there, ordered a very dodgy looking byriani -that had probably been sitting there all day - and a the tarik (hot tea with condensed milk) and planted myself on an empty and slightly greasy looking table. I was very pleased with myself! I looked through the many stalls of Indian clothing, but they were all identical and none of them had anything I was likely to need or want, so I left and went to look for a pub instead! I found a backpackers where they were showing Andy Murray playing at Monte Carlo on TV so bought a ridiculously expensive imported beer and watched the match before heading home exhausted!

My last day in Singapore I went to the Zoo in the morning with Blondie, Mary and Libby to meet Mark, Emma and Ella - their friends over from HK. It was a rally cool zoo, and obviously more fun with a couple of 2 year olds running around! We went to see the orangutans and some really loud howler monkeys before heading past the African animal section to the kids world water park. I wanted to be 3! It looked so much fun and it was a really hot day. The best bit was a giant bucket that filled up slowly on top of all the other slides and climbing frames and tipped over everything when a bell rang. It took so many unsuspecting half-dry parents by surprise! After this we headed back to the car, stopping briefly at the crocodile section where I got all nostalgic as there was a video being shown of crocodile hunting in PNG! Then we drove back into town, just in time for me to pick up my stuff and head off for my afternoon of luxury.

I was supposed to be meeting up with Ruth's friend Anuj in the evening for some drinks, but he had called me in the morning to suggest I come and use the facilities at his hotel while he was at meetings - I didn't need to be asked twice! So I caught a taxi over to the beautiful Fullerton hotel, right by the river in the old Post office building and checked myself in. After the initial embarrassment of feeling like a backpacker in a 5 star hotel, I changed into my gym gear and headed for the fitness suite, my first work out in months! It was so weird, there was no one else in there apart from the fitness instructor who was very attentive and placed a white fluffy towel on my treadmill for me and opened a bottle of chilled mineral water and put it in the holder! He even came over while I was doing some weights and gave me advice on my technique! Not what I am used to in gyms... After a couple of very satisfying if depressing hours in the gym, I changed into my bikini and went to find a lounger by the pool over looking the river. Heaven! Whilst there I made friends with a very odd Aussie boy called Andre, he was 4. He talked to his parents as if they were the children, it was hilarious!

After my uber-relaxed stint by the pool, I headed back to Anuj's room to change into something that might be suitable for a night out in Singapore, starting in the Post bar at the Fullerton hotel - I had no idea! When he got back we headed downstairs to the bar where we were going to meet two more people he knew who were in town. We had an entertaining discussion with the barman, trying to explain how to make up a Pimms, which obviously didn't really work as they arrived with only a glace cherry in them! After a bit of persuasion, they bought over some cucumber and lemon, which we figured was a good compromise. Once Preeti (American, living in Delhi, over on business - pitching to Anuj) and Aengus (Irish, living in Singapore, friend of a friend of Anuj) had arrived we headed off to bar no. 2 - the Long bar at Raffles. This was on my list of things to do, so after a very sweet Singapore Sling and throwing plenty of nut shells on the floor, we headed off for food at a German restaurant. Food was not overly Singaporean - being a sausage platter and a meat platter! - but it was really good! We finished off there before heading to the New Asia bar at the top of the Swiss hotel. We managed to blag our way into the VIP section and our tickets included a free drink, so we ended up sipping champagne overlooking a beautiful Singapore skyline. Not much time to waste, so after this we headed off again - this time to Boat quay, where we stopped at Archipelago for a beer, before going to Eski bar, an artificially chilled bar where you need to wear coats, where we drank shots from a bar filled with ice. Next came an Irish bar before another trip to Eski and finally a strange Hindu dance bar. It was a really fun evening and we got to see a lot of different bars! We ended up back at the Fullerton, drinking from Anuj's minibar, just in time for him to answer his 4.30 wake up call so he could get a taxi to the airport! We shared a taxi, taking me back to Blondie's just in time for me to grab a couple of hours sleep before catching my bus up to KL the next day. Sleepy sleepy....