Walking around Singapore I felt like I was in a theme park - everything was so new and clean. It was eerily quiet though, it was a Friday night but the streets were pretty much deserted. It was very cheap and easy to get around on the metro and taxis but, aside from public transport, most things are expensive.

I only had half a day there so couldn't fit much in - I went for a walk around town, saw the markets in Chinatown, some temples and mosques and then took a boat trip along the river to admire the trendy riverside hotels, apartments, bars and restaurants as well as the crop of skyscrapers, the 'durian building', Singapore's equivalent of the London Eye and the famous Merlion fountain (the symbol of Singapore is the merlion which has a lion's head and a fish's body). We were staying in a hotel in Chinatown and the streets were all decorated with lights and Chinese lanterns for the Mid-Autumn Festival which took place the night after I left.

We had our last group dinner with Nigel at a great little Chinese restaurant after which I went to the Long Bar at the swanky Raffles Hotel for a Singapore Sling cocktail (which was invented in that very bar!). A few of us tried to get into the Equinox bar on the 70th floor of a hotel tower block but it was packed so we just admired the view for a bit and then headed down to the riverside.

Leaving Singapore for Jakarta was my first flight in two months, which required me to be a lot more disciplined with my packing than with overland travel so I had a session of throwing things out, posting things home and shifting things around to try to squeeze my hold bag under the weight limit. Then we had some fun and games at the airport - three of our party of five weren't allowed to check in because they didn't have proof of onward travel from Indonesia so they had to buy flights on the spot!