Captains Log: Star date 21.01.05 Little India, Singapore: Greetings from the Inncrowd backpackers hostel in little india...its so cool in here, a really chilled out place where we have to take our shoes off when we come in, which adds to the homely feeling...everyone walking round in bare foot....just hope not too many verruca's going around!! There are sofas to lounge around on and lots of friendly people, its all good! The Singaporean people are just like everyone says, really the nicest people ever! So helpful and polite and just generally cool dudes... there is a sculpture of a bird near the river here and it is to simbolise everyone living together in harmony in singapore, and from what Ive seen, they really do. So...the flight was long....but not too bad...12 and half hrs... managed to sleep for about 5 hours which is good going! But i did wriggle lots and couldnt really get comfortable at all!!! Anyhew! Got to Singapore and got a taxi ride from a really cool dude, who told us lots about singapore and told us he was 60 even tho he only looked 40! Or so he told us anyway! Then we checked into our hostel...the inncrowd in Little India...its amazing round here, fruit and veg stalls, temples and lots of culture! So cool to be in amongst it all... The first night we got here anyway, we went on some mahusive walk about with some ozzies we'd just met, one of them travelling alone who said he knew where to go..us rookies believed him!!!! : ) Was funny trekked for miles and found a bar by a river, which was ironic seeing as our hostel has a bar in it! The other two are really nice tho and have been staying here since too, theyre from canberra. The hostel has a little kitten called pete, he is ginger and really small and cute, he sleeps like alllll the time! I have made friends with him, but havent let him lick or bite me cos no thanks to the rabies!!!! Our first full day we ventured out exploring, found some cool little markets selling all sorts some crap some cool stuff...stumbled across some really stunning temples and strolled into one, it was a chinese temple I believe, and there were people in there worshipping, absolutley beautiful inside. Then stumbled across an amazingly colourful temple and took some piccies... We found Orchard Street-famous for its shopping....there are literally hundreds of shopping malls along this one steet all like 8 stories high or more-unreal! I never thought I'd see the day I got bored of shopping...but it happened about 3/4 of the way down! So that should give yo usome clue of how long this street actually is!! We had a spot of local grub for lunch in an eating area in a mall, was nice! In the evening we went on a night safari with some peeps from the hostel, it was so cool, kind of like a zoo at night, we saw all kinds of cool animals, including some fishing cats, who dived into the water just as we arrived and then wouldnt at all no matter how long we stood looking at them...but they were cool! The next full day we went to find the singapore history museum, we got the MRT which is like the tube (only much cleaner) to the nearest station according to the map, then, rather than looking on the leaflet from the museum for the address, we opted for the other option: walking in what appeared to be the right direction!?!? Well, needless to say that was the complete wrong direction!? But we did find another amazing looking mosque by complete accident on the walk, and took some photos...there was some kind of muslim festival going on which started really early in the morning, i know this because i was lying wide awake and jet lagged around 6 ish in the morning and heard singing from the temple near by...it was really cool lying there listening to it...there were loads of people walking around later in the day with red and white on their foreheads and some people had shaved their heads and painted them gold, im not sure exactly what celebration/tradition it was, but have made a mental note to find out more about this... So anyway, after a long, hot walk in the sun (and a trip from Tom ha ha!) we finally made it to the museum, which, yes, was about 100 metres from the MRT station! Of course it was... There was a small cinema inside where we watched a 3D show of the some what turbulant history of Singapore, it was really cool, and we got to wear doofus glasses throughout, which I have a pic of, but will upload later...don't have the necessary equipment with me at the mo... We are so lucky to have fluked being here at the start of the festivities for Chinese New Years, in the evening we went down to China Town to check out the stalls and what not, it was absolutly rammed! I would say we walked around, but we didnt, we shuffled! It was so so so busy! And these celebrations go on for a month! Wow! We checked out some of the stalls that were around; selling a variety of things, from home made biscuits to dried out ducks, yes they looked rank, no i didnt get a photo! Tom tried a coconut milk drink, they lop the top off a coconut and stick a straw in and you drink it, i tried a sip, i dont like coconut but thought i would be brave and try it anyway. I didnt like it, but it was bearable, so I know now that if i ever get stranded on a desert island i will be able to survive by drinking coconut milk...always a good thing to know!! We also bought cheesy hotdogs off a market stall, they were nice (although the fear of food poisining did enter my mind, I tucked in anyway!!) We stumbled across another religious ceremony while in China Town and stayed and watched for a couple of minutes, its so weird being in an environment where you dont understand anything thats going on, thats rare being english, but also kind of cool... We couldnt stand the crowds any longer so headed back to the hostel and got some local grub from the jazz cafe right next door, it, again, was tasty! While chilling out in the hostel we chatted to an English guy called Simon who we met at the night safari, and he has basically travelled our route backwards, it was so brillinat talking to him about it! It was like story time, we asked him loads of where to gos and what to dos etc etc and it has made me really excited for the next leg of my trip! So now we are onto today, Saturday...its so weird the days have all rolled into one already, i didnt realise it was saturday until i was reminded... Anyway, we went to Sentosia today, which is a tiny island off the south of singapore, it has a man made beach, and the sea is shared (further out of course) by the boats in the dock, which is (as our taxi driver told us the most busy of docks in the world, not the biggest-but the busiest!) We got over by cable cart and checked out the Merlion, which is huge, much bigger than expected! Chilled on the beach, went for a swim, and then headed back to the hostel, it was around 8 by this time! Its true what they say time really does fly when you're having fun!! So got showered and headed to a bar/restaurant that just happened to be showing the football from home live!! (what a coincidence eh tom!) So had some local grub again, and watched one game, came outside and stumbled across a live band playing in the same street as the hostel, watched for a little while...then tom went to watch another footie game, i feel one is enough for me tho! So i have come to update this... Time has really gone quickly this week, we fly off to Cairns on Monday, thats only one whole day left... I'll charge up my batteries on my camera and upload some photos soon...in the meantime, check out Toms site he has uploaded some pics http://statravel.offexploring.com/tommay50 oh yeah one last thing, the weather is lush!! Really hot! Over and out xxx