Singapore is usually a place that people spend just 1 day in as a stopover to somewhere else - but why-o-why? It is a great place with so much history - we spent 4 days there, had a brilliant time and walked for miles.

Our first port of call in Singapore was the Qantas offices to sort out the flights for the remainder of our journey. Initially we just wanted to change the date of our Oz flight, despite the fact that the lady dealing with us did ask us if we wanted to change all of our other flight dates we said that we'd sort them out later and asked her to carry on with the Australia flight changes - sometimes we are so stupid! David was then sat playing with our original paperwork when he suddenly realised that all our remaining flights had confirmed flight dates of 29th April to N Zealand, 30th April to India and so on. When we originally booked our flights, any flights which were in excess of 9 months time had to have ficticious confirmed dates so we suddenly realised that if we didn't change them now we would lose the flights completely (well there was no way we were going to be on them!!!). There was then a sudden panic to work out realistic dates for all our flights over the next 6 months, there was a lot of toing and froing with the calender and counting of days but we eventually got it sorted. The irony is we are arriving in Heathrow on the 13th October exactly one year from the date we flew out of there. One good thing about doing it in one go is that it is classed as one ticket change which meant we were only charged once for all the changes!

Singapore is a very expensive place and is killing our budget so we were delighted to discover that if you arrive between 12pm and 2pm you can visit the Art Gallery and Q8 their modern art counterpart for free. The Art Gallery is set in a beautiful building which was formerly a Catholic school for boys. We really enjoyed the main gallery but Q8 was a little off the wall. Now we both love contemporary art but this place was dominated by 6 rooms each playing a film. We both wanted to like the place and so really tried with it but the films were just too strange for us - I like modern art if it has a meaning not just some random nonsense, then I just think that the artist is taking the pee at our expense!

On one of the evenings we visited Chijmes a former nunnery right in the centre of Singapore which has been converted into a complex of restaurants. The complex is so pretty with a church, cloisters, steps, arches all the usual things you'd expect to see in a nunnery but which make such a pretty setting to be eating in at dusk. David had a 1/2 pint of lager that cost 6 pounds and this was relatively cheap compared to some of the other places we looked at!

Whilst in Singapore we could not leave without visiting the infamous Raffles Hotel. The first time we went was for afternoon tea at Ah Teng Bakery part of the Raffles Hotel complex the building again looks very colonial and beautiful both inside and out. See the photos of David and I drinking earl grey tea and eating scones (but with no cream - how disappointing!!!). The second time we went to Raffles was to visit the Long Bar for a Singapore Sling, we both had absolutely no idea what a Singapore Sling was but having now had one I can tell you it tastes blooming gorgeous! When you walk into the bar you almost feel like you have been transported back to the 1930's the place is wood panelled with whicker furniture and bamboo ceiling fans which swing backwards and forwards in unison but the strangest thing is the floor which is covered in peanut shells. Each table has a huge bowl of peanuts and tradition dictates that you just throw the shell on the floor! The place is full of tourists all sitting with their Singapore Slings taking photos (as were we!) but it was still a great experience! The only downside was the cost 27 pounds for 2 drinks!!! After such a treat we had no option but to go to a street cafe for our evening meal which cost us a total of 9 pounds for food and drinks - that's more like it! On the way back to the hostel we passed 'The Prince of Wales' pub which happened to have a band playing doing covers of The Doors, Jimi Hendrix etc. so our early night turned into a 1am finish!!

We were really fortunate that our visit to Singapore coincided with the opening of a 'Christian Lacroix the Costumier' exhibition at the National Museum - David as canny as ever announced he was a student and got in for S$5 - good lad!!! She asked me if I was a student too, which I was very flattered by, but couldn't bring myself to lie so I ended up paying full whack. The Christian Lacroix exhibition was only small but we both really enjoyed it. It displayed some of his original costume sketches as well as some of the actual costumes used in the operas and ballets he's worked on. The museum itself is really quite impressive - a fusion of both the original building and a modern glass extension. The next section we visited was the history section which in essence is really good but the depth of information is just too much for one day's visit. You wear audio guides (which we both ended up changing due to technical difficulties!!!) and then wander through endless corridors describing Singapores economic, political and social history from when time began until today. Some of it was really interesting such as women's roles, education, opium dens, the Raffles -v- Crawford drama etc.. but within a couple of hours you are suffering from information overload and you haven't even reached WW2 yet! We managed to make it round the WW2 section which explained about the fall of Singapore in 7 days and the surrender of the British - Mr Churchill was not a happy chappy about that one! But then we had to call it a day as we were so tired (and I was freezing from the air conditioning). I think the museum is superb but they should give 2 day passes as it is just far too much information for a one day visit. I could see poor David had given up the will to live by the end!

Singapore has a fantastic concert/theatre venue called The Esplanade and we were really fortunate that when we were there the Mosaic Music Festival was on with some free events occuring in their outdoor theatre. We arranged to meet up with a couple of Singaporean guys called Chris and Terance, who were on the Sapa trip with us, at one of the evening events. We saw 3 bands in total, 2 from Australia and 1 from Singapore - they were OK but not earth shattering. After the concert we walked down to Chinatown to a hawkers food market for dinner which is located in a beautiful wrought iron pavilion. Clearly Chris and Terance don't really walk anywhere in Singapore as they had to ask directions to the market!! Believe me this is not a big place so it made D and I laugh - we know our way around on foot better than they do!

On one of the days we visited Sentosa a small island off the mainland which has been developed into a tourist hotspot. To get to the island we went on the Express train which takes you over the harbour where we saw the most enormous container ships and cranes, you then go over a huge building site which is apparently being developed into a casino and universal studios theme park and then you arrive.The place is so strange - it has man made beaches which are heaving with teenagers and families from the mainland but the beaches look out onto huge container ships and I wouldn't go near the water never mind dip my toe in it!!! Cafe Del Mar has moved in to give it that expensive chilled out vibe - we gave that a miss when we saw the prices! It also has a luge which D had a go on (see photos if you don't know what this is). For both of us though the highlight of the visit to Sentosa was Siloso Fort Museum

Siloso Fort is where the British troops were stationed to control and monitor all movement on the seas in, out and passed Singapore. When WW2 began the British were convinced that the Japs would attack from the South so focused all their defences on there. They in fact attacked from the North and after sustained and heavy bombing the British surrended to the Japanese at a meeting at the Ford Factory. Whilst this was happening the troops as Siloso were pushing their canons into the water and trying to escape on any available boats. The majority of soldiers however became Japanese POW's many being shipped to 'Death Valley' in Kanchanaburi. We saw how the troops lived on the island, how they were treated as POW's and what life was like for the people of Singapore under Japanese rule for 3 years. It really was interesting and made even more atmospheric by the rumbling of a distant thunder storm!

Singapore has redeveloped it's old Quays and turned them into modern eating and drinking places. David and I took a walk up there one early evening thinking that we could get a bite to eat - we must have looked in about 10 different places and were just stunned at the price of the food. Looking for affordable food was now becoming too stressful and we were both really hungry so we went for the simple option and decided to go to a McDonalds that we had seen opposite Raffles. We have never been in such a cosmopolitan McD in our life - it had stripey wallpaper, comfy red and green chairs and everyone appeared to be on a laptop. That said the food was the same and the price was the same i.e. cheap!