It was great to arrive in Singapore. To be somewhere so clean and effecient was such a relief after nearly two months in Sri Lanka and particularly India. The streets were spotless, there were no beggars and no pollution. My hotel was in the red light district, so not the best area of town, every night I was offerered services by both sexes and all ages. One evening all the prostitues ran past me in a panic, it wasnt clear if it was a dodgy pimp, the police or I just scared them. Apart from that the basic hotel was fine, small but well equiped rooms and helpful staff.

I went to the Night Safari at the Zoo on the first night, it will be of no surprise to those Ive been to Walsall, Gillingham and Swindon with that I got hopelessly lost trying to find the MRT Tube System so I ended up getting a taxi. The Safari was great, a tram round a Zoo at night was good fun as were the animal shows. The following day I did find the MRT station, and what a great system it is - just what London should be like - clean, effecient, well sign posted, air conditioned and on time! For the next couple of days I was open top buses going around the city hopping on and off at will in 85 degree weather. We did have some rain one afternoon so I went to see Will Smith in I am a Legend at the Bugis Cinema, very comfortable but I would have enjoyed the film more if the big man behind me hadnt chatted on his mobile for 20 minutes.

On New Years Eve I went over to Sentosa Island via the MRT and a glorious Cable Car ride, and went to Underwater World Aquarium and went on a few rides and the skytower. I also went down the luge on a little buggy, those who saw my debacle on something similar in Queenstown will be amazed that I came 4th not 6th in our race of 6 people. There's also lovely beaches there and although its very touristy its a great fun day out in the sun. Yesterday i went to the Zoo as I got a free ticket with my night safari, which was a good day out as Zoos generally are - but I did think some of the areas for animals were a bit small. A certain Michelle would have taken a very dim view of the huge Python!

In the evenings I did try Chinatown but I just didnt fancy any of the restauarants, some looked really grimy so I ended up at the Quays mainly. There's masses of restauarants and bars against the river - its a lovely spot. The beers a lot more expensive though, about 3 pounds a pint in happy hour compared to 80p in Sri Lanka but I had to down a few to celebrate Palace's amazing 12 game unbeaten run.

I'm up early today (2nd) to head to Bangkok for about 10 hours but then face a 3am start for my flight to Phnom Penh, not good but all part of the fun...!

Happy New Year to all.