Hi folks! We have arrived in Singapore after 6 days on Tioman Island. Fuzzy completed his PADI open water diving certificate, which he is well chuffed about. He is now planning to get a book on fish as he loved swimming with the them but didn't have a clue what any of them were! Tioman is very remote and basically a tourist destination. We splashed out and got a room with air con due to the fact that the pair of us were melting - we both got burnt even with factor 25 on, so shows you how hot it actually was. The room (which we affectionately called 'the shack') was extremely basic and for the most part we shared it with other non-paying guests - gecko lizards, ants and mosquitos (I had 20 bites at the last count!) The actual area was amazing for wildlife, there was massive lizards, tiny lizards, butterflies, rare birds and even monkeys outside the front door of our shack. We hiked to a place called monkey bay to see the monkeys, but after trekking through dense forest for 2 hours we managed to see a grand total of none! Fuz met a few people on his diving course so we went out for something to eat and a few beers a couple of nights, which was grand. Also had major storms in Tioman (well, major to us, no one else seemed too bothered about them!). Went on a boat trip around the island, which was fab. Most of the day was spent snorkelling and we were so close to the fish and sea life, it was really amazing. Ended up on a little bay for lunch, which appeared to be some kind of hippie commune. Fuz was all for moving there of course! There seemed to be an older man kind of running it, with some scantily clad young females painting in the back room... Don't really know what that was all about?! The guy taking the trip was an islander and whilst chatting to us at the back of the boat he turned his back on us, squatted and peed off the back. It was one of those moments where you kind of look at each other as if to say 'is he doing what i think he is doing?!' It could have been worse mind... Getting off Tioman Island was a bit of a mission in itself. We caught the ferry to go to the mainland of Mersing and were quite chuffed that we had a seat each and a seat for each of our rucksacks. However, two pick ups later the 30 seater ferry was now filled with approximatley 70 people and was feeling slightly cramped as you can imagine. Even at that the 3 engines were going great style, then engine one stopped. Twenty minutes later...engine two stopped and about five minutes after that... engine three stopped. So, there we are 70 people in a 30 person boat, stranded in the middle of the south China Sea (I think that's where it was, it didn't have any signs!) and no one seemed to be doing too much about it. We didn't really start to worry until all of the Muslim's on board went to the top of the boat, got on their hands and knees and started giving it big prayers! Luckily, someone must have been listening to them because we were 'rescued' about half an hour later. Unfortunately, the effect of being stranded meant that a 4 hour journey to Singapore turned into a ten hour one, with several stops and bus changes. Never mind, we got there safe and sound. The hostel we booked into a Singapore was called the inn crowd and was grand. We booked a double room with air con and it was very nice, no noise and pretty central for anything we wanted to do. We both really enjoyed Singapore (shopping was very good, I managed to purchase one or two items), it was exceptionally clean and the people were all very helpful (and spoke English, which was ideal). The people are so helpful that when we were standing looking puzzled at a map, someone came over and asked if we needed help, then sent us on our merry way. It might have been that we were making their lovely streets look untidy of course, but that's okay! We went to the night safari in Singapore, which was great. We seen elephants, tigers, lions, rhinos (they are huge!), zebras, hippos and loads more. A young German girl came round with us because she was on her own and feeling a bit lonely. She was nice and had us working on German efficiency time so we marched round the zoo in double quick time - none of the usual dallying for us! Two days wasn't enough in Singapore and it is a place that I think we will try to go back to. Just wish I had done a little bit more shopping...