Went on our own walking tour of Chinatown this morning. Lots of different temples and interesting to see all of the old shophouses. Like everyelse there is construction happenning every few hundred metres. It had to happen - the heavens finally opened and it poured down while we were looking through the markets. Lasted about an hour and then the sun came back out. Timing was perfect as we had planned to go to the zoo. Caught a taxi there. Boy the humidity was s...

Headed downton to get tickets for night safari at the zoo but ended up going to a 90 minute soft-sell presentation on the Marriott Holiday Club - in return for 3 free tickets to the zoo/night safari and 3 tickets for the Duck Tour, about $200 value! After the presentation we caught the hop-on-hop-off bus down to SunTec City Mall and had lunch at Roasters, Kenny Rodgers' restaurant, before getting on 'Darlene', a converted amphibious craft from the Vietnam war. Tr...

Visited Arab area of city today, although it looked pretty much like everywhere else, other than the presence of a mosque. Lots of nice fabric and carpet shops, but damned expensive. Walked through the food markets - pretty disgusting sights and smells, with plenty of dried fish, shrimps, octopus, etc., and things we couldn't identify! Came across Sim Lim Square, the home of a 5 story computer and electronics market. That took care of most of the rest of the day...

Got a taxi up to Mount Faber to catch the cablecar over to Sentosa Island, Singapores island resort, where we were to spend the day. Great view from the glass-bottomed cabin over the jungle and out to sea, where there are hundreds of ships anchored, and the conatiner port. The island is undergoing a huge development, with the construction of a Universal Studios theme park and resort. Quite a lot to do and we put together a package from what was available - sky...

All woke up in the middle of the night but managed to get back to sleep eventually, so a bit of a sleep in. Public holiday today - Hari Raya Puasa Day, a Muslim hoilday. Took the hotel shuttle back into the city and continued walking down Orchard Road. Saw a lot of people going into a park so decided to follow. It was an open day at the Presidential Palace - Istana. Lovely green open grounds and an old British colonial building, now stripped of all British connec...