Hello Everyone,

Well Singapore was just as expected. It was a bustling, first world, shopping heaven, high rise city! The journey down was great and we met a lovely couple on the coach from Spain. We got into Singapore quite late but went for a walk down to the Esplanade and had an amazing dinner. Beef Steak with all the trimmings and we both tried a 'Singapore Sling' which were lovely.

We only have 3 days here as it's expensive to stay and eat in Singapore! There are over 100 shopping malls here and the Lonely Planet suggest some of the best, so we took a look around. All the malls are very large and grand and all have their own theme. Again we just window shopped! On the same day we went to the 'Battle Box' Museum. It's a WWII bunker that the British and Australian's used. It was covered up for over 50 years and all the rooms and stuff inside are original. It was amazing and quite freaky in some places. It was just us 2 and our guide was a really sweet old man. He was very impressed that we'd been all over the world and that we'd seen the 'Bridge Over River Kwai' in Thailand which was all linked to this bunker in some ways! But for some reason and to no input from us, he though Darren was a heavy smoker and filthy rich and that Gemma was very lucky to have him. We still can't work out where he got that idea from, weird! Anyway, today was a very good day and we loved the Battle Box Bunker.

The following day we spent at the world class 'Singapore Zoo'. Oh my god, it was bloody amazing. This was more like it. We had seen some pretty crap Zoo's around Asia but this one was beautiful. There were hardly any cages from which the animals could either roam around freely or they had enormous enclosures. We were very impressed and spent the whole day there. Please make sure you take a look at the photographs of the Zoo. We also saw a snake being caught by a vet. It went nuts and nearly bit the Vet. Again, amazing to watch. We would love to go again and if we spent more than a week there, we would of gone twice, it's really that good. Better than any Zoo we've ever been too including you England. So pull your socks up and sort it out :o)

The last day we did a lot of sight seeing. We went to the 'Asian Civilisations Museum'. It was very good and done really well. It explained a lot about history of Asia which we did find quite interesting... even the China bit!

Singapore is very clean and the public transport is next to nothing. Oh and every 100 metres there is a 'Starbucks' which made Darren very happy. Also managed to get George into them now as well! There was also a 'Bodyshop' every 100 or so metres which pleased Gemma too :o) We loved Singapore and we were gutted to leave after only 3 days. We have already said we want to return but for a week and stay in a top hotel, possibly the Raffles or the Fullerton both 5 Stars. So maybe when we retire then :o) We did go to the Raffles for tea but we weren't dressed appropriately so couldn't get in. We weren't too disappointed as we had tried the famous Singapore Slings elsewhere which is supposed to be the main thing to do!

We are leaving tonight to catch a plane to New Zealand. So we shall speak to you all then at some point.

Lots of love Darren and Gemma and George xxx xxx xxx