It was Saturday morning when I said my goodbyes to the family who looked after me at the Guest House Kudos in Ubud. The shuttle bus picked me up at 9am and took me to the Denpasar Airport where I boarded a flight to Singapore at 12.55pm. The flight was great as I had three seats to myself.

I arrived at the Changi Airport at 3.30pm, grabbed my luggage and jumped on another shuttle bus which dropped me off right outside my hostel which was slap bang in the middle of the city. The Rucksack Inn was the highest rated hostel in Singapore on the comparison websites so I was looking forward to staying there.

I got told to take my footwear off when I arrived which was strange.. never had to do that in the hostels I've stayed in before. It was a small intimate hostel with 28 beds in one room.. I was gobsmacked! How on earth is this the top rated hostel in Singapore?! Turned out to be ok actually.

Anyway, I checked in and threw my bags on my bed and went for a quick wander.. first impressions were great! Very clean, very modern city and I was looking forward to exploring it over the next two and a half days.

I was hungry and needed a feed so I walked in the Central complex which was just across from my hostel by the colourful Clarke Quay. The complex is several floors of restaurants, fast food and shops. I had a quick look around and opted for Mr Curry.. pretty much anything you can think of with a curry twist to it. I enjoyed my meal and then headed back to the hostel to chill out as I had planned to go out that night.

Singapore is home to one of the best nightclubs in the world. Zouk is regularly voted in the top ten clubs in the world every year so I had to go regardless of how tired I was.. there was a decent night on too.

I Skyped my sister (who's going to pop anytime soon) telling her I was going out tonight. A guy in the hostel overheard our conversation and asked if he could come with me. After chatting to him for a while I thought yes why not. His name was Zoltan from Transylvania who had just moved over to London to study for his PHD!! His English was very good so communicating with him wasn't going to be an issue and he seemed friendly enough.

We headed out to Clarke Quay at around 11pm to have a few beers before we went to Zouk. There was a cool vibe around the bars and restaurants but we chose the cheaper option of having a few cans on the bridge with the rest of the crowd.. apparently it's the done thing in Singapore so it wouldn't be a problem with the local authorities.

We got chatting to some American lads who were really sound and they tried to persuade me to go to a different club where they had free guestlist but I had my mind set on Zouk.. no way was I going to miss it!

After a few cans me and my man Zoltan ;) walked along the river to find Zouk which wasn't too far away. We got in without a problem and headed to the bar with our free drinks vouchers which we were given on entrance. The club was very cool with a great soundsystem but it wasn't as big as I was expecting. We hit the dancefloor to some great music and it became quickly apparent that Zoltan was there to pick up girls.. I however, was there for the music but he tried his upmost to get me to join him. I was having none of it, I wasn't budging from the dancefloor.. I had been waiting to go to a proper club to listen to some proper music for a long time (Brisbane being an exception) so I just left him to it.

One of the resident DJ's warmed things up nicely before Kaiserdisco came on.. their debut at Zouk and the first time I had seen them. They opened things up with Paul Kalkbrenner's Gebruenn Gebruenn which is one of my favourite tracks of all time!! :) Great start! The music was good and definitely got the crowd moving.. was funny watching all the Asians busting their moves!

Midway through the night Zoltan had got what he wanted and hooked up with a girl.. well, that's what he thought anyway!!! I think you know what's coming ;) After spending quite some time with this 'girl' he came up to me and said he thought it might actually be a guy.. I laughed..... alot!! I told him to ask 'her' if 'she' was actually a 'he'... so he did. Five minutes later he came back to me on the dancefloor and confirmed it.. 'she' was actually a transexual.. Haha I was in absolute stitches!! Soooo funny!! Anyway, I distanced myself from him after that and didn't see him again until the following morning at the hostel.. too weird! I had a really good night and left the club at 4am before walking back along the river in the uncomfortable muggy heat.

I didn't get much sleep when I got back to the hostel.. probably only about 4 hours or so because there was building work going on across the road. I couldn't be bothered trying to get to sleep with all the racket going on so I got up, had a shower and ate some breakfast at the hostel.

I planned to have a good look around the city so I eventually made a move before 12 noon. It was another hot day so walking around was going to be uncomfortable. I really wanted to see the Marina Sands Hotel which stands on the sea front facing the rest of the city so I headed in that direction through the business district. The views of the Marina Sands as I came through the district were pretty special.. as were the views of the city's skyline as I walked further around.

I eventually made it to the Marina Sands Hotel and Casino.. the Sands is three separate buildings connected together by a roof which is home to a swimming pool, park, a number of restaurants and bars, and a viewpoint area over the whole city. The viewpoint area is on the 57th floor of the building and the views were amazing. It was a clear day so visibility was perfect for looking into the distance.. well inland anyway. A low haze covered the sea where hundreds of boats were lined up for importation and exportation of goods.

After spending a good half an hour on the top of the Sands I made my way into Chinatown to get some dinner. I had a look around the markets and ate some dinner then wandered back through the city. It got to late afternoon when I made my way back to the hostel.. I was pretty tired by now after the long walk I'd just had and the lack of sleep from the previous night so I decided to chill in the evening grabbing a Burger King late on.

It was Monday, I'd had an ok sleep but an unpleasant/unexpected email from the Australian Tax Office kind of ruined my last day in Singapore. I had planned to have a good shop down Orchard Road where there are around a dozen designer shopping precincts but with this email hanging over my head I wasn't really in the mood.

I decided to go and have a look around anyway using the underground to get me there which was extremely cheap and very efficient.

I got to Orchard Road and it blew me away.. a shoppers haven!! I was gutted I wasn't really in the mood. The individual designer shops on the main street such as Chanel, Dior and Luis Vuitton were some of the biggest I've ever seen. It was all very impressive, clinical and immaculate!

I made my way back to Clarke Quay on the MRT again and had a walk around but my mind was on other things. I came back to the hostel mid-afternoon in an attempt to resolve the issue in hand. I made some progress but it had taken up quite a bit of my time on my last night. I ended up going out for a Chinese that evening with a property developer I had got talking to in the hostel. The food was great once again and I came back to the hostel to sort out my things for my departure to Bangkok in the morning.

I had a relatively early night after chatting for a while with the girl I was bunking with.. she was from Preston, just 10 minutes drive from where I live.

I know I could have got a bit more out of my visit to Singapore but I still enjoyed myself anyway. It's a cool, modern city which I'd like to visit again at some point.

I woke up today after a half decent sleep with the building work still going on throughout the night. I had some breakfast, checked out the hostel and made my way to Changi Airport to catch my flight to Bangkok at 12.35pm.

I've heard all sorts of weird and wonderful stories about Bangkok so I'm not sure how long I'm going to spend there just yet. I'm thinking about heading north to Chiang Mai on the overnight train or perhaps visiting some of the islands. I'll work it out soon enough ;)

xx