Singapore!!!! How excited I'd been about finally reaching Asia and experiencing some culture, and how deserved my excitement was! I love this place. Really love it. Although there is no way I could survive in this heat and humidity all year round. Last night for example, the evening temperature was 30 degrees but felt like 40...this is what the internet told us and I believe it. SO hot! It's like a blanket smothering you the very second that you step out of the air conditioning.

First things first, we arrived into the lovely Changi Airport and caught the super clean and efficient MRT to our hostel in Little India. An excellent choice - very clean, very modern, very lovely.

On our first day we started close to home by taking a walk along Serangoon Road to see the Sri Veeramakaliamman temple. Our first temple of the trip! Most exciting! This appeared to be the main street of Little India and was highly decorated for 'deepavili' (which I always thought was spelt diwali?). It looked very pretty, and was quite atmospheric to walk down with all the sounds and smells.

We were keen to book ourselves onto a bus to Melaka, Malysia, so set off in the direction of the Golden Mile complex with a short stop at the stunning Raffles Hotel (can I stay there please, thank you please?) followed by the area of Kampong Glam to see a beautiful mosque with a brilliant golden dome and some little shops with lovely tempting things! Bus ticket sorted and lunch done very cheaply at a fantastic veggie healthfood place, we took ourselves off in the direction of the old Colonial District, where many beautiful buildings greeted us. St Andrew's Cathedral, City Hall, the Old Supreme Court, Victoria Theatre and Old Parliament - to name a selection! We also saw the statue of Sir Raffles by the river, and learnt that sitting down was liable to cause burns! The view on the other bank of the river was lovely, small buildings of varying shapes and sizes with different coloured awnings out front, against a backdrop of skyscrapers! I love this city!

A short walk through Esplanade Park took us to the famous Merlion - half lion, half fish. A definite tourist attraction - lots and lots of people! From here we had views of the city, including the spiked roof of the Esplanade Theatre on the Bay. One day I will come back and take advantage of everything on offer. It's difficult being on a small budget!

We spent the rest of the afternoon browsing the many many shops and market stalls of Chinatown. This was probably my favourite place in Singapore. The minute you step out of the MRT you're on a street lined by these lovely buildings of the most amazing colours with cute shutters, and a sea of bright red lanterns greets you. We spent a long time wandering in and out of the shops, partly for some relief from the heat, and trying not to buy things. A yummy dragonfruit juice was the only purchase I allowed myself (that day at least!). We found the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple completely by accident and ventured in. Sarongs and shawls were required due to our inappropriate clothing (how people can survive this heat with trousers and shirts on is beyond me), and once inside a beautiful scene of gold and red greeted us at every turn. The temple has many storeys, each beautiful and interesting. A very good accidental find!

We had hoped the street in Little India would be lit up in the evening, but when we ventured out for curry (how am I to survive this - my lips were almost numb!) we were disappointed to see that we were wrong.

Today we ventured over to Orchard Road, the main shopping street in Singapore, where apparently Christmas comes early! The entire street was decked out with decorations and trees and looked amazing. Even without the lights switched on (which happens next week) Orchard Road puts London to shame. We were amused to find M&S and looked on wistfully at the likes of Prada, Chanel and Gucci. I miss clothes. And shopping.

After a very very very long walk down Orchard Road, taking in the abundance of decorations as we went, we eventually ended up at the Botanic Gardens. I'm not sure how long that walk was, but with the melting it felt like miles! The gardens, I'm glad to say, were so so worth it. We began at Swan Lake and worked our way to the Orchid Garden, via a large collection of carefully tended Bonsai trees (looking far more alive than yours, Gayle!). The orchids were simply amazing. Sooz and I took a lot of photos in there. So many different varieties: shapes, sizes, colours - all of them stunning. The garden was separated into sections, one of which was named the 'Cool House', Sooz and I joked that it was probably lying to us, seeing as the Mist House didn't mist us, but were pleasantly surprised when it was actually a very cool house! A much needed 5 minutes of cool air revived us for the walk back to the gates of the garden!

We spent the rest of the afternoon back in Chinatown, buying beautiful skirts of a more suitable length, hiding from the torrential downpour (which happened a matter of minutes after Sooz exclaimed about the lack of rain!) and having an interesting dinner, which would have been a lot nicer if we'd ordered something a bit more exciting to go with our tofu! As we arrived back in Little India we were amazed at the number of men gathered in the car park by the MRT, and in fact on all of the streets in the area. Something must have been going on, but we're not 100% sure what!

Tomorrow morning is an early start for the bus to Malaysia. Really excited about the rest of our time in Asia but have really loved Sinapore. I could easily have spent a few more days wandering around here and will definitely be coming back at some point (armed with a credit card and lots of luggage space).