So after arriving at the airport in Sydney we went to find out what gate to check in for our half 5 flight to Singapore. Unfortunately it turned out that there wasn't a flight at half 5! Helen stayed calm while I fretted, declaring that we must be on the 4 o clock flight instead. So we queued up at the singapore airlines desk waiting for all to be revealed, along the way we got the fear of god put into us as we realised that they were charging for all over weight bags and obviously our hardy backpacks, combined with two extra bags, put us well over the weight limit, b*****! When we got to the front of the queue though we didn't even make it to the stage where they weighed your bags as they informed us that we were not scheduled on the four o clock flight or any later on and were sent over to the information desk, bags in tow looking like a couple of pack horses! After much amusement from the man at the information desk who thought we were completely stupid it turned out that we were indeed flying at half 5 but with Quantas airlines, hurrah! By this time my grey hairs were multilying and it was definately one of those moments when you dream of an easier life, i.e home! However by some miracle we boarded the flight, got settled in with some films and began to read our new bible (aka the lonely planet south east asia on a budget book) in preparation for our exciting journey ahead! After 7 hours we arrived at Singapore at around midnight, changed some money into singaporian dollars and after getting lost in the huge airport got a taxi to our hostel which had the most comfiest beds ever!

The next day, aided with our book, we headed to China town to look through the markets and visit the Srimariamanan Temple (one of the oldest Hindu temples in South East Asia) We had already decided we loved Singapore as it was like being back in South America again with so much to see and so little tourists! The markets around China town were stunning as they were gearing up for the year of the rabbit and here we saw our first sighting of a monk in their orange robes! After this it was shoes off as we wandered round the stunning Hindu temple which was situated between Chinatown and Little India. The streets in Little India were packed due to it being the Thaipusum festival, where by hindu's pray for help to the god of Murugan by carrying a burden or inflicting pain on themselves. Many people were carrying pots on their heads and two men were dancing which hundreds of spikes piercing their torso...it looked extremely painful, don't think me and Hel will be converting anytime soon! But the women looked stunning in their Sari's and me and Helen moaned again that were from England and not somewhere more exotic! We did however get a few disaproving looks for having our shoulders out and thought of this as a lesson learned to cover up for Asia!

For our last night in Singapore we put on our glad rags and headed to the Raffles hotel, singapores fancy hotel which was named after the founder of Singapore. Here was where the original Singapore sling was made and so we were obviously obliged to try one or two even if they were 12 quid a drink! The hotel also has a tradition of giving its guests peanuts and getting them to throw the shells on the floor, and although at first we were trying to do it discreetly, by the end of the night we were throwing left, right and centre like the rest of the drinkers! While we were at the hotel there was a really good band playing some oldies which was made even better by the fact that a crazy drunken lady was dancing like mad, likened to your mum trying to bust some moves from fame (thankfully mine doesn't!) and was trying to get a group of chinese buisness men to join in...Helen had to hold me back! After our cocktails and a chat to the band we headed for home, getting ready for our bus in the morning to Malaysia!