Day 90 Singapore

I like Singapore, we had been told that it is sterile and lacks atmosphere; me, I just call it clean and pristine and I kinda like that. Ok yes, it's a city but it still retains elements of it's colonial past along side the skyscrapers. The weather though, that would get some getting used to, cloudy to start with, sunny intervals all day till mid afternoon and then massive thunder storms about 5:30, clearing again late evening, weird! I don't think I've seen rain like it, talk about stair-rods. Today, our penultimate day has been a day of seeing the sights. We started off looking for a new mobile phone for me, well it is the electronic capital and managed to find one although I think it will take me a while to get me head around how to use it. Bill spent the time whilst I was choosing and having demos talking to the shop manager and learning about employment in Singapore. This guy had been working for this company owned by a Chinese guy for 15yrs, he works 6 days a week, only gets 7 days holiday a year and no pension (only government employees get a pension), and we think we have it bad!

Purchase made we continued down Orchard Rd looking in the hundreds of shops along there, on the street itself and in the malls; this really is shopping paradise. We jumped on a bus and for the princely sum of $1, about 50p we travelled to Raffles to check out the Long Bar; as we still have free drinks today we decided that we would come back tomorrow and have our Singapore Sling. We then walked down from there to the waterfront and Clarke Quay where we had lunch in the food court as recommended by Trish Gain; we chose a duck plate which consisted of duck breast, chicken soup, rice and bok choi for $11, £5.50 for us both, such brilliant value. A half hour river cruise followed which allowed us to see some of the city from another perspective. Back to the hotel to try and grab the last of the sunshine and then up to the 17th floor for drinks and canapés again - ooooh it's a hard life……