SINGAPORE

I warn you now that this blog is very uninteresting but then so was the place s what can I do :-) So we arrived in Singapore, where again the transport system is great. No waiting, very fast etc... No overwhelming first impressions as coming from Hong Kong it was all very tame! We got to our hostel and were pleasantly surprised to see that even though we had booked into a dorm we had a double bed within the dorm. The place was small but extremely clean and had free internet which is not common. At this point we were having withdrawal symptoms from having a computer in our room all that time in Australia so this simple fact pleased us. There is not really much to tell you about Singapore really as we weren't there for long and thee wasn't much to see or do unless you wanted to shop til you dropped or drink in pricey bars at Clarke Quay! neither of which were on our agenda at this point on our travels. Personally we didn't think much of Singapore as a backackers destination, the locals don't like you being there and can't speak or understand English. trying to get food on the first night was a task! Pointed at something basic on the menu and then asked for drinks ; the guy couldn't even understand that I wanted water!! They understood beer though. It wasn't the not understanding tha anoyed me though it was the fact that he made no secret of the fact he didn't want us there. Oh well! Oh and the food wasn't nice either. We didn't see many backpackers in Singapore, only people who had come there to look for work (the two lads in our room were from the Phillipines). The shops were all designer names you can get at home, as well as Warehouse, and I think there may have been a topshop (same prices as far as I could see, but I tried to steer clear). We saw Singapore's famous statue the Merlion Statue (Lons head Mermaids tail); very odd, see for yourself. We had a walk along the waterfront but it wasn't anything special to look at. We saw the big wheel like in London, the convention centre, the city hall. It was all just very monotonous to be honest. "Little India" on the other hand was a good experence, lots of markets with traditional indian clothes, jewellery and food; we ate at Allauddin's Biriyani! A 'specialist' so it said, and they weren't wrong either! It was so gorgeous and served on banana leaf. People around us ate with their hands (as the locals do) but being a bit grubby we didn't feel it was quite hygienic enough (the toilets aren't the best and you don't often feel clean afterwards) That'll do about that for now. We also went to "Chinatown", but I have absolutely nothing to say about it except that it was a waste of time and just a ploy to get tourists to visit. The shops there were suitable for old ladies only. Except this random pair of purple tights on a manachin?! So there you go, are you yawning yet?! Next we got the bus from Singapore to Mersing in Malaysia which we much preferred :-). It was our first experience of crossing a country border not on a plane! Plenty more of that to come now though....

ps. Liam has to shave off his beard everytime he has to go through passport control as he looks so young in his picture he can't take the risk that they won't recognise him :-)