Hi all,

Two very happy backpackers here. We've had an amazing few days in Singapore so far. We arrived on the huge bustling Jalan Besar Rd after one minibus, two aeroplanes, one shuttle, four trains and a good long sweaty walk.....! The hostel is brill, it was recommended to us by some friends. Tresor Tavern is fairly new and so we can still benefit from clean showers, comfy beds and the like! Although, the dorm has no windows so when you don't have a watch this can cause all sorts of unexpected lie-ins.

Our first night we arrived quite late and went on the search for some Asian scran, wow did we hit lucky. We found this great street side cafe and dug into Singapore noodles, beef noodle soup and garlic pak choi washed down with three litres of Tiger beer. The smiles have been permanently glued on our wee faces ever since. After dinner we sat on the hostel balcony drinking more Tiger beer and chatting with some other people from our room.

Day 2. We spent a few hours trying to figure out the whole Thai visa debacle, not an easy thing to understand with lots of random little rules and things. So, decision made, we are going to spend a week travelling overland through Malaysia and enter Thailand on the 1st Dec on a 15 day automatic visa and hopefully spend this time with Cat and Sam (who we met in Brazil). After this we have 5 days to get back down to Malaysia to Kuala Lumpar for a flight we've booked to Bangkok on the 20th Dec. As we're flying in we should be granted an automatic 30 day visa which will last until all the family have returned home after Xmas allowing us to then shoot off to Vietnam or Cambodia or wherever. Phew, complex stuff.....not used to planning things around visas.

The rest of Wednesday was spent walking the length if Orchard Rd (shopping heaven), eating in one of the million food courts (very tasty Malaysian seafood Laksa soup for me and some Vietnamese Beef Pho for Adds) and doing lots of window shopping. We battled our way through the throngs of workers and managed to arrive (3km later) at our desired destination (without a map may I add) Clarke Quay. This place is fab, full of fancy eateries and bars all set around the quay surrounded by lots of twinkly lights and sky scrapers. We passed through to Boat Quay, the same but cheaper and sat for hours with jugs of beer and a bubblegum, grenadine and mint flavoured Shisha......nice!! On our walk home we grabbed a midnight snack at an outdoor foodcourt of Dim Sum and Gyoza.....which cost about £2, yay cheap amazing food once again.

The strange thing about being here now is that we can be sat in a sweaty food court surrounded by Mariah Careys, All I Want For Christmas......it just doesn't feel like Xmas to us! Wonder how it'll be on Bangkok?

We are planning to leave on Friday for Malaysia to a place called Melaka so the rest of our time in Singapore, I think, will be filled with a trip to the art museum and the botanical gardens, and of course EATING :)

Mum and Dad should be in San Fran now, hope that's going ok. It's getting so close to Xmas we can't wait to see everyone.

Love to all of you

Xxxx