From Changi Airport in Singapore, it was a very straight-forward journey via a sky rail and train to our hostel in Little India. Upon arrival in Little India, Emma was slightly confused as to why there were so many Indian people in the area until it finally dawned on her exactly why it is called Little India - silly billy!

Emma and I were both very excited to be staying in a hostel again as we'd missed the atmosphere that we had grown to love in Australia. 'The Inn Crowd' was very inviting and modern, and it was an especially nice place to be staying after three weeks of travelling Indonesia. Plus, it had the added bonus of hot water!!! As we arrived late in the evening, we had just a short walk around the area, paid our first (of many) visit to a 7 Eleven for some pastries and cookies and called it a night before signing up for a scooter tour the following morning.

We woke the next morning at 10 and went down to the reception for our free breakfast of toast and tea. As we had arrived at the hostel late the previous day, we were told that there might not have been a space for both of us on the kick scooter tour, but luckily there was. The tour is organised very kindly by the hostel for free and we later found out that it usually happens only once or twice a week so we were very thankful that we decided to sign up for it upon our arrivall.

There were 11 of us in the group consisting of English, Germans, Americans and a Canadian and we were led by Michael who has lived his whole life in Singapore. We set off from the hostel and stopped after 5 minutes to introduce ourselves to each other and to have a look around some traditional Singapore shops. The shops sold all sorts of things - shirts, trousers, cars, food, toiletries, board games etc. - all made out of paper! Michael explained to the group about the Chinese belief about life after death. They believe that they can send these items to their deceased loved ones by burning them. By doing this, the deceased can then receive the gifts and use them in the afterlife.

Our next stop was the Raffles hotel which is a very grand and majestic hotel with a long history behind it. We spent time in the museum admiring the very old photographs and I told myself when I'm rich enough I'll be coming back to Singapore to spend a few nights here. Next stop Marina Bay, which showcases Singapore's skyline and amazing architecture. We stopped at the Lau Pa Sat Festival Market for lunch and Emma and I shared a chicken biryani with a naan and Popadom, very good!

After lunch, Michael led the group to the Singapore city gallery which houses a small scale replica of the city and highlights future developments. Throughout the tour we also stopped at many different temples belonging to different cultures. The whole tour lasted 5 hours and we saw so much of the city and it was only our first day! The group we were with was extremely nice, and Michael took us to a great place for lunch. Best part though was the scooters - I now know what I'll be asking Santa for this year!

Emma and I were both extremely excited to be getting up the next morning as we decided to take a break from our travels and spend the day at Sentosa Resort World where we were going to go to Universal Studios. We arrived at Sentosa via a monorail at 9am and discovered the park didn't open till 10am. We had a look around the area but didn't go too far away as we wanted to be one of the first to be let in. Once the doors opened we headed straight to sci-fi city to go on the main adult ride - the 'Battlestar Galactica' rollercoaster. The rollercoaster is in fact two rollercoasters that intertwine with each other so you can either decide to queue up for the human or the cylon experience (I'm sure a 'Battlestar Galactica' fan will understand this?) As it was a weekday, the park was quite quiet, especially up until about 12ish, so throughout the course of the day we went on each rollercoaster 3 or 4 times. The cylon was the better of the two.

Next stop was Ancient Egypt which features rides based on the 1999 'The Mummy' film. After that we enjoyed the rapids at The Lost World, which yep you guessed it, are based on 'Jurassic Park'. After stopping for a drink and an opportunity to catch my breath back from all the excitement of the day so far, Emma and I headed to Waterworld to enjoy a rather impressive show featuring jet ski chases, flying planes, explosions etc. Can't think what film the show was based on though?!

We had lunch at Mel's Drive In, which is a replica of the restaurant from 'American Graffiti'. Here we enjoyed a burger and chips each served in a regular 1950's fashion but my guess without the 1950's price. Upon leaving the diner we went into a theatre to watch a music stage show called Monster's Rock. We presumed this was going to be a show featuring the classic Universal Monsters - Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolf Man etc. singing songs such as The Monster Mash. It turned out it was the classic Universal Monsters, but they were all glammed up in terrible costumes and singing songs by Britney Spears. Emma and I both agreed it was the worst thing we had ever witnessed and it still hurts to think back to the occasion.

After our eyes and ears had recovered, we went to a show called Lights, Camera, Action - hosted by Steven Spielberg (he was just in the video, in between making films he doesn't actually live at Universal Studios, Singapore!). After the impressive display featuring special effects done in real time, we walked through Madagascar, which featured mostly kids' stuff and rides that weren't quite finished (the park is only just over one year old), to Far Far Away - the home of 'Shrek'. Again, most of the rides were for children but we still went on them. We enjoyed a ride on a small dragon roller coaster (not quite up there with the 'Battlestar Galactica' one) and then sat back to watch 'Shrek 4D' (awesome!) and Donkey Live (okay).

Although we were still full up from our burger and chips, we thought we shouldn't leave Universal Studios without sampling a huuuge slice of pizza from Loui's New York Pizza Parlour. We left the park at 6pm, both fully satisfied with all the rides we had been on, and went off to explore Sentosa. Sentosa was very nice, lots of lovely fountains, lights and other attractions. Had we had more time in Singapore we may have paid it another visit.

The next day Emma and I set off on foot and followed the same route as our scooter tour to explore the shopping areas further. We walked along Bugis Street which had lots of stalls set up and I treated myself to a banana shake for $1. Singapore has an amazing number of shopping centres throughout the city and has lots of shops from back home - Top Shop, River Island, an endless number of Marks and Spencer! Emma even tried on a pair of shoes in Marksies and I listened to some new music in a large HMV.

After spending absolutely ages walking around shops, we got the train to Chinatown. I got rather excited when I found (in this unusual location) a Tin Tin shop! When we scooted through Chinatown the other day, Michael pointed out a food court that was hidden away in what looked like an old car park, very similar looking to the 'Get Carter' car park in Gateshead. He told the group that if we came back to Chinatown, that is the place to go for the best and cheapest food.

Unsure if there was actually anything up there, I climbed the stairs to explore whilst Emma stayed at the bottom. Sure enough there were a few stalls so I called Emma up and we had a look around. When we turned a few corners we discovered a couple of huge open areas with hundreds of food stalls and row after row of locals eating and drinking. It was a really cool thing to see and especially nice that it was all local people who were there and not a tourist in sight. Many thanks to our tour guide Michael for sharing this secret with us! However, we were then faced with making a decision of where to eat. We passed a stall and glanced at the food some of the locals were eating which they recommended, and it looked really good, so we sat down and ordered clay pot rice and 3 local beers for $10 from a drinks stall.

When our rice arrived, we were a little disappointed as it didn't look as good as other people's food. However, a local man from another table came to our rescue and informed us we needed to add soy sauce and oil. He added just the right amount of these ingredients into the rice and gave it a good mix for us (check out the cool pictures). The food was absolutely amazing and one of the best, if not the best dishes we have had since travelling. Really good value too, $8 for the both of us.

After our delicious meal we walked to Marina Bay to watch a laser show at 9.30pm which is on every single night. We found a nice spot and it was really relaxing to sit back and enjoy the show.

Next morning, after a needed lie in, we got the train to Chinatown again to go to the Lau Pa Sat Festival Market for lunch. Although the market had many many food stalls, the Indian food we had on the scooter tour was so good that we went back there to sample a different dish. After another amazing lunch, we went to Marina Bay shopping centre, then onto numerous other centres on the way back to the hostel. Seriously, Singapore has a lot of shopping centres! Back at the hostel, we relaxed in the comfy communal area where we read and messed around on the netbook for a bit. We had a late snack from the 7 Eleven next door and then retired to bed.

The following morning we checked out of our room and relaxed back in the communal area for a bit before going back to the Festival Market, especially to have the same food as we had the previous day. This was all my idea and yes it's very fat to go out and get a train to somewhere just for food when we could have got some food locally, but the food was that good…and really cheap! This time though we had an ice cream after just to make things a bit different.

We went back to the hostel to chill out for a bit longer before having to put on our heavy bags to go to the airport to catch our flight to Kuala Lumpur….

Singapore is a really great city with lots to see and do. We spent 5 nights there which was plenty of time to do everything. It has lots of big plans for the future and will be an interesting country to visit again, and one that both Emma and I would like to come back to. Oh and it has the best food ever! (in case you didn't already get that impression from me!)

Matthew