Following our 26 hour bus ride from Thailand, we got to Singapore at about midday and checked into our hostel in Little India. We managed to stay up and have a look round the city. We went to Orchard Road which is a shoppers paradise lined with loads of malls. Cartier, Gucci, Versace, Bvulgari etc. all in a days work for a backpacker! After the exhaustion of shopping we decided to check out Raffles Hotel for the famous Singapore Slings and monkey nuts. The hotel was huge and very grand, we wondered whether we should be there in our shorts! The Long bar though was a lot more relaxed where chucking the monkey nut cases on the floor was the done thing.

After a long long sleep, we got up the next day and set out for more sightseeing. The 'bumboat' up the river seemed like a good bet. We rushed to get on it as the usual afternoon storm was in the distance. It was only a half an hour trip but took in most of the sights going straight through the city. We got back that evening and decided to have an authentic Indian curry. Our waiter suggested a selection of little dishes and as we didn't understand the menu anyway, we went with his recomendation. It was okay but very different to what we were used to in England. It only took the walk home to work through our systems...

For our final day, we went to Sentosa island which is the most southernly point of Asia. Its an island with beaches and attractions but being on a budget we couldn't afford to do everything so chose to see the aquarium and dolphin show as it was raining. The aquarium was cool, we got to feed stingrays and touch little reef sharks. There was an 80 metre undersea tunnel where we saw loads of different sharks, swordfish and exotic marine life. The pink dolphin show later on was amazing. They belly danced, did the hula hoop and jumped through rings. That night we went on a free christmas lights tour around the city especially arranged for tourists. The theme this year was an enchanted garden. As good as they were, they just looked like lights to us. The hot weather really doesn't make it feel like christmas though!