On our second day in Singapore we walked across to Sentosa Island, which is touted as being 'Asia's favourite playground'. Perhaps that should read Asia's most expensive playground. There are lots of cool things to do there, such as walking through butterfly-filled rooms, watching snake charmers, posing for a picture with exotic birds, riding the sky tower for panoramic views etc etc but literally EVERYTHING had a price tag: usually around $20 per activity. That doesn't sound like much but it soon adds up unless the sun is shining (which it wasn't) and you can spend some time sunbathing on the manmade beaches in between paying out for things. We decided to limit ourselves to a few goes on the luge as we'd enjoyed the one in Queenstown so much and spent an enjoyable hour or so zipping down the hillside in gravity powered toboggans before riding the skylift back up and repeating.

That evening we plopped ourselves down at the riverside to watch the sun disappear. The skyscrapers clustered together in the central business district looked particularly impressive as it grew darker. The neon signs and bright lights reminded us of Times Square or Piccadilly Circus but if anything the view was even better because it was reflected in the water rather than just ending at the ground. Around 8pm the Marina Bay Sands Hotel put on a free display along the riverfront involving lots of fountains, lasers and music which was cool to see. We ended the night back in Little India eating delicious chicken biryani with our hands, like the locals do. Saves on the washing up I guess!

Yesterday we hopped on a train and bus to Singapore Zoo, arriving just in time to watch the beautiful white tigers being fed. About 5 minutes later the heavens opened and it absolutely chucked it down. I've never seen rain like it. We managed to see quite a lot of the zoo in between the heaviest showers and it's probably one of the better ones we've been to as you can get really close to the animals. There are strategically placed moats or ditches rather than cages to stop the animals escaping and in some areas monkeys roam completely freely through the trees. You can also walk straight into netted enclosures filled with fruit bats, birds, mouse deer (the cutest animal ever, literally like a 30cm high deer!) and ring-tailed lemurs. When darkness fell we crossed the road for the Night Safari, the sister park to the Singapore Zoo, where we boarded a tram that took us around various nocturnal animal exhibits. Some of the less dangerous animals, like the deer and the tapirs, were free-roaming and came right up to the side of the tram. Afterwards, we tackled the four walking trails to get a closer look at the animals and finished up by watching a show about nocturnal animals. It was all very well done and I would definitely recommend it to anyone going to Singapore.

Today we caught a bus to Melaka in Malaysia. We were told it would take about three hours but in reality took closer to five. No-one on the bus spoke any English so we were starting to worry we'd missed our stop around the four hour mark! Melaka is very cool. It has a history stretching back to the 14th century and has been ruled at various points by the Chinese, the Portugese, the Dutch and the British - everyone wanted a piece of it :-) There are lots of churches, temples, mosques etc to explore as well as a busy Chinatown and various museums and art galleries. Tonight we visited a night market where we feasted on rice, satay chicken, deep fried chilli potatoes and chocolate covered fruit - all for less than £3 each. We're intending to wake up early tomorrow to explore properly but this may not happen as we are both incredibly sleep deprived; we stayed in a dorm in Singapore rather than a private room and had the Phlegmy Rattling Roaring Snorer from Hell in with us for two nights. We left shaking our heads and saying what we always say when we stay in a dorm: never again. Until the next time.