After an action packed short time in Kuala Lumpur we were leaving Malaysia wishing we had more time to explore the place. But time is moving on and we have a rough schedule to stick to. We made our way onto the MRT to my favourite named stop of Titiwangsa and changed onto the LRT that would take us to Burkit Jalil where we would catch our bus to Singapore at 1.30pm. No need for running about like headless chickens to catch it for us this time though and everything was plane sailing as we arrived with time to spare. The bus was comfortable and the ride was pretty uneventful as I started to write the KL blog and Ash buried her head into her book. After four and a half hours we had stopped at the Malaysian immigration to have our passports stamped and were straight back on the bus to drive over the bridge to Singapore. We have been though nearly every type of border crossing there is possible now, by air, boat, bus and even on foot. The only one we haven't done is by train but it is supposed to be a nightmare so nothing lost there. After a few minutes driving across the bridge that reminded me of the Redheugh Bridge linking Gateshead and Newcastle, we pulled up at the Singapore border and had to alight from the bus once more this time with our baggage so it could be scanned and the likes. After 20 minutes or so of filling in arrival cards, passport checks and the customary baggage scan we were granted our visas and skipped merrily back onto our bus to complete our trip into Singapore. After another hour on the bus we pulled up at the bus station around 7.30pm and we were ready to hunt out our digs that we had already booked. Strapping on our backpacks on we were off down the road in search of the MRT that would take us to the stop that was a short walk away from our accommodation. After a bit of a stomp we found the MRT and jumped straight on and within minutes we were at our stop. Coming out of the MRT was a bit confusing as we didn't have a map and were unsure of which way to go. We had rough directions but they weren't very clear but eventually after walking up and down a few different roads we found it and were more than happy to get our backpacks off our backs. The more we travel the heavier they seem to get.

After checking in and being shown to our box room with a set of bunk beds we decided to have a shower and get out and about. By this time it was 9.30pm but there was no need to rush as Singapore is like New York, it never sleeps. We made our way into the city centre on the MRT and were in search of Raffles Hotel, the home of the original Singapore Sling. Ashleigh had been to Singapore before and I was using her as my personal tour guide. Armed with a map of the city we walked the streets that were brightly lit with Christmas lights and decorations taking in the sights and smells of it all. Finding Raffles Hotel we walked through the entrance to the grand court yard for a nose about and climbed the marble stairs that would take us up to the Long Bar. Walking into the bar, the first thing you notice is the crunch of peanut shells under your feet as you walk. It is regarded as the thing to do here by throwing the shells of the complimentary monkey nuts on the floor, the place is nearly as famous for this as it is for its Singapore slings. Talking of Singapore Slings, it is said that you can't visit Singapore without having one so we pulled up a chair, a shoebox sized box of monkey nuts was place on the table and we ordered our drinks. I had to go for the Singapore Sling but Ashleigh had already ticked this off her list of things to do before you die on her first visit and opted for the half yard glass of Heineken. When our drinks came we must have looked funny as placed in front of me was the bright pink well dressed up cocktail sat with its pineapple and cherry hat, while Ashleigh had her half yard glass with its own stand looking like a seasoned drinker in a working mans club. We couldn't help but laugh and wondered what people must have been thinking. We made quite a dent in the mountain of nuts that was on our table and the bar bill made quite a dent in my wallet. S$56 was the damage (about £28) for two drinks and we were pleased only to be staying for one. Ashleigh had told me that Singapore was an expensive place but I wasn't prepared for that kind of expensive. To be fair though we were drinking in a top class hotel where people from all over the world came from travelling, on holidays or business to drink Singapore Slings in the place that the drink was invented, the Raffles Hotel. With the crunching of peanut shells under foot we made our way back onto the streets of Singapore and to the MRT to take us to Clarke Quay, a bustling hub of shops, pubs and restaurants. Getting there Ashleigh acted as my guide again pointing out the different places and parts of Clarke Quay that she had told me about from her last trip here that she had made with work. I had pictured Clarke Quay totally differently in my head to what it actually looks like, for some reason I had it pictured as a wooden decked quay with a few places to eat here and there but in fact it is a plush and modern area that caters for any taste. The bars in the area are creative too with Clinic looking the most stylish and original of them all. It is decked with a medical theme as its lights are operating theatre lamps, sofas made from hospital beds and chairs that are fully functioning gold painted wheel chairs. The drinks come served in an intravenous drip and it was a bit creepy watching people sit in the wheel chairs whilst drinking bright red fluid out of a drip that is suspended behind them. It looked like a scene from 'One flew over the coo coo's nest' when Jack Nicholson throws a party in the mental hospital and gets all the inmates drunk as monkeys. It was all great and intriguing till I looked at the prices, S$50 for one of those drinks in a drip (£25), more than a lone traveller's average daily budget. Now I'm not a tight arse but that is a bit too pricey for me and we couldn't justify spending that amount on one drink. It had been a long day anyway and at 1.30am-ish we decided to grab a taxi back to our digs and shared one bunk of our bunk beds for a well deserved kip.

The next morning Ashleigh was up researching different methods and prices for getting to Bali on the internet whilst I slept on till 12pm like a lazy pig. We only had this day in Singapore as we had planned to leave the next day to head for Bali and I had slept for nearly half of it. Bless Ashleigh though, she knew I hadn't been sleeping to great as of late and let me lye in to catch up on some sleep, she's a little smasher. After a quick dash to get ready we were out the door and back on the MRT heading back into the city centre for a day of as much action and sightseeing as we possibly could. We had read about the Cathay Gallery and made it our first port of call for the day. The Cathay Gallery is a small museum on the history of film's and the cinema upstairs that they had been shown in. It is housed on the first floor of Singapore's first high-rise building that has now been updated and modified. It is a great little place with colourful walls of old film posters adorned with old cinema projectors and old cinema seats that run along the walls. Glass display cases show off merchandise from an array of films stretching from the 1930's up until the present day as well as the history and belongings of the man who built and ran the cinema that still operates under the same name and has recently celebrated their 75th anniversary. We enjoyed looking through the displays and found it thoroughly interesting and we both thought it was a cracking little place to visit. On our way out we quickly checked the films that were being shown and the times that they were on in the hope that we might treat ourselves to a night at the flicks later on.

Next on our list of things to do today was to organise our flights to Bali for the following day. We had looked into taking the ferry but it wasn't really that cheap to do and looked like a long winded affair of bus trips and different boat rides probably taking two days or so. We had tried to book the flights online but the screens kept freezing and timing out repeatedly so a trip to the travel agent it had to be. We were originally on the hunt for an operator called Jet Star in one of the shopping malls where there web site had directed us to, turned out it wasn't there. Luckily we asked for help in a small independent travel agent in the same mall and they set about looking into the flights for us. After spending an hour and a half searching different companies, the travel agent had finally got us booked onto a flight for S$500 (£250) for both of us. It was more than we had wanted to pay but it was our only option as we had to fly to Bali at some point and it wasn't going to get any cheaper leading up to Christmas. Pleased we had the flights sorted we were back on the trail of adventure around Singapore. We didn't expect it to take so long to arrange the flights so there wasn't a second to lose in getting about for the rest of the day. We walked up the road and after 5 minutes we arrived at a hawker site where Ashleigh had ate before. Hawker sites are food stalls that surround an area of tables and chairs bidding for customers to eat their food. They are normally a lot busier on a night time but it was rather quiet at the time we were there. Singapore is a melting pot of different cultures from Chinese, Malaysian, Indian and many others and this can be seen by the foods available at the hawker sites. Today for our lunch we decided that our mouths and bellies wanted to go to India and quickly ordered a couple of curries, rice and a naan. Unlike most of the eateries in Singapore the hawker sites are rather cheap to eat and are great value for money.

With fuel in our bellies we put our heads in the Bible and checked the map to see where we needed to be next. We wanted to do a number of things still but time was getting on and we had planned to catch the bus to the Night Safari at 6pm from Orchard road that was a good walk and an MRT ride away. The time was creeping up to 5pm and we decided that it would be best to head straight there without fitting anything else in to make sure we caught the bus. Getting there with 25 minutes to spare we took a seat over the road from where the bus would pick us up and indulged in a cup of coffee and a slice of cake. The shuttle bus arrived at 6.05pm and we hopped on board full of excitement. The Night Safari in Singapore is the only night safari in the world and it's exactly what it sound like, a safari at night. The bus took around an hour to get there and we were straight inside the complex and just in time to catch the creatures of the night show. The Amphitheatre was full to the rafters as the show began. It was hosted by one of the animal handlers that worked there and she was like an Indian Michaela Strachan on speed. It was great how the show was put together with facts and information on the animals and in turn the animals would take part in the show for treats from the handlers. At the start of the show a wolf walked out onto a raised rock platform and raised its head and howled towards the moon. I thought it was amazing. Our favourite part of the show was the recycling otters. This was the part of the show to get the message out to the kids that they need to use less and recycle more with the added extra bonus of cute otters to get the message across. The whole scene built up with two racoons coming into the amphitheatre looking in a bin and knocking it over looking for food, which they found leaving plastic bottles, tin cans and card board packaging on the floor of the stage area. Out comes an animal handler with three bins for plastics, papers and metals and then two otters swim through the pond at the rear of the stage and jump out in front of the host. She starts to talk about recycling and says "....well I will let these guys show you how it's done" The otters dash off and collect the cans, bottles and cardboard one by one running back to the relative bins jumping up and putting it in. I know they are trained to do it but it was impressive all the same and made us smile.

After the show we made our way up to the trams were they take you around the night safari park and hopped on a carriage. Moving off at a slow pace we were taken round the tram route to see the different types of animal on offer. It is all open and the animals can wonder pretty much freely within their sections of the park. Obviously the animals like Lions and Tigers, ones that could kill, were further back from the tram trail and had additional safety measures. The guide on our tram who was informing us of the different animals and facts about them as we past them had a voice like something off an animal's do the funniest things type programme and had jokes along the same line to match. The tram ride around the safari park took 45 minutes or so and after we set off on foot around the walking trail to parts of the park that the tram did not visit. Our favourite part of this was the giant flying squirrel enclosure and the fruit bat enclosure. We did not get to see any of the squirrels flying but we were blown away by the size of them, they were they size of house cats. The fruit bats were totally different and we got to see many of those fly, one nearly flying right into Ashleigh's face turning in the air at the last moment. These again were massive and as they clawed their way across the top of the cage, Ashleigh was amazed at watching them move as she had not seen bats moving about without flying before. We finished off the walking trail and made our way out of the safari park to catch the 10pm bus back into the city centre. We were both full of child like pleasure like a kid after their first trip to the zoo. We had seen Malayan Tigers, Lions, Ankole Cattle, Thamin, Mouse deer, Fishing Cats, Asian Otters, Barking Deer, Slow Loris', Himalayan Tahrs, Binturong's, Pangolin's, Flying Foxes, Bharals, Markhors, Mouflons, Indian Gharials, Pelicans, Striped Hyenas, Spotted Hyenas, Barasinghas, Flamingos, Babirusas, Malayan Tapirs, Great Asian Rhinoceroses, Samber Deer, Axis Deer, Bantengs, Gaurs, Clouded Leopards, Golden Cats, an Eagle Owl, Porcupines, Civets, Fruit Bats, Hog Badgers, Tarsiers, Giant Flying Squirrels, a Giraffe, Giant's Zebras, Scimitar-horned Oryx, Sloth Bears, Bat-eared Foxes, Bongos, Cape Buffalos, Hippopotamuses, Red River Hogs, Bearded Pigs, Water Buffalos and Asian Elephants to name a few.

We arrived back in the city centre by 10.45pm and got to see Orchard Road spectacularly lit up by the Christmas lights as we drove up it. It was beautiful and made us feel a little Christmassy inside as the lights twinkled and stretched on for as far as your eyes could see. The bus stopped at traffic lights outside of the Cathay Cinema where we had been earlier on in the day and asked if we could jump off the bus whilst the lights were on red. We walked into the cinema as we thought it would be a great way to round off the day with a bit of late night movie action. We bought tickets for the 11.30pm showing of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader in 3D as it was that or Rapunzel so either way it was a kid's movie. It was the first time that we had been to the pictures in a foreign country and also the first time we had been to a late night showing. It's not classed as late night showing here as nothing really seems to close. We loaded up on hotdogs and popcorn and took our seats with our 3D glasses on ready for action. The film was pretty good actually and we left the cinema at 1.30am jumping straight into a taxi to take us back to our lovely bunk bed.

The next morning we were up and had checked out of our digs by 11am. We took the MRT to Changi Airport getting there with four hours to spare before our flight to Bali. We sat around the airport finishing off the KL blog and read about and researched into our new destination where we would stay until after Christmas, until the 28th of December and the big one...flying to Australia. We can't believe it's nearly here.

Love Peter and Ashleigh x