Singapore - 12th - `4th August

Hi everyone, im sorry its been awhile, im getting emails and messages saying whats happened to the blogs, i apologise profusely just been having too much of a good time in oz to get chance to update ha ha!! ok back to Singapore....bear in mind i wrote this in my journal a while ago!

Ahhh amazing Singapore! We had a fantastic yet breif time in Singapore mainly because Simon surprised me on our last night in Malacca. We were having a drink down Jonker Street amongst the weekend market when he gave me a piece of paper, it was confirmation of a reservation in a nice hotel in Orchard road! YIPEE! SOME LUXURY!!

We always said we were going to splash out in Singapore with it being the end of our 5 month Asia trip but i thought we were just going to pitch up. So we left Malacca at 7am from our guesthouse and arrived in Singapore about 12ish, we had a nightmare on the monorail system trying to figure out how it worked and finally arrived in Orchard Road. We got some funny looks walking down Orchard Road, we must've looked a right sight as this is not a backpacker area its wall to wall expensive hotels, boutiques, top of the range cars and designer clothes. You can almost smell the money on most od the peopel that walk around here. There are loads of models tittering around on tiny heels, desigenr sunglasses, glossy hair (not yellow with roots!) etc. Anyway we didn't care.

We stayed at the Orchard Parade Hotel and loved every minute of it. It had 5 restaurants (going on about food again Kath! ha ha!) a gym, a swimming pool, 2 bars and a nightclub, plus a spa and hair salon but best of all it had lovely clean, crisp, white sheets, a hot shower, cable TV, a mini bar and room service, i was in heaven and couldv'e got used to it!

That first day was spent round the pool and gym (well Si went the gym) and sampled two of the restaurants before moving onto the hard rock cafe for drinks.

Included in our hotel fees was breakfast but we slept so soundly in the beautiful clean sheets we completely missed breakfast. We were gutted as had been looking forward to a proper breakfast instead of lightly toasted bread with unsalted butter! The curtains were so heavy that we didn't even know it was daylight outside.

When we eventually surfaced we made our way to Singapore Zoo. This is the best zoo we've ever been to, it was amazing and again had changed loads since i last visited many years ago. They have a lot of animals in free roaming areas like the orang utans which is great as they are so close to you and as you walk around you havent a clue what you might coming across next. Most of the monkeys were free roaming and we were able to go into the kangaroo enclosure and pet them it was great. The animals that do have enclosures are done so you dont have to peer through any wire mesh. The best bit was probably the feeding of the white tigers.

We walked and walked round the zoo until we were exhausted but as we would be leaving the next day we had to cram everything in, so next stop was Rffles for a Singapore Sling in the infamous Long Bar where you eat monkey nuts and then throw the shells on the floor! From there we had a quick look round the presigious Raffles hotel (1000 pounds a night!) and then walked around the Colonial area before making our way to the Quays to firstly see the statue of Sir Stamford Raffles. The statue has been placed supposedly where he was said to have first set foot in Singapore.

We then went and visited the Merlion, the half fish, half lion symbol of Singapore. From here we could see the Esplande Theatre which looks like two halves of the spiky fruit, Durian.

We had lost the will to live by this point and so made our way back to the comfort of our hotel through ruh hour traffic and made use of the brilliant pool!

That night we had a lovely meal and few drinks totoast the last 5 months - our South East Asia trip. We can't believe its over and we will be flying to Australia for the next installment. And so we have now said goodbye to Asia. We have had a faboulous 5 months. Some things we are going to miss like our favourite fruit the mangosteen, roti chani, cheap food, cheap accomodation (not in malaysia though), cheap clothes and alcohol, the people and the simple way of life.

What won't we miss? The squat toilets! Goodbye and good riddance. We have had to learn to accept this element of Asia but you never get used to it! We have really enjoyed it but we do feel that it is time to move on and now are ready for Oz!!