Many thanks to James and Laura for giving us free access to their home, fridge and drinks cupboard. We have used all of them liberally and hope to return the favour when they are home in April. Your generosity has got our Asian adventure off to a great start. We have really enjoyed Singapore. It is even bigger and better than our last visit in 1999. Land has been reclaimed from the sea in the bay area and new, fabulous, sea front facilities have been constru...

So far we have had a tropical downpour every afternoon about 3pm. Downpour doesn't really cover it since the rain comes at you from every direction including up. Yesterday we were on the top deck of the open topped tour bus when we detected a couple of drops of rain. Ten seconds later four firemen were hoseing us down. We retreated smartly to the back of the bus where there was a tarpaulin cover. Everyone else retreated downstairs. We thought we would sit it out ...

We arrived in Singapore into a tropical downpore, however, by the time we cleared immigration and collected our luggage the rain had gone off and the sun was shining. It felt so good to feel the sun on our faces again. The last leg of the journey had been on the new Airbus A380 which is huge, having two floors. Mum travelled business class upstairs and despite, putting on a good show of being a little old ladies carers we were confined to the basement. It was a...