After completing the highlights of Kuala Lumpur it was onto Singapore. The bus journey was a mere 6 hours and we we plonked right in the middle of little India, our chosen place of rest. The one thing Singapore is sure to do is to make you realise how un-affluent you really are, the prices would have you appreciate london! Time to economise. We selected The Prince of Wales hostel with its vibrant energetic crowd and live music. With only a dorm bed on offer for $22, this did however include bedding but didn't include someone making it, it also included breakfast but didn't include someone cooking it! So we found ourselves the following morning preparing scrambled eggs on toast, the first time Martin had cooked in 5 months it was actually quite the treat!

As we had gradually discovered over the pervious months cities were not really our thing especially in the heat so we have adopted a technique known as speed tourism. We have now perfected the art of speed tourism and can complete most cities within 2 days. The first day we set off via Ruffles Hotel made famous by the Singapore Sling cocktail and one of the oldest hotels in the city. Moving on towards the Singapore Flyer (the London Eye but apparently bigger) then over the bridge to the Art and Science Museum, through Marina Bay Sands (an enormously impressive collection of 3 buildings with a boat straddling the uppermost part and into the wonderful Gardens by the Bay, were endless manicured gardens are intertwined with eateries, great works of art and monolithic steel trees gleaming in the sun, covered in exotic creepers and crawlers from all corners of the globe. At night they dance with light to the beat of the city. Much of Singapore has a hint of Canary Wharf to it, that sort of futuristic iRobot feel. The marina is beautifully designed and gleams and glistens in the baking equatorial sunshine.

With monsoon season hot on our heals we remained trapped inside the vast cavern that is the Mariana Sands Mega Mall. The rain had thwarted our efforts to board the boat and stand in the sky atop Singapore. The rain however had not dampened the sprits of the thousand of locals that were taking part in the annual "Run for your Lives Asia" race around the city. Runners of all shapes and sizes ran at speed around the city at points being chased by the local undead complete with blood and guts! The day ended with a drink by the marina next to the famous Merlion of Singapore.The Merlion is a mythical creature with the head of a lion and the body of a fish, used as a mascot and national personification of Singapore. Its name combines "mer" meaning the sea and "lion". The fish body represents Singapore's origin as a fishing village when it was called Temasek, which means "sea town" in Javanese. The lion head represents Singapore's original name Singapura meaning "lion city".

The following day we made our way back to the marina and headed up to the boat, luckily the weather was looking a lot better. The views from the top were immense and we stayed up long enough to catch the exciting display of lights and lasers the city has to offer. To finish off our Singapore adventures we took a long strol around the city through the Central Business District (CBD) and into Chinatown for some dinner. All that was missing was to pick up the hotly anticipated iMac that had made its way to Singapore two months prior to us and had been awaiting our arrival. That done we had warmed heavily to Singapore and left with smiles on our faces, next stop Bali, Indonesia.