SINGAPORE

The heat and humidity in Singapore was unreal after flying from England, it was like stepping out of the plane and into an oven. The good news however is that everywhere had outstanding air conditioning. One thing I noticed instantly was how clean everywhere was, so much so that some of the tourists were taking pictures of the carriages on the MRT.

A lot of people describe Singapore as being sterile but I found it an interesting place. But then it was my first stop in South East Asia and I would have probably had this view had I gone there after visiting the other countries.

As expected the first day I spent in my accommodation trying to sleep off the jet lag. My brain went instantly back into "backpacker mode" and in a lot of ways it was just as if I was following on from Australia. The first attempt I had at using chopsticks was messy to say the least but it's something I quickly got used to.



As I now had a digital camera I started taking short video clips that I would later put on youtube. The girl in the above video was only 22 and had previously spent several months in India, she was a lot braver than I was !!!!!

The first full day I had there was exploring the city. The locals are all "business type" people and seem to walk very fast. I went on a boat trip down the river in the afternoon.



That evening I went to the Raffles hotel with someone else for a Singapore sling. It was pre mixed, sickly sweet and cost about 4 times more than a beer would back home. Had to force it down to justify paying so much for it.



The following day I went to the zoo with the girl mentioned above. The public transport in Singapore has to be some of the best in the world and puts ours back in England to shame. The zoo itself was outstanding as the animals were enclosed by natural barriers like water rather than horrible steel bars.
The light was so bright that most of my pictures were glared out despite hours of attempting to restore them with photoshop.

The final day there I got my bus ticket to Melaka which was across the border in Malaysia. Had another explore of the city duringthe day time. At night I met someone called Phil who was going the same way as I was the next day. A group of us went out to watch a football match. The food and transport might be cheap in Singapore but the cost of a beer was shocking.

Overall it was the best start I could have to the start of the trip. Singapore did end on a bit of a bad note when I dropped my camera breaking it. I didn't pay a lot for it as it was secondhand and old anyway.