21/01/2005
No, we couldn't afford the cocktail in Raffles Hotel for $25, even a small beer for S$5 was out of the question. But on the plus side, we found Singapore clean, shopping heaven and easy to get around.

Andrew had lots of fun looking at LCD TV's, and all manner of electronic gadgets - well he can dream... We did lots of window shopping and 'I want, I want..'

We met up with our friend, Jeff, who is a pilot for Singapore Airlines and he kindly showed us East Coast Park - the beach side of Singapore and Little India where we had an excellent Southern Indian meal.

Apart from meeting up with Jeff the other highlight of Singapore was Singapore Zoo and the night safari. You can get a joint ticket for $25 so we spent the whole day literally at the zoo. This zoo was well landscaped and we seemed to time it well for all the feeding. At 6pm we moved on to the night safari, and we walked around in the dark and got to see many animals in their natural nocturnal state. It was much more interesting than in the day when the animals are all resting out of the sun. I wonder if any zoos do this in Europe as it would really take off. It was a brilliant experience and even though Andrew has done safaris in Africa he still thought this was a great way to see animals.

We spent one afternoon at Changi Museum. Entrance was free and this is a really moving WWII prisoners of war memorial museum. Recommend if you have a free afternoon, just take the local bus number 3 outside Bugis Junction.

Andrew eventually succumbed to electronic heaven and bought a CD player. We've been back in Thailand now for a couple of weeks and we've been stocking up on pirated CDs at 100 baht a go ($3.30/1.50 pounds sterling) - a bargain!!! We thought we were buying a copied CD in Singapore of Phil Collins but we should have known better as those Singaporeans are sticklers for copyright law. So we got ourselves a fake Phil in terms of some nitwit doing karaoke of Phil. They can't even speak English properly!

Food
No Durians. We see these signs everywhere. This huge fruit absolutely stinks and they are banned from public transport and hotels not only in Singapore but also in Malaysia and some parts of Thailand. We flouted the law in Singapore as we ate and drank water on the bus!!!! Naughty, naughty.

People
Went out of their way to help us, from passers by asking if they could help to bus drivers asking where we want to get off. It could not have been easier or more comfortable. Only gripe was that the buses take smart cards and tourists without one need to have correct change or you don't get change - grrrrr! Too modern for their own good!!!