Singapore

We arrived in Singapore in the evening of Friday 17th April after an eight hour flight from Sydney. We got the tube to the city and then walked for about a quarter of an hour (in fairly sweaty conditions!) to Dave and Storms place, where they had very kindly offered to put us up for the week. After a month of hostels, to walk into an air conditioned flat, with a room of our own and a very very comfortable bed was fantastic! We were rapidly offered beer, and settled into Singapore. On our first night, we went out to a locals food court for some local delights, and set about making a plan for the coming week.

Waking up fairly late the next day, the plan was pretty much aborted when we all decided it was far too hot to go anywhere too far from Dave and Storms fridge and/or pool, so most of the day was spent relaxing and having competitions about who could swim a length underwater and so on... We did, however, struggle out to the botanical gardens in the extreme heat to see some turtles, but it was pretty tough work! That evening, as a bit of a treat, we had all booked into a freeflow night at the Grand Hyatt Hotel - as much as you can eat bbq twinned with as much as you can drink in a three-hour period. The competition was fierce, and a great night was had by all (as well as a lot of beer, margueritas and wine!). We carried on after the free flow to another place briefly, but were rather put off by the $14 price tag on a coke (about seven pounds!). We slowly and sweatily walked home.

Sunday morning was a slightly groggy afair, but after a refreshing dip in the pool, we decided to make our way to Sentosa Island which is quite a tacky tourist spot just off Singapore. Waiting to buy a ticket in the line was another Seaview friend - Nico Paine - third one so far! We had a good day - a lot of sweating, sitting on the (man made) beach and riding the luge. We finished the day off with a great curry in Little India before heading back to the sanctuary of the air conditioning.

On the Monday, Dave unfortunately had to go to work, so Lauren and I decided to do a little bit of sightseeing. First of all, however, we made our way to the Indonesian Embassy to apply for our visa for the next leg of our trip. All of that having gone smoothly, we visited Little India, China Town and had a meal in a hawker in Maxwell House, before again heading back for an evening swim.


Tuesday involved a bit more sightseeing - this time along Clarke, Boat and Robertson Quays. We met Dave for a spot of lunch, before heading back for an afternoon swim! That night, Lauren and Storm went out to watch a film about shopping, and Dave and I played pool and drank root beer in the local pool hall, a very interesting place indeed!


Wednesday was the day Lauren and I had boldly offered to cook for Dave and Storm. Having decided on a Laksa, we went about hitting chinatown and little india again for all the ingredients. It took most of the day and a lot of blank faces looking back at us, but we eventually found all we needed. The wet market in china town was the best bit - loads of stuff waiting for the chop...


We eventually got back to the flat, having collected our Indonesian Visas, and got stuck into cooking the meal over a jug of pimms. Luckily all went well, and it tasted very good indeed, though the soup stuff was quite a bit thicker than expected, and had Dave complaining of chest pains for the following two days!


The remaining few days were again spent seeing the sights, including the so far unsuccessful Fountain of Wealth, and tasting the great food on offer - Lauren particularly enjoyed finding some suprise pork in her tofu rice, as well as quite a bit of fish sauce in her popiah. not funny at all.


We both had a great time in Singapore, much down to the hospitality of Dave and Storm letting us stay in their great place - it made a huge difference to both the budget and our comfort! Cheers guys!

Next stop Indonesia, where I can reveal its very hot indeed - stay tuned for the next update!