Singapore Oct 29th - Nov 1st

We flew into Singapore in the early hours of the morning. A fellow Naas head who happened to be living in Singapore had invited us to stay. The fact it was organised only days before and completely unexpected meant it was all the sweeter to arrive and have a bed in a comfy apartment for a few nights. Brian's place is in Keppel Harbour and absolutely fab, the first thing the three of us did was put on the kettle and have a cuppa - jaysus the sight of a kettle was enough to nearly bring a tear to my eye, ha!

The following morning after an excessive sleep J and I managed to extract ourselves from the comforts of home living and head out and explore the city. As we could practically jump onto the cable car going over to Sentosa from our bedroom window on the 16th floor it seemed a natural place to start. It's an exhilarating ride across the harbour, looking down on all the huge ships below is enough to make the heart flutter. Sentosa island is a touristy spot. We spent most of the afternoon there, we took a luge down towards the beaches, that was good craic for all of 20 seconds. Silosa Beach is the most noteworthy, very cool bars with four posterbeds on the beach and small pools. We managed to resist, with only three days in the city we didn't want to spend one on a beach.

We visited the aquarium which is excellent and we were like two school kids pointing out and naming all the fish we'd learned about and seen whilst diving on days before. Some of the tanks had sharks and there was actually a diver in one such tank feeding them - nutcase. A travellator carried us below an underwater tunnel with all the sharks and fish swimming above your head,very cool.

We got swept up with a group of school kids coming out of the aquarium and ended up on a bus to a dolpin show nearby. The two of us huddled up amongst all the five year olds to watch the aquatic display with amusement. We took a cable chair back up from the beach, more scary than the flippin' cable car, with our dangling legs brushing off the tree tops! From there it was onto Mount Faber by cable car to catch a view over the city and Keppel Harbour.

Singapore is a squeaky clean, super efficient city. I really liked it, the right mix of Asian and Western influences, it does have an Asian feel but far cleaner than any of the ones we had visited. We took the metro over to the Indian Quarter and strolled from there onto the Arab Quarter. We had dinner in a nice spot near the 'Gateway' which are two buldings in the CBD that look like two razor blades.

There is some very cool architecture in Singapore. It's not a bustly place though like other big cities. There weren't many people wandering about the streets, as you would expect in a big city, it did feel like something was amiss. The nightlife however was the opposite, Clarke's Quay was jampacked - I can't remember the last time I've queued for a taxi after a night out.

On Friday we followed the old Colonial Loop around the city. This took in the Merlion on the waterfront, a national symbol. We strolled past the Esplanade (cricket grounds) towards Raffles Hotel. It's a beautiful old building, but just as pretentious and over-priced as you would imagine, I felt like a frickin' hippy wandering around!

We had lunch along Boat Quay nearby, string of restaurants that hug the quayside and allow you a great view as you eat. More walking ........ brought us to Oxford street, with a detour through Fort Canning Park. Legs about to fall of we caught the metro 'home.'

Brian's luxurious spot has a 50 metre swimming pool which we splashed around in for awhile before heading out on the town - Halloween night! Brian took us to the vibrant Clarke's Quay, a very cool spot with funky, colourful buildings housing bars, restaurants and clubs. We spent the night there, even the outside parts are air-conditioned! The place was hoppin' with people. We had a drink in one bar called 'The Clinic', it had wheelchairs for chairs, and you can buy your drinks on drips which are wheeled over to you. It's a bizaare sight at first glance to see a bunch of people sitting around on hospital beds and wheelchairs drinking some sort of rocket fuel from a drip, obviously most people saw the funny side as it was almost impossible to get a seat. We did a pub crawl to a few other spots, all heaving with people and a great atmosphere.

The following morning feeling a little rough around the edges Brian brought us for the best fry up we've had in awhile. We also got one of the best views in the city from his office on the 57th floor of a skyscraper. I don't know how he gets any work done. The views over Singapore port are fantastic, ships as far as the eye can see.

We spent the afternoon at Singapores Seven's Rugby tournament on the Esplanade, tough day all round as you an imagine. Cute Asian girls were wandering around with no apparent purpose, other than to carry giant inflatable rugby balls and giant inflatable sheep?! I have a picture of two giggly boys with the aforementioned. After all that excitement it was back to Brian's to pack for AUSTRALIA!!!! Woohoo!