Singapore

Yipee - normality!!! We arrived in the haven of Singapore yesterday. We are staying with Emma's friend Carrie's parents who live here. It's a damn good job too as it's pricey here! Not as much at the UK but pricey compared with Malaysia.

I only managed to spend 600 quid in Malaysia AND I bought a new digiatl camera. In Thailand i spent 800 - the lonely planet lies. Thailand was not cheap for us!! The 3 quid per night dorm rooms do not exist.

Also, for anyone entering Singapore from Malaysia by coach, as we were, beware that the queue for immigration is huge for none Malay passports. The bus will stop at the border where you have to get off with your backpack and fill out some forms blah blah blah. Then you get back onto the bus to be taken to the bus terminal ....... Wrong! Because your bus driver is Malaysian he waits only for the Malaysians to get back on the bus!!! So we were stranded at the border!! We could take 2 regular city buses to get to our desintation, but what a nightmare when you first arrive in a new country!! We ended up hailing a cab but that cost us more than the bus ticket itself from Malaysia!! Not a great start.

We eventually met up with Carries parents, Rachel and Joe - they are lovely, lively and very generous people. To let 2 strangers stay in your home for a week is a wonderful thing to do - especially for backpackers like us.

Anyway, moan over! Today we went to Sentosa Island which is at the very bottom of Singapore and is connected by a causeway. You pay an entrance fee to get in but that gives you unlimited acess to the buses around the island. Unfortunately the cable car was out for maintenance from today til the end of April, otherwise we could have taken the cable car across the sea instead of walk over the causeway :-(

We went to an Aquarium and a Dolphin Lagoon where they have pink, yes pink dolphins!! We went on a bizarre cinema ride thing where you watch a screen and the car moves around trying it's hardest to make you throw up or break your back. Finally we took a trip to the Merlion a giant lion / mermaid creature constructed from concrete which is supposed to guard the waters round Singapore - the view was ok but there was a mammoth storm overhead so we couldn't stay up there long because of the lightening!!\

We have not been so lucky with weather recently, ever since Cameron Highlands we seem to have brought the rain everywhere with us. It's too humid to put the rain mac's on so we just get wet - it's not fun, rain combined with sweat is just gross.

Tomorrow we are going to the Singapore Zoo which is supposed to be mega, so that should be fun.

That's all my news for now - hope you are all well.

xx