Almost A World Tour!

Had we save the best until last? - it's a close call but Singapore absolutely rocks! I had pretty high expectations but they have been completely exceeded. I don't think I have ever been to a city which is so clean, organised, efficient and so damn cool! I could seriously live here!

We met a guy at the bus station when we arrived called Ali who lets out rooms in his family home to travelers. Accommodation costs are pretty high in Singapore so we needed somewhere cheap and this fitted the bill perfectly. It was such a good experience to stay with a proper Singaporean family, we all ate breakfast together every morning and if you fancied a quite night in you could always chill out in front of the telly with Grandma in her PJ's. Ali proved indispensable with his advice on what to do especially as we only had 3 days before we flew out to Australia.

Ali's Kitchen

Our first afternoon was spent on a bus tour to get a feel for the place and take in some of the sites (and also save our feet for a change) it was a "hop on - hop off" affair so we could have a wander round the places of interest and then press onto the next.

The following day we did do alot of walking, China Town in the morning which was pretty impressive, obviously alot more modern than the likes of Melaka and we visited our last temple (I'm thinking temples may be abit thin on the ground in Australia). Then we went to go and see the Merlion on the Quayside which is the national icon of Singapore. It a bloody weird thing, a Lion's head with a Mermaids body - like that's ever going to happen...! Anyway, it was a tick in the box and a photo opportunity. Apparently the Lion represents strength and courage and the Mermaid represents the river running through Singapore so there is a method behind the madness.

The Merlion

No trip to Singapore would be complete without a trip to Raffles Hotel so we raided our backpacks for some posh threads. This resulted in me wearing a collared shirt and long trousers for the first time in 3 months and we headed off to be posh over afternoon tea. The hotel was pretty damn nice but lacked the homely feel of Ali's place so I was happy I we hadn't made a mistake with our digs. Rather bizarrely and also quite worryingly Mark "thought" his Dad was on the next table in Raffles having a few beers with some mates (now come on - how hard can it be to identify one's own father..?) well if your Mark it takes you a grueling whole hour. It turns out, against all odds that it is infact a random bloke we had " a very similar facial features and mannerisms" This I found slightly disappointing as I was on the verge of pulling up a chair and placing a drinks order with Mr Russell.

Raffles Hotel

The evening was spent having a few drinks on the Quayside (at a whopping 4 quid a pop) whilst watching the footy (2008 European Qualifiers.. apparently). We moved onto another bar where the young lady who owned the establishment took a rather significant shine to us and kept on plying us with free beers. We also had free run of the tunes as the DJ literally played whatever you asked him to so I treated the Singapore nightscene to an Inferno's inspired disco mega-mix that proved quite a floor filler.

Our last day in Singapore was spent at the zoo. I hadn't been to a zoo since a junior school trip to Chester Zoo in 1988, I dare say they may have changed slightly. Firstly, it was absolutely enormous and seemed to feature every animal ever created and then a further few hundred I had never heard of. Secondly, non of the animals were in cages they we just sort of chilling out in their own designated zones (well the big cats were behind glass but eveything else was just sort of there). It was really well laid out and the environments they had created were really realistic. They feature quite a few endangered species such as the White Bengal Tiger so it is as much a conservation project as a tourist attraction.

White Bengal Tiger

Check out these cheeky Monkey's

And that concludes our travels through South East Asia - 6 countries, 3 months, 1 hell of an experience. We were discussing our Top 5's over a few beers the other night so I thought I may as well include them as closure;

Top 5 Countries;

1) Vietnam - for sheer variety & history, every place we visted was completely different.
2) Singapore - please refer to the above...
3) Loas - unspoilt & so laid back.
4) Malaysia - excellent cultural diversity and very big towers.
5) Thailand - because sometimes you want to drink so much local whiskey you nearly go blind.

Top 5 specific places / attractions;

1) Perhentian Islands: Malaysia - got to see it to believe it, I really hope it doesn't get really commercial like the Thai Islands have.
2) The Gibbon Experience: Laos - living in the tree's and zipping through the clouds.
3) The Temples of Angkor Wat: Cambodia - a man made marvel.
4) Singapore - Uber-cool
5) Chiang Mai: Thailand - in my opinion the best thing about Thailand.

Our next stop - Cairns