Singapore

Hello.

We're now in Singapore, so I'll give a quick update on our trip as this is the last full day of our Bangkok to Singapore experience.

We spent our last day in Kuala Lumpur wandering the shops and markets of KL. This was our first real chance to do some souvenir shopping so we headed for Times Square first, which is a big shopping centre. And to illustrate it's size, it has a rollercoaster inside it.

The goods there were expensive (in malaysian terms) so we headed for Chinatown for the other end of the scale. There's a market called Petaling St. which is a street full of market traders selling watches, jewellery, bags, clothes etc. Time for some bartering.

A Rolex and Gucci watch for about 2 quid each, a Gucci handbag for Charl we got for 8 quid, and there were some other bits and bobs we got for ludicrous prices. We wore our new watches out that evening and when we got back, both were showing different times by about 30 minutes. We suspect this is a design feature of the Rolex; it's so well made and important that it actually runs on it's own time.

KL was a strange city. It was a bit disappointing to see McDonalds and Burger Kings everywhere, and it is heavily commercialised. However, the Petronas Towers are very impressive and worth seeing in the flesh, especially at night. Again, this computer doesn't allow us to upload photos but we will as soon as we can.

We didn't go up the Petronas Towers but we did go up the KL Tower which was also impressive. The view of the city from nearly 400 metres up is a good one. We stayed there to watch the sun go down, and then got a bit of western style food (for a change) at TGI Fridays.

Our next stop was Melaka in Southern Malaysia. It's a historic port and Malaysia's oldest city apparently, so the pace was a bit slower but it was charming and had a lot of character.

We arrived on Valentines day and the hotel we were staying at had two parties. In the downstairs restaurant they had a couples night, and on the roof terrace was a singles night. We went to the couples thing and it was a bit of a rip off. The food was excellent, but there were families and kids in there, and the live singer was just singing whatever he wanted so it was hardly romantic. We abandoned it later on and joined the singles party upstairs, which had become a big jacuzzi hot tub party. We stayed dry and relatively sober but it was fun.

The following day we drifted round the craft shops, chatting to the locals, hearing all the superstition and religion behind the various items. Kev bought a small thing to hang on the wall, which brings prosperity. We're still waiting for the money to come rolling in...

We popped into a Buddhist temple too, as we haven't seen much of that side of things on our travels. It was nice in there, relaxing and friendly. We didn't fancy the restaurant again so ended up in a weird Indian restaurant, where nobody spoke English. We ordered but had no idea what to expect, but it was quite tasty and the Immodium remains in the packet, so that was considered a success.

Yesterday we crossed into Singapore, arriving late afternoon. That gave us enough time to grab a Chinese at the local food court (about 4 quid for two meals and drinks) and then jump in a minibus for the Night Safari. That was excellent. There are no visible fences, it's very cleverly laid out and you end up just a few feet from tigers, rhinos, leapords, hyenes, giraffes etc.

They also had a fruit bat room, which you walked into and try to avoid them landing on your head. They're big buggers, and the same thing is available to watch the flying squirrels, which are even bigger. Seeing one flying over your head is spectacular. Flash photography isn't allowed but we should have some good video thanks to the Nighshot mode.

After walking round for a couple of hours, we saw a cheesy but entertaining live show and then hopped on a tram which took us round the whole zoo.

And that brings us to today, which has been the most exciting day so far. We got up, had some breakfast, put some washing on, went on the internet, put the washing in the drier, and then went back on the Internet!!!!

Tonight's our 'last supper' with the group, so it should be a good one.

We're off to the harbour now to see what's down there.