$$$$$$ expensive city - bank card in rehab!

We had a very early start off to the bus station ... again for a 5.5hr journey to Singapore, as per usual I was off to the land of nod very quickly and slept to the border where we went through the wonderful immigration process for the millionth time! Malay immigration was fine no bags involved there then we had the singapore side and had to wait forever as someone (not from our group) had left their bag on the bus and we had to wait for them to be found, they were then kicked off the bus and we continued on our way across to Singapore.

After a quick taxi ride we arrived at my accommodation for the next 4 nights a nice hotel if you ignore the mold on my bathroom ceiling and the lack of windows! it is in a really good location though. A quick orientation walk, some lunch and we headed back to the hotel to freshen up for our last night farewell dinner and drinks. We headed in to China Town at about 4.30 for Happy hour drinks and some food, where we were rejoined by Georgie and Laurie who had sorted out the Passport issue, before having more drinks in the hotel lobby we went to the local cornershop for some booze which was really expensive (the theme in this city is expensive!!) Our final stop as a group was a roof top bar where we all had a really good evening (despite the price list!) and headed home in the early hours of the morning (not drunk its too expensive for that!).

When we got back the room was freezing the air con was broken and stuck on 16degreesC not funny so there was me in bed with a jumper and socks on!

Day2 in Singapore and Its Cathy's last day with us so after a lie in we head off in search of a non existent laundry service for me, food and entertainment in the form of the Orchard Road. Now for those who haven't seen the Orchard road, it is a seething mass of designer labels and shopping malls stretching for what seems like an eternity, reputably 10x bigger than Oxford Street it is insane and not for the light hearted! You will be tired about a 3rd of the way along if you try to do every store, so we didn't we only did a couple and then headed back on the MRT to City hall to meet some of the others, by which time it was almost time for Cathy to go so we walked down to Parliament Square and the nearest Taxi rank and waved the first of the group off.

After that bit of sadness we walked down to the river and along the embankment to the Raffles building, then I headed off back to the hotel to grab my Camera and then over to the hostel where most of the others were staying as we were heading off to the Night Safari next to Singapore zoo.

After waiting an age for the bus to arrive we headed off for our next great adventure, Alas as we waited for the safari tram the rain started and as we went round it got heavier and heavier and then just a bit more torrential for luck, we couldn't see much and no photos except some out of focus flamingos!  We arrived back intending to go to the creatures of the night show only to find they had canceled it :( so more than a little disappointed we decided to cut our losses and head back to the hotel, wet and disgruntled at the lack of animals, never mind one thing you can not control is the weather and all things considered we saw a fair amount of animals in the gloaming, including tigers, elephants and some tapiers which came right up to the tram and scared the conductor!

Next day Heidi had departed and our numbers were decreasing more and more. Some of us decided to make another classic decision on the sightseeing in Singapore heading over to Sentosa Island aft a quick trip up mount faber on the cable car. Soon after arriving at the Island the storm clouds started to blacked the Horizon, the temperature dropped and the wind started to rise, there was an eerie view across the bay to the city it was so dark and brooding it looked amazing so even though it then proceeded to rain the entire time we were there I did get some good dramatic pictures of the impending storm.

We wondered around in the torrential rain eventually taking refuge in a cafe where we had to shout over the noise of the rain, the crazy guys decided to go swimming in the turbulent sea in the pouring rain, madness! After deciding that the beach in the rain held no real attraction and realising that this must be a beautiful location in the sun we headed back a little disapointed... again.

After changing and dressing up for Raffles we took the MRT all in our best clothes, when we arrived we went to the tourist bar only to find people in shorts crocks and flip flops! so we were kind of over dressed as we wondered over the numerous peanut shells all over the floor. We all had a Singapore Gin sling which was kind of expensive at 22 Singapore Dollars +tax and service and peanuts. Was nice but a little sweet for me, never the less its one too tick off the list of things to do and see.

We were very lucky whilst in Singapore as there was some music, entertainment festival going on so after Raffles we walked down to the Singapore Art Museum and watched some Jazz which was really good and then across the road to watch some of the Film Hairspary on a big open air screen, Had some amazing waffles and then foolishly decided to go the the arena next to it to watch what we thought was going to be a rock band. Well after 45 mins of waiting an act came on and I think when we saw him we knew it wasn't rock and we knew it wasn't going to be good, then he opened his mouth and started singing and low and behold we were right! with lyrics like "we just gotta break it down to do the do" I mean how could you not be deeply moved. So after exchanging silent knowing looks we all departed with Phil still singing we just gotta break it down.... and the rest of us trying deperately to push the tune from our minds!

Next day, my final day in Singapore I headed out to find a hairbrush which I had been hunting for for days with no luck. So after a million likely looking shops I came to the conclusion all the people here wear wigs! I did eventually track one down in little India but it took hours. I also ended up buying an impressive bit of kit for my camera, I need to stay away from Camera shops they are bad for my Wallet! Then after failing to find what we needed in China Town we headed to little india where we had a fantastic Biriani from a street stall (so far no ill effects) and still found no jewelry for Alex's partner so having failed miserably we headed back to the hotel to meet the others for farewell drink. We waved Alex off and headed back to Little India to say goodbye to Dawn and Craig. We went in search of food only to find some of the worst in history, not so much duck and noodles as cold bones and noodles in a sauce! lol never mind we had a nice sit in Merlion park waiting for some non existent fireworks (i'm sensing a theme in this city, disapointment!, lol no its a nice city we have just been unfortunate!). We cheered up a bit when we heard quite a good band playing before saying our final goodbyes and the group was disbanded :(

I had good intentions of packing on saturday night but ended up going to sleep so I had to get up early to pack the exposion that was my bag and then head off to the bus station for the next ordeal the border crossing to Malaysia on my own! eek was a little worried but there was no need We were through Singapore and Malaysian immigration in about 10mins so was no problem in the end apart from the usual pain in the neck of lugging all your bags off and back on again, but hey I just keep thinking what good exercise carrying 15kg on your back and 8kg on your front like a tortoise is! and I then slept till we arrived at Melaka.