Singapore City

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After a comfortable flight we arrived in the city as the sun was coming down. Since I last visited there seems to have been lots of building work going on. We drove past what looks like the Singapore version of the London eye in the process of construction.

We checked in to our lovely hotel, the Oriental, and we were very impressed by the view of the ocean from the window. We headed into town and took in some of the celebrations for the Chinese new year which were still going on before having a nice meal and a very refreshing Tiger beer at Boat Quay.

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You know something is up when you wake up at six in the morning and feel wide awake. I'm not a morning person so the fact that I jumped out of bed at that time indicated that maybe we hadn't yet recovered from the jet lag. So, for once we were out and about nice and early, checking out the colonial area of town including the Singapore Cricket Club on the Pedang. Cath bought a camera and we headed back to the hotel for a relaxing afternoon. By this time it was absolutely peeing it down and it hasn't stopped since. When it rains here it absolutely chucks it down. Luckily the hotel is connected to the city centre by a two mile long underground shopping mall so we haven't been too affected by the rain.

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The highlight of the trip here has definitely been the night safari. You are taken on a trip through the jungle in the moonlight where you can see tigers, lions, elephants and all sorts of other animals. The enclosures are surrounded by moats rather than cages which makes it more a more intimate experience than other zoos.

Next stop KL on the overnight train.