Well, this is strange. Almost forgot what it feels like to write a blog for you all!

As I write this we are now in South East Asia, a first for us both and an extremely different experience in comparison with everywhere either of us have been up to now.

So, back to the beginning…

On the 20/10 (Tuesday) we said our goodbyes to Palmer, Louise and a few of the other residents of Castaways backpackers in Cairns, exchanging warm embraces and heading off to catch our midday flight to Sydney and then in turn a connecting flight to Singapore at around 6pm.

Before we go any further id just like to highlight my personal confusion as to why exactly we had to fly back to Sydney to get to Singapore when Cairns is in fact closer. If anyone from Qantas happens to stumble across our blog please feel free to drop me an email. Ta in advance.

Anyway, as it turned out the connecting flight at Sydney passed by with minimal effort, much to our delight. We didn’t have to collect and re-check in our bags and we already had our boarding passes so we just had to stroll through the airport to the next gate.
The 8 ½ hour flight flew by amid a haze of movies (god I love long haul flights and the movie library that accompanies it. Oh, and the food, obviously). For the record four were watched in total, in between which we were fed at least three times, possibly four we cant quite remember but needless to say Aimee was pleased.

Did I mention I love long haul?

We arrived in Singapore sometime in the early morning, around 1am and the first thing we noticed was that, even at this time of night, the humidity was pretty unbearable.

Being seasoned travellers we had, after much research, booked ourselves into Betel Backpackers the day before, the review of which had stated that it was ‘slightly out of town, offering a much more genuine Singapore experience’, or something to that effect. We thought that sounded good, however, we were yet to realise just how far out of town it was.

The hostel itself was ok, surrounded by karaoke bars with hordes of local girls outside decked out in what appeared to be hooker outfits from the local fancy dress shop. Either that or the area was more ‘cultural’ than the review was letting on! We were in a 16 person dorm and it was nothing special, just bunks in a bare concrete floored dorm filled with standard issue army style lockers to store your valuables. It was quiet and the air conditioning worked though so we were happy. A good nights sleep was had by all.

The following morning we arose at around 9am fresh and plucky, ready to explore a new country. The hostel price included breakfast so keen to get our moneys worth we made a pitstop at the reception/kitchen area to peek round the door at the fare on offer. It looked like stale bread and cheap chocolate spread so we gave that a miss and instead headed off out into the bright lights and draining humidity of Singapore city.

Due to the rather unappealing nature of the breakfast our first priority (unsurprisingly) was food and as luck would have it, there were a number of food courts just up the road. After scanning the menus of a number of places, staring intently whilst rubbing our chins and pretending that we had even the slightest clue what it was we were looking at (the menus were all in, well, whatever the language is in Singapore) we finally settled on one place in particular which happened to have a particularly sweet looking old lady manning the hobs.

We both ordered similar dishes which were basically noodle soups with your choice of meat or seafood. Oh, and a side dish of Wantons due to the fact that Aimee spotted them and they looked ‘well nice’.

The portions were pretty big (neither of us finished), and cost us roughly about a pound each. Add this to the fact that it was also pretty damn good then its safe to say that this whole Asia lark was looking better by the minute.

So, fueled up and guidebook in hand we headed off towards the waterfront, which seemed like the best bet as we attempted to find our way to the city centre. As I mentioned previously, our hostel was apparently ‘slightly out of town’. More accurately the area we were staying in was nowhere to be seen on the lonely planet map of Singapore centre, or any of the featured surrounding suburbs.
Unfazed though, after 15 minutes or so we made it to the waterfront and were convinced that the city was just up ahead, so we walked. And then walked some more. And then after that, well, what the hell, we walked a bit more.

This went on for around 3 hours, in which time we appeared to be strolling along motorways, found ourselves at the Singapore national stadium and eventually sought refuge in one of the many Mcdonalds that the city offers. Well, it was just there, we could hardly just walk past could we??

By this stage Aimee was ‘fed up’ and I had somehow conspired to kick a concrete slab quite shockingly situated in our path towards the sanctuary of the golden arches. It bloody well hurt as well. Anyone care to have a guess what Aimee’s reaction to my pain was?

Well ill tell you, it went something like this:

“Oh for gods sake!!”

Yep, as caring as ever. Not to worry, my toes just purple and throbbing but ill manage…

Ok, so the slab was painted in luminous yellow. Its still a health and safety issue as far as im concerned.

Anyway, after a brief and nutritious R&R stop we headed off back out and decided enough was enough and flagged down a taxi. The driver was really friendly although he did have a little chuckle to himself when we told him how long we had been walking. Somehow he knew exactly where we had walked from as well, almost as if people get caught out this way all the time. To rub salt into the wounds we also ended up heading back the way we had just spent so much time walking from.

It took us about ten minutes by taxi to get to the centre, with the driver kindly dropping us off next to the monumental city hall and a slight walk from the famous Raffles statue, which is one of the various monuments to be seen around the city recognising the contribution of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles in converting the once swampy island here into the bustling city and seaport we see today. If you headed back away from the city towards the coast you could also see the towering image of the Singapore Flyer appearing above the city skyline. The Flyer is a huge ferris wheel offering panoramic views of the city, almost an exact copy of the London eye except slightly taller apparently.

One thing you notice about Singapore, besides the humidity, is just how clean the place is. Im sure we saw more street cleaners than anything else whilst walking around. One of the main reasons for this (along with the army of street sweepers) is the somewhat stiflingly strict laws that the country employs, a prime example being the passing of a law banning the consumption of chewing gum, presumably to eradicate the possibility of any being dropped and tarnishing the sterile cleanliness of the city.

The other thing that struck us pretty quickly is the number of statues scattered around the place. Some very strange ones but in an odd kind of way it just added to the overall atmosphere of the city.

After taking a few snaps of the Raffles statue we strolled around to the Singapore river, across the bridge to the CBD (central business district) before continuing along the edge of the river, past the array of bars and restaurants and the swarm of pushy PR staff outside of each place. The area along the river is really nice, including the recently refurbished Clarke Quay, which is a centre of modern, trendy (AKA expensive) bars and restaurants including the very first Hooters in Asia!

We considered popping in for a look, well I did at least, purely for the cultural experience obviously.

One of the other places in this complex was an Irish bar called Mulligans, which it just so happens was advertising a VIP guest for the following Sunday, especially for the English football calenders biggest game of the season: Liverpool v Man Utd. The guest, none other than Liverpool multi-European cup winning centre back and legend Phil Thompson. We were leaving the next day. I was gutted. Pint with Thommo over the game would have been absolute class.

We’re planning on having a proper look around Singapore when we get back here at the end of our Asia trip, so decided to give the Raffles hotel and the various museums a miss this time around. The other thing that we both fancied checking out though was the Battle Box, which is an underground base constructed by the British and used during WWII. The ‘Box’s’ main claim to fame is being the setting of the British surrendering of Singapore to the Japanese in 1942.

By the way, just to point out that by the time we reached the Box I was fully hobbling, struggling with the agony of my injury incurred in McDonalds car park. Obviously attempting to mock me, the guide stormed off up the hill towards the entrance of the base, whilst I heroically struggled to keep pace, much to Aimee’s amusement.

Once inside, the guide (who incidentally was Indian and fought within a British battallion in WWII) slowed allowing me to shuffle up alongside the rest of the group, which included an annoying Aussie woman who was not exactly slow in telling everyone that her father had in fact been a part of the British force in Singapore along with trying to correct half of the facts that the guide tried to give us. Shut your face love, we didn’t come to listen to you rattle on…

The Box itself is in pretty good condition and is basically set up as it would have looked during the war, including life-size models, Madamme Tussauds style, of the actual officers themselves. The models were actually quite realistic, to the point where you almost expected one of them to be an actor jumping out at you when you least expect it. After our horrific experience a few years ago in the horror exhibition at Madamme Tussauds in London (we wont go into that though, its still too painful) Aimee was on guard and reluctant to turn her back on any of them, just in case.

The tour was worth doing though and gave a detailed insight into the reasoning behind the famous first recorded surrender of the British empire, much of which was not well known.

After leaving the Box and Fort Canning Park we headed off, slowly in my case, back towards our hostel, with the rest of the day spent sorting out our accomodation for Kuala Lumpur for the following night as well as transport to the airport at silly o’clock in the morning (about 3) ahead of our 6am flight…