1. Error 1: forgot sunglasses.
2. Error 2: forgetting how allergic I am to biting b****** insects.

Woke up with a sore throat, insect bites that look like targets, hips that hurt like hell and really tense calves. Eeeexcellent!

First stop Chinatown so I head for the MRT: a superior version of all the underground systems in the world in my view. You pay S$2 (about 60p) for a single journey and then get half of it back when you put the credit card style ticket back in the machine at the end of your journey.

So, Chinatown:

Pig organ soup, fried chicken feet, fried big intestine, fish porridge, fish/ chicken floss, deer fried fish bee hoon...

...Didn't exactly turn me on so I went and bought a new camera instead! My old one completely packed up after Raffles (maybe it had been waiting for its moment of glory!) and the guy ofered me S$90 for it so I took it. I forgot to mention that I almost got run over by a texi pulling into Raffles driveway last night.

Once I had my new camera I went in search of things to photograph and found a Buddhist Temple, an Indian Temple and a Mosque all within 30m of each other. I don't know if you'd find that anywhere else in the world and goes to show the sizeable populations of all the Singaporean ethnic groups.

I find it's easy to think of things you see in terms of photos when you're in a new place, and much harder to work out whether it's really worth a photo or whether you should just experience it; most things look far less spectacular in photos. Hopefully I'll perfect my decision making soon!

My last stop in Chinatown was at a shop selling postcards. The lady who worked there obviously didn't get many customers and so quizzed me about various things. She started by asking me how old I was, "16? 18 at most. You are very brave coming here all by yourself."! And then she noticed that I was wearing a Singapore tshirt, so I put her right and told her it was Hull. "Is it a beautiful port like Singapore?" (In a strong Indian accent.) I told her it was much more beautiful!

At the Post Office where I got my stamps there was a boy of about 15 learning English on his MP3 player (at least this is what I assume) and reciting things like "two wicks ago" and "far mans ago" out loud, much to my amusement. He reminded me of some of the customers we got at zavvi, and one in particular who thought Buy One Get One Fre meant tht at he could have one Disney film for half the price, and whose mother, when she came in with him, would tell me over and over again that her son "goes to a special boarding school in Cheshire".

Next stop: Clarkequay (pronounced kwei, obviously!).

I beat it down to Robertson Quay (kwei) but it wasn't named after me, unfortunately. And neither was Robertson Walk, the Mediterranean centre. I managed to dodge the daily tropical storm then headed down the quays to Raffles' Landing Place, who, "with his genius and perception, transformed Singapore from a small fishing village to a great centre of international commerce". The general concensus, I feel, is that Raffles was a great man and modern Singaporeans are lucky that he landed here and chucked out those bloody Dutch.

I grabbed some lunch/ tea by the river and got annoyed with hearing all the Australian accents. Uh oh, doesn't bode well, does it! On the MRT home I was literally counting my remaining pennies to see whether or not I had enough, but really I don't think that Singapore is expensive. I took out S$100 when I got here and spent S$60 of it on my camera (I paid S$, Sterling and Aus$!), so really I got by on S$40 (about 13 quid). Food and transport are dirt cheap.

Having said this, don't buy no frills water; it tastes like s***. Another thing: Pepsi tastes way better than Coke when it's warm, so in hot places choose Pepsi (and it has the added bonus of having a less dubious [or just less-publicised?] human rights/ environmental record).

In conclusion, Singapore has given me an appetite for Asia that, apart from India, I never thought I'd have.

Oh, and British backpackers are annoying as hell: (squealing whilst on Facebook) "That guy Tim who you thought was fit is going to meet us in Sydney, yaaaaay". I hope I don't bump into them.

See you in Sydney.