Hello fellow Westerners!

Since our last entry we've been upto quite a bit. On Friday we ventured into Chinatown and wandered about all the little streets stalls and visited a Hindu temple - which for some reason is in Chinatown! It was quite lively because Chinese New Year is next week so there was loads of market stalls selling weird stuff that we could look at. We then headed over to the Habour Front and took a trip up to Mount Fabor (which is more of a hill!) in a cable car which gave us some good views of the city but not much else. We decided to do a bit of culture and wandered round City Hall, the Parliament buildings and the Courts but by that time we were getting really tired and hot so we headed back to the hostel for a nap like the oldies we are.

That evening we went back to Chinatown for dinner where the atmosphere was a lot better than in the daytime. Had a really yummy dinner at one of the market street cafes and finished of with one of the coconuts that all the market stalls were selling, however it was pretty gross! Think its because they were Thai coconuts and not as nice as the hairy ones we get at home. Saw some really strange things as we walked around; there was a woman making green pancakes out of some goo dough and then filling then with what looked like hair! So we decided not to be brave and didnt try that one.

Saturday morning we went to Little India but that wasnt as impressive as Chinatown - there were a lot of shops selling the yellowist gold jewellery ever which looked rather tacky but that was about it. After stocking up on supplies for a packed lucnh at the local 7 Eleven we headed over to the Singapore Zoo which was a bit of a trek as it involved a tube and a bus ride and we didnt exactly know where we were going which is always fun. The Zoo was really good, with the main highlight being an elephant ride but we unfortunately couldnt get a picture of all three of us on the elephant because we were too stingy to pay for one! Wandered round for a bit looking at all of the animals (see photos) and then had a bit of a rest while we waited for the Night Safari to open. We opted for the tram ride round the Safari as the animals weren't in cages so we thought that was probably the best rather than walking round ourselves as we didnt really want to end up in the lions den! The tram ride was entertaining, and the tour guide was really enthusiastic, we think she may have been some kind of eco warrior as she kept going on about saving the planet. Another highlight was the tribal dancers and fire eaters and we narrowly avoided being dragged up on stage to perform some kind of fire eating task!

On our final day we decided to go to Sentosa Island which is just off the coast of the main Singapore Island. Its meant to be a resort for the Sinagporians so its full of attractions like Underwater World etc, but also has really good (fake) beaches where we spent most of the afternoon trying to work on our tan. We were at the most Southernest point in Asia (see pics) and also saw some pink!! dolphins which were rather cool! Will get some pics on here of them asap (as Jen and Sam forgot their camera leads).

After a very relaxing day there we headed back to the hostel to freshen up and then went out locally for our last meal of noodles - quite relieved about that!. Dinner was fine but we were slighty put off by the fact that everywhere we went we got stared at, and the locals made no point of hiding it to the point that some guy actually came up to the table to have a good look at us Westerners!! After declining an offer to go disco dancing with the locals we went back to the hostel. We're quite relieved to be leaving the hostel as it was run slightly like a Nazi camp ie, getting told off for eating at the computer, on the sofa, in our rooms, anywhere apart from the kitchen, eating biscuits which were meant for breakfast, and the list goes on. Also quite glad that we are going somewhere that serves food other than noodles! But apart from that Singapore has been really interesting and would definately recommend the Zoo and Sentosa Island.

Will write again when we get to Oz - cant wait for the beaches!

Lots of love,

Sam, Becki and Jen x x x