We'd been looking forward to Singapore since we left home but after hearing some mixed opinions we arrived with an open mind. Our friend Caroline who we met on Tioman Island was kind enough to invite us to stay in her lovely apartment close to the centre of the action. Simon whipped up a yummy meal in the kitchen and made me realise how much i miss home cooked food! Singapore was a clean, modern and efficient haven after 6 months in Asia, we can see how some people think its boring or 'sterilised' but it was nice to escape the smells, cockroaches and grimey streets for a few days, and there are alot of green spaces for such a developed city. After spending a day getting cultured up at the National Museum, bobbing up and down outdoor esculators(!) and straining our necks at the outrageous skyscrapers we took a bus to Singapore Zoo.

Now the idea of zoos doesn't usually appeal but Singapore's has a no cage policy; some animals roam around as they please and some are seperated by an embankment or moat. After playing with some cheeky lemurs, ducking under swooping flying foxes and gawping at giraffes and white tigers we stayed for the Night Safari where we were driven through a huge park to watch the creatures go about their nocturnal business. On one of the walking trails we were amazed by the flying squirrels - more like the size of a cat, gliding 20m or more over our heads! Of course we couldn't leave Singapore without going to the Raffles hotel for an original Singapore Sling (and to throw some monkey nutshells on the floor!) and Simon had to try some world-famous Chilli Crab - he was not dissapointed .

We booked a flight to Borneo on a quest to see some real wildlife (SE Asia mainland seem to have hunted and eaten their supply of animals) so we soon found ourselves in Kuching, the capital of the state of Sarawak. Its a pleasant riverside town and was a good place to stock up on headtorches and planning our Bornean adventures. Bako national park was a short bus ride to the coast, where we could wander forest trails independently, some ending at beaches or mangroves. We were lucky enough to see three groups of rare proboscis monkeys! (only found on Borneo) really fun to watch as they check you out with their big flappy noses and loud grunts (we thought there were wild boar in the bushes at first). Some cheeky macaques and docile langurs were also hopping about the trees.

Another 15 hour bus journey took us up to Miri close to the Brunei border and with seconds to spare we hopped straight on our flight to Mulu national park - the feature of one of David Attenborough's Planet Earth episodes, and thats exactly what it felt like! Only giving ourselves 2 days to spend here (big mistake) we crammed in visits to five caves, a canopy walk and a night trail. Deer cave was incredible, and with 3 million bats living inside, stinky! Its hard to describe how big it is and to capture it in a photo. Inbetween walks we took a refreshing dip outside 'clearwater cave' in its freshwater river. The others had some amazing rock formations and one has such a long and complex system nobody has reached the end yet! Seeing who could spot the most monsterous critter on the night trail was good fun too.The noise from the jungle at night is just crazy, and apparently the majority comes from little frogs.

Begrudgingly we left Mulu and returned to Miri for the day before powering on through to the Sultanate of Brunei Darusallam. We only spent a night here as its cripplingly expensive compared to Malaysia, but we packed in a visit to the beautiful Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque, a 'water taxi' through the largest water village in the world (population 20,000) - quite amazing considering everything like schools, shops and petrol stations is on the water - and the Royal palace (although you cant go in). The locals we met were really friendly and helpful, we think they're keen for more tourists to visit. Although Brunei has plenty of pristeen rainforest to explore, our budget somewhat forced us to move swiftly onward to the more wallet-friendly state of Sabah...