Singapore; the city of shopping malls, clean freaks and wacky architecture. My flight from Melbourne to Singapore was around 8 hours, and wasn't too terrible. The food wasn't too bad, at the start of the flight they give you a menu of the food options apparently created by 10 of the world's greatest chefs, but the only one I recognised was Matt Moran, I think that's his name anyway...bald guy...

So I get through customs, and the first thing I notice is how immaculate the place is. There's a chick nonstop mopping the already ridiculously clean floor, like buffed so you can see your face in it. I got to my hotel transfer and got driven in to the city with a Swedish group. The first building I recognise is the marina sands hotel, I'll put pics up later, but Google it...absolutely ridiculous! It's like they just went, hey let's build three towers and stretch a massive bit that looks like a boat over the top, just coz we can!

When I get to my hotel, I find out its too late you go on the night safari at the Singapore zoo, so I end up walking down to the Bugis Junction for dinner instead. I took mum and dad's advice and went to the food court in the Bugis mall. It's pretty crazy when you walk in, there are all these tiny stalls with all kinds of different food, and you buy drinks and desert from separate stalls. The place was so packed with people wandering around the narrow walkways between the tables with their trays. I ended up getting this crazy thing called pepper rice that a lot of the locals seemed to be in to. It was pretty much chicken rice, cheese, an egg and sauce that's served on one of those sizzling hot plates, so basically the chicken and egg is raw and you mix it up and cook it on the plate. Sounds like a random combo, but it was like really good fried rice!

I wandered around the mall for a while, thinking there was supposed to be some kind of market...eventually I found it behind the mall a bit. I actually really liked it; it wasn't massively touristy, like with every second shop selling souvenirs, there were heaps of locals there shopping for mostly clothes, bags, electrical and food. There were some great clothes, but I didn't buy anything for lack of space in my pack L by about 9.30 it had gotten pretty dark, and I wasn't too in to walking around by myself, so just headed back to the hotel for some rest.

The next day, I planned on using the hop on hop off bus to see the main sites of Singapore. First I walked down towards the marina looking for one of the bus stops, but they weren't signed at all, which was a little annoying. I ended up down near the marina sands hotel (the one with the boat on top) and decided to head up to the sky park. The views from he top are great, it's higher than the big ferris wheel, so the views are heaps better. I got one lady to take my photo, and after wed finished another Asian lady ran up to get her photo taken with me, no idea why, I guess coz I white! At the other end of the sky park is the garden area and the infinity pool, where it looks like the waters going over the edge in a waterfall over the side of the building or something. Only the hotel guests are allowed in the pool, but I still got some good photos! The thing I was so surprised about was there were barely any railings. I wouldn't be surprised to hear people had jumped if they haven't already, the place has only been open a week apparently.

I finally found a stop to get on the bus which was a relief, it was so hot and humid it was good to get in some air con! I hopped off in Chinatown first, where there was this old fashioned market and food court, then got on for a ride to the botanic gardens, where there were guys working everywhere, mowing lawns, weeding and sweeping the leaves off footpaths. It was crazy; there were more of them than the tourists! I wandered around for a bit, and then ended up at the orchid section; orchids are Singapore's thing so there was a heap, about 60,000 apparently. The smell in there was great, and they had a cold room with venus fly traps and stuff as well.

So back on the bus to Orchard St, which is the main shopping district and only like 10 minutes from the botanic gardens. I got off at the ION towers, which is one of the biggest malls on the strip, to have lunch. I spent ages wandering around some of the malls afterwards, mostly taking so long coz it's so easy to get lost, the place is like a maze! And the amount of 90's music coming from the stores was also pretty amusing. Again, couldn't buy anything coz of no space in my pack, which sucked. I finally worked my way out to orchard rd again, and came out the high class end of the ion building. I've never seen so much couture in one spot. As I walked down the rd, I passed about 3 of every high end label in about a 1 k stretch of road, it's insane! It was still pretty hot, so I got an ice cream form a little old man with a street van. It was a full on solid blockof ice cream that he pulled out and cut off a slice, then whacked between two bits of wafer, for only 1 Singapore dollar!

After that I moved on to little India, with more markets and shops, but by then it was getting late, and my feet were covered in blisters, so I skipped Arab street and headed back to my hotel. I got off at the raffles stop and decided I had time to duck in for a Singapore sling. Ridiculously overpriced, but it was nice to sit in the courtyard and cool down as the sun was going down. I got back to my hotel to wait for my airport transfer at about 8, very tired after a long day. Singapore customs is ssoooo different from everywhere else, the customs lady was so nice and chatty, and gave out lollies! And you don't go through a metal detector till you enter your gate. Overall Singapore was nice, not my favourite place in the world though, and I was pretty glad to be moving on to London.