Greetings from Singapore!

It is hot hot hot here! Temperatures have been above 30 degrees everyday, humidity is around 90% and there have been several downpours of rain... the weather is really quite amazing and something that I don't know I could ever get used to!

We've only been here for 3 days but I already feel like we've done so much. Friday arvo was spent wandering around Orchard Rd looking on in amazement at the massive shopping centres... each one is a couple of 'regular' sized shopping centres from home, but they are situated right next to each other. I now understand why they say shopping is a national sport here - the shops are open from 10am - 10pm and even when we were out last night, the shops were chockers on a Sunday night out!

Saturday we spent wandering around Chinatown and surrounds. We saw two temples - the Sri Mariamman Temple, which is Singapore's oldest Indian temple. We were lucky enough to be there at midday for one of the Hindu services (called a Pooja). The other temple we went to was just 2 blocks down the road but completely different. The Buddha Tooth Relic Temple was a shrine to Buddha and includes a 420kg solid gold Stupa. The inside of the temple was breathtaking - the amount of gold and number of buddha's was amazing.. especially in the room of 10,000 Buddha's (each one which is sponsored by an individual or family for S$3,000!). We ate lunch at one of the local hawker centres where we tried Singapore's local dish, Hainan Chicken Rice, a special method of preparing the chicken, served just with rice (with optional chilli sauce!) and a hot chicken broth. Also managed to fit in an egg custard tart (still warm.. yum!) and the popular bbq meats that you buy by the piece from stalls around Chinatown.

Rod arrived on Sat night from London, so we head out to watch the soccer and have a few beers... something that is a very expensive exercise in Singapore where alcohol is extremely expensive. Most bars charge at least $10/15 for 1 beer and the markup on wine is obsene.

Yesterday (Sunday) was great.... we did the 'traditional' Singapore custom of attending Champagne Brunch - all the hotels run these brunches which are all you can eat buffets filled with everything you could imagine (including the most amazing array of seafood!) and all you can drink French Champagne. Safe to say that the three of us gave it a nudge and i think we got our monies worth! It was a tough call deciding which of the three types of lobster on offer, 2 types of crab and mussels were the better variety. Don't worry - we tried all of them! And of course, the dessert section was a highlight... including the chocolate fountain!

After stuffing ourselves for a couple of hours, the only thing left to do was to head to the pool for a swim (and yes Mum, i waited half and hour before hopping in the water!) and a snooze. It was a pretty quiet night after the days activities!