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So with and extra bod in transit we headed off to Singapore on the momentus day of October the 17th! We had been told earlier that the journey would only take around 3 and half hours and so thought that isn't too bad and would be in Singapore by the afternoon and have plenty of time to enjoy my birthday. WRONG! Bus journey eneded up taking 7 hours and when we eventually got to Singapore where we couldn't find a hotel. Linz even said she would pay for a swanky night in a hotel as a present, but even all those were booked up, couldn't beleive it. In the end we managed to find a hotel around 9 at night, but to be fair the hotel was pretty nice although we didn't hang around that much as beer was calling! So I had my first birthday drink at about 10, I think that is some kind of record! The girls could obviously see that it wasn't the best birthday so did take us to Hooters, the first in asia. I'm not too sure if there will be any more as Asian girls aren't suited to the job, if you know what I mean. All I can say is that the local wonderbra store must have done a roaring trade, as some of these girls were pushing a couple of peanuts together. The rest of the night was cool as we hit a few bars and got fairly monkied. However in reflection probably the worst day we had out here, just unfortunate that it was my b'day, but hey who am I to moan its not as if i'm having a bad time out here!
So to check out Singapore we took a open top bus ride round the city. This was good as it gave us a good view of the many differnent faces of singapore. The city as a overview is really clean (even chewing gum is illegal), green and a very welcoming place. It is made up of so many cultures its unbelieveable. Some areas within the city are little India, Chinatown, Euproean town and even some of the streets were named after places in Iraq, Basra Street??!?!? Being the cosmoplitan lot we are, we dived into all the cultures. I mean this in the sense we ate, having an indian one night, some chinese another and obviously a good old english brekkie. As I write this I suddenly realise why my gut is sticking out further then when we entered Asia!
One thing we did do (well I did a little and Linz and Claire did a lot) is shop! Singapore has to be the capital of shopping for the world, they are so many shopping centres, shopping markets and generally a f*** load of shops everywhere. One of the best places we found was a market called Bugis. This was full of loads of individual fashion designers doing all their own stuff. There were some top clothes there and thinking about it now I wish I had bought more stuff, but at the time I was panicking about moeny as Singapore is not cheap. We went some places and the beer was dearer than London, ouch!
The following day Claire informed us that she wanted to treat us to a meal at Raffles as a thank you for letting her join our little expedition. So we booked in for high tea at 4:30, however this mean't we had to do more shopping as we had nothing to wear and they don't let any old chav in that place. After dolling oursleves up, (even Claire put on a dress, I know, I couldn't believe it either, although her hair was still a little bit on the dodge side) we headed down. As it was high tea, it was a buffet and I thought game on, all you can eat! The grub was top notch with all manner of sarnies, pasties and pies washed down with cups of tea. Linz has just told me off and informed me that the food should actually be called canapes, vol-a-vons and delicate meat pastry parcels, whatever! The only thing left to do after that meal was to sit back and sip a Singapore sling, the famous cocktail invented by Raffles hotel. For a second I felt we had elevated to the social elite, well until Linz let rip with an ulmitighy burp and at that point we had to get the bill and make a sharp exit. (only joking??!?!?)
Our last activity in Singapore before our deprature to Oz the following day was to visit the night Safari. This is the only place of its kind in the world and its is basically a zoo you visit at night to see loads of nocturnal animals under artifical moonlight. The place was cool and a real highlight, as it wasn't like other zoo's as all the animals were awake and running around. One of the best bits is when they have this show where they get a load of animals to do different tricks, nothing cruel though, which pleased Linz. Halfway through the show they asked for a macho volunteer to handle the snake. Obviously being the cool kid I am I didn't put up my hand and let all the Jap and Indian tourists volunteer. However this didn't help my cause at all and out of literally 300 people the bird on the stage pointed at me and said " I want that handsome man" and at that point I had no choice but to get up on stage to face the python! After pulling some amazing macho posses to prove my musculinity (Arnold Swarzanegger would have been proud), it was time to have the python on my shoulders. To be honest it wasn't that bad, really wierd feeling as it's not slimy at all and just kinda smooth and heavy. Although once I put it down it was a bit of a relief as at one point the tail was going for the family jewels!
So the following day was our last in Asia as we flew out to Oz that evening. We left Claire at her swanky hotel, wished her good luck in her quest to bag a rich fella in the hotel bar and headed off to the airport. So that is the end of the first leg of our journey through Asia and man hasn't 2 months gone quick. The next instalment will probably be about what jobs we got and where we are living, now that is a sobering thought!
Untill then signing off Grant.
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