hey hey hey, how is everyone. im in singapore, still... things went a little wrong. we arrived as a group no porbs on singapores national day- was bizarrely quiet everywhere! had a goodbye dinner and ended up in an ice bar which was pretty chilly and odd karake place too. moved from peacock hotel and relative luxury the next day to a hostel in little india and spent the next couple of days shopping and sigghtseeing and eating, enjoying the relative cleanliness of singapore,even clean public loos!! went to the night safari which was wicked cool, like disneyland i guess but real animals and it doesnt look like a zoo which was fab. the bat walk was a little frightening tho, i was expecting mini fruit bats but they were massive!! and very close to getting in ur hair, if u dont like bats dont go. met a professional footballer on the way who was also a taxi driver, guess hed retired but playing for singapore wasnt great enuff to give him total retirement anyway. i keep meeting chatty taxi drivers in singapore, its great! went to the orchid gardens too, i love orchids. one day when im rich or married to someone who is anyway ill have my own orchid garden! i know, keep dreaming. so my flight to brunei was on the 12th, quite early but no probs cos the metro would have been quick. would have been if id actually woken up on time and not set my alarm for 5.30pm not am. yep. still a dozy cow even after all my independent travels. so i missed my flight. first ever. cue huge panic about what to do. couldnt find a fone or fone card and mobile wasnt working of course. nightmare. finally borrowed some poor guys cell as i wa sin such a tiz he took pity on me, and called singapore airlines. they wer elovely, even tho i was giving them like an hrs notice. moved me to next avail flight. but this wasnt till 16th. oops. so 4 days in singapore sounded dull and expensive so siany got herself on a bus back to malaysia. funny how many stamps ill have from singapore and malaysia to remind me!! headed for pulau tioman, an island in the middle of the china sea which is relatively unspoilt jungle and beaches only accessible by boat. turned out quite lovely, i met debs from southampton on way over and we secured ourselves a basic lil beach hut. literally on th beach. door opened to the sea! was great and v cheap of course. so i wasted a couple of days sunbathing (getting burnt) and snorkelling(nearly drowning) where we saw some amazing sea life. beaches were white sand and beautiful. enuff restaurant type places to keep us fed but so laid back, only one bar which shut at one and another which opened at one. everyone was there for the diving and chilling out it was lovely. the water was crystal clear and coral came right up to the jetty. we even spied a turtle!! tho thank god no sharks as threatened and no jelly fish either-yay. tho i did have one close call....prepare to be scared. so im sitting on my balcony reading and listening to the waves yday afternoon and amy (form london) runs up. anyone any good with bugs, she says. i dont mind, what is it? huge she says. so we borrow a broom from next door and go to investigate, apparently its in her sheet! literally 8 inches long!! the biggest centipede ive ever seen and so fast i struggled to shoo it out the door and then it was climbing towards me on the broom i was holding at arms length while i ran away from the house to give it a new home. it was quite beautiful, with a red head and stripey yellow/black body. we took a picture. i vaguely considered picking it up. .....but later we find out form a bar man the thing is well dangerous, all the men on the island show shock to see it and how big it was- worrying enuff in itself. aparently its like a scorpian centipede and will put u in a coma!! close call!! phew. anyways, away from super bugs and back in reality. in singapore again, heading to brunei tomorrow i hope!!