Country: Singapore.
City: Singapore City.
Currency: 1Euro = 1.9 Singapore Dollars
Arrival Date: Friday March 28th.

Date: Tuesday April 1st 8am.

I left The Philippines last Friday the 28th and had a nice flight to Hong Kong, stopped for an hour or so and strolled to the next departure gate and took another flight from there to Singapore!! When I landed I gave a friend of mine a call, Karen is her name and she offered to meet me at the airport as she was going to dinner with her husband and friends of hers, oh and her dog 'Heaven'!! hehehe So after I picked up my bag I was very conveniently picked up and went out to the beach front for a yummy dinner and a great chat before I was dropped off at my hostel near to midnight!! We even did a little tour along the way and Karen pointed out a few places and landmarks. heheee It's was great to just sit and relax and eat and chat for a while though before going back to the travelling thing and the hostal!! heheee Thanks Karen!

I had a good sleep though and got up Saturday morning for my first day exploring Singapore! So off I went and strolled to 'Little India' that was in walking distance from the Hostal. It was pretty interesting and my first expience with the Muslim religion in Asia really...there were lots of Mosques about and I even saw an Osama T-shirt for sale in one shop...hmmm. After that I needed a few boring things in the supermarket so got them sorted before heading to Clarke Quay and Boat Quay by bus. I strolled about here and saw the Singapore river and the shops and restaurants in the area and even found the Irish pub too! Didn't stop though!! But noted the time they were showing the Ireland Rugby match the next day!! Then I had a plan to go for a swim cos I had seen that there was a pool in the area and it gets really hot and sweaty here! So I walked through the Art Museum and finally found the pool.

It was about 2Euro in for as long as you like and was a lovely 50m outdoor pool. I did about 1000m swim only and then practiced a bit of polo! (very outta shape now!) gonna die when I get back to it in Oz!! Then I relaxed in the sun for a bit before getting the bus back to the hostal where I met up with Hayley (an English girl that was staying in my room too). We both thought the hostal was a bit too expensive (very nice though but too expensive) and wanted somwhere cheaper so we tried around a few other places nearby and eventually found one we kinda liked and said we'd move there on Sunday morning. After organising that we went out for dinner with her friends that she was travelling with and then popped into a pub belonging to a friend of hers that she met the last time she was in Singapore. Dinner was yum! We ate in one of the famous food courts that they have there!! There are about 15 different counters selling different type of food and they are quite cheap too!! After a long day we headed back to the hostal!!

Sunday morning I got up and organised my bag before myself adn Hayley moved to the other hostal and got settled in. Then I headed off to the Zoo for the day! I had met a couple in one of the hostals on Saturday and got chatting. Fiona and Sal from England were also going to the Zoo and the night Safari so I said I'd meet them there. The train and buses are pretty easy to get in Singapore and the directions I got were perfect to get to the Zoo!! So I got there and it was a beautiful day! I was a bit dubious after not liking the zoo in Mexico but had heard that it was really nice there! I was very surprised at how nice it was there!! They dont use cages for most of the animals and instead will use psychological barriers instead!! for instance for some animals that dont like water they'll surround the area with water! They also are looked after really well and have nice places to live in so I think for the most part they dont want to leave their enclosures! hheheee

They also have some monkeys that are free to roam about the zoo and one section that has butterflys, birds, monkeys and all sorts free to jump and fly whereever they please inside there!! It's really cool!! So I bumped into Fiona and Sal at the Reptile section and we walked about together for a few hours and had lunch and that before leaving there at 6pm when it shut and we had seen absolutely everything in the entire zoo!! hehehee We headed over the road to the Night Safari section where we got some dinner before heading in to see all the nocturnal animals at 8pm!! This was pretty cool and we got a tram ride about the park too to see lots of cool animals you dont normally see! There was a fantastic bat setion where you go inside an enclosure and there are free frying bats in there!! They're huge too!! just hanging about by your head!! WOW!! Later after a long day watching lots of cool animals for the entire day we all headed back to the city and had a quick bite to eat before heading to bed at 1am or something!!

Monday was my last day in Singapore!! I met up with Fi and Sal to say bye before they headed off and then I went for breakfast with Hayley and her friends before checking my mail and how to get to Indonesia from here!! It took a while to get all the info sorted and then I headed back to the hostal to meet Hayley and organise my clothes for leaving!! Then we dropped over to her friends hotel and had a nice swim in their rooftop pool! Nice to have friends in high places eh!! hehheeee After the swim we decided to take a shortcut down the stairwell, only two floors down to their room on the 13th floor!! hmm well, it was a shortcut until we realised that all the doors locked from the inside!! so much for emergency exit to the roof!! Doh!! so we had to get dressed in the stairwell and i managed to find a door on the 4th floor to get back into the hotel and up to the 13th floor to save Hayley!! hehehee We were going to go somewhere else for dinner but thought why bother when we can just wak around the corner to the food court and have a yummy cheap meal there!

So that's what we did!! Then we took a stroll and visited Raffles Hotel for a Singapore Sling!! The most exclusive hotel in Singapore ...well it's got to be done eh!! hehehee us heap travellers drinking in this place was funny!! and expensive!! but worth it for one drink! Then we headed to the cheaper pub where Hayley's friend Alvin worked to have one more drink and say bye as it was my last night!! So that was my short but sweet stay in Singapore! It's a small city but very nice! A bit expensive for a backpacker though...but very nice for a few days. I have had enough of cities and want to head back into the true backpacker places again!! hehehe so now I'm off to Indonesia!! hehee

Here will be the photos!!

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