Phew! What a relief. I liked Thailand, especially the friendliness of the people, but the street sellers I've had enough of now and it's great to be able to drink tap water and eat without worrying again !

Singapore is very clean and friendly - a bit like a calmer version of Tokyo. Only I gues it's better for us as most signing is in English as opposed to Japanese !

They drive on the left as well, so it's easy crossing roads! Mind you, so does Japan and Thailand.

Interesting aside... We met an Israeli couple who gave us their explanation of why the Europeans drive on the right. Apparently, they used to drive on the left (in horse + carriage, mind you) and sit on the right so they could swing a sword at oncoming troublemakers. The switch to the right hand side was a statement of how safe the roads had become in that they didn't need to drive with a sword in their hand anymore! Sounds as good an explanation as I've heard !

Our first stop. Interesting district. Lots of shopping bargains to be had here and plenty food, although I didn't like the sound of "Mixed Pig Organ Soup". Even if I wasn't a Veggie, that wouldn't appeal somehow!

It's a bit of a walk to Orchard road (main shopping st)though, although the taxis are reasonable. We had to get one in a hurry the other day when it "monsooned" on us. We huddled ineffectively under a tree waiting for it to stop. A kind security guard at a nearby building ran out and gave us an umbrella, but as I ran back with it I fell down a drain whose concrete cover gave way beneath me (too much fried rice). Damn near broke both my legs. Fortunately Lea's new camera, which was in the rucksack which I hurled across the road as I slammed into the tarmac, was spared any damage. More than could have been said for me if I'd smashed it!

But we have to move on as our hotel room has no window and is infested with ants. Lovely. Lea said she could've coped with that, but totally freaked when she was viciously mauled by a half inch long baby cockroach. Not that I like the little buggers though. So we're moving on to a hotel right at the end of Orchard Road called Rendezvous. Looks good, so keep your fingers crossed.

Success! The Rendezvous is very nice and right at the East end of Orchard Rd, the main shopping centre in Singapore. It should be $330 a night but we got it for $130 (Singapore dollars) about 40 quid. Beds were a tad small, but OK for a few nights. We went to the airport one night to try to get a flight out to Melbourne on standby, but no luck. However, we managed to reroute our flight to Sydney instead. Irritating because we had to pay a fee, but it gets us out of the country and on our way. Lea had to go first with the kids, as there waas only 3 seats on the first flight, so I followed on the next day.

- I thought that rearranging a flight to Oz would be easy from here. But because this is such a popular destination, albeit for stopovers, it is virtually impossible to get a standby flight - Melbourne flights were overbooked for a month ahead, so we had to re-route to Sydney.

- As usual, the Citicabs from the airport are expensive (S$35, about 13 quid). They take advantage of your desire to "just get there" when you step off the plane, and although they are extremely polite, friendly, clean etc, if I was going again I'd get a normal town taxi from outside the terminal for about $15. Or, if you can handle your luggage yourself, take the MRT (subway) from the airport for $1.60 each !!

- Eating out here is very easy and very cheap. Despite this being shopping heaven and other retail prices being of "Western" levels, food is not. There are so many cultures here and the weather is so consistent year-round, that you can eat outside a Chinese or Indian restaurant for about a fiver each or less, including drinks.

- Depending on how many of you there are, a taxi up to the zoo can be affordable. Ours cost about S$15 for what is a 45 minute journey. This is dear for one, but great for the 4 of us, and the most convenient. But be very clear when you say "Zoo", as there is a club called "Zouk" which our driver tried to drop us off at !!