Singapore

After a nine hour plane journey (filled with lots of good food, wine and movies) we arrived in Singapore!

We got in around 9pm and although the sun had gone down hours before, it was still sweltering. It felt much hotter than Oz. It was the kind of consuming heat you experience when you return to the car after it’s been left out in the sun all afternoon.
We booked a hotel close to the airport for our first night. It was in the bustling Changi Village area. It was a beautiful hotel (we treated ourselves to one night of luxury after our long flight) with an amazing bar and pool.

Koi Pond in the hotel

The following day, we explored Changi Village, taking in the shops and the beach, before getting a taxi over to our hostel for the next two nights.

Our hostel, called WOW, was described as “probably the best hostel in Singapore”...if that was the best, I wouldn’t want to see the worst! Saying that, it wasn't all bad, just a little rough around the edges. It was clean and comfy and our room had air-conditioning, so that’s all we really needed. It was very close to the MRT station, so it meant commuting into the centre of town was really easy.
We really enjoyed our two days in Singapore. It’s such a lovely place, mostly really clean, very friendly and lots of great bars and shops.

I think our best bits would have to include having a Singapore Sling in the famous Raffles Hotel and visiting Sentosa Island.

The complimentary monkey nuts were pretty good too

Sentosa island is primarily a holiday resort, with a theme park inside. It was great fun, riding the chairlifts down to the beach, going up in Tiger Eye to see the amazing city skyline. We also had some drinks in the beach hut style bars (we experienced a brief thunder storm while we were there, but it passed as quickly as it started, so we got another drink in).

We took the opportunity while we were in Singapore to send a lot of things home, to lighten our backpacks. Again, we were amazed by the level of customer service you receive as well as how cheap it was (it was around £12.50 to send a 6kg box home) – a stark contrast to what we experienced in the post office in LA.

We marked the end of our time in Singapore the way we started it – with a couple of Tiger beers. This time in a small bar, just down from our hostel.

 A lovely place, with really friendly people; we would definitely like to come back for a proper holiday.

Our next stop is Kuala Lumpur, where we will be staying for just one night, before continuing on with our journey up to Bangkok.