On the last night in JB we used up our final Ringits on whisky, wine & cheese and set off early next morning (couldn’t wait to get out of JB) for the huge departure terminal to leave Malaysia. It’s a tortuous routine, walking endless shiny new corridors to get to the departure point, get the passport stamped then walk down to the bus area for the short trip across the causeway only to get off the bus again and walk through the immigration and customs for Singapore. Got through immigration without any hassle, then on through the green ‘nothing to declare’ channel. Then the bags were scanned and Neil was taken to one side.

‘You have bottles in the bag Sir?’ said the man in the uniform. Out came the half bottle of wine. ‘OK Sir, you have another one?’ out came the 15 RM ( appox £3) bottle of whisky with seal intact. ‘You come with me Sir, no duty free from Malaysia’. Oh dear we thought and we followed the man to the office where the customs man spent ages filling in a form and looking at Neil’s passport. Finally the duty man asked Neil into his office and politely explained that there was no duty free allowed and gave him a gentle ticking off, no fine, no penalty. Neil did say ‘I didn’t know & I’ve been nabbed!!’ which made the duty guy laugh, and we were finally on our way. Good job it wasn’t the US, one snigger and it would have been the full body search!!!

Arrived at our ‘upmarket’ accommodation, the Novotel on Clarke Quay, and the contrast with JB was acute. Where JB is grime central, Sing is squeaky clean & colourful – the Quays in particular are almost unreal, like Main Street at Disney World. More upmarket bars & restaurants as far as you can see, full of well dressed people spending serious amounts of cash. Could our £30 a day backpacker budget cope?? Well, we have cheated with the accommodation as we have some vouchers to use so we haven’t included the true £100 per night room cost! The loyalty vouchers came from the extensive travel, care of Microgen, (bas**rds), and Cheryl’s contract with AET in Canary Wharf. We have just enough to cover our 3 night stay in Sing.

Spent the rest of the afternoon finally buying the netbook then took a walk around Chinatown including dinner at the food court, roast & bbq pork with noodles followed by spring rolls all for about £3. Beer from the 7eleven & the rest of the wine back at the room – and the budget survived (ok cheated again as have not included the cost of the netbook).

Great breakfast at the Novotel – we did expect better than the usual sweet white bread toast & Nescafe, and we were not disappointed. Spent the morning sightseeing along Boat Quay, Raffles landing spot, the Merlion statue and the Esplanade. Sing has an interesting mix of colonial and high tech with picturesque buildings dwarfed by skyscrapers in the background. It is also a novelty to walk on decent litter free pavements, use proper pedestrian crossings & have no signs of decay or any graffiti anywhere.

Got to Raffles Hotel, which is stunning and got as far as the long bar, but Cheryl decided not to fall for the tourist ritual of the obscenely priced Singapore Sling ($22) but, in keeping with tradition, ate a peanut and threw the shell on the floor instead!

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Mark O, eat your heart out. Drinking cold Tiger Beer and watching flocks of beautiful Sing girls go by is still one of the best past times a man could ask for. And there’s a bonus!!!!! There’s now a Hooters here with all the same tacky trimmings as the ones we were used to in the good old days of MMT Energy and those trips to the US. Take a look at the pics Mark, enjoy!! Yes, I know, more globalisation but it’s Hooters so that’s OK…alright!! (This para was care of Neil….yeah, surprise!).

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Rounded off the day with food in a Hawker Centre in Little India. Cracking Birianyi on a banana leaf. Say no more, just look at the pics.

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Sunday, final day and another walking tour of Sing followed by a visit to another hawker centre out of town not used by many “white folk”. There were two major highlights on the walk.

A guided tour around a large mosque by an American who had converted to Islam. The tour was really interesting in that he explained the similarities between Islam and Christianity. Mohamed was a messenger of Allah just as Jesus was a messenger of the Christian God. Islam recognises God and Jesus. So where is the problem? We all wish we knew. We talked about Muslims and dogs, pork, alcohol and all sorts of stuff. If only the rest of the people of this world believed the same.

Second was a visit to a hawker centre at lunchtime. It was imported from Glasgow in 1894, a magnificent wrought iron structure of Victorian filigree. Absolutely stunning and packed to the gunnels with hungry Singaporeans.

Sunday night was the hawker centre out of town followed by an unintentional visit to a Nepalese Temple including a guided tour by a local follower. Cheryl chose the serenity of the Buddhist temple to light a candle in memory of her mum.

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Tomorrow? Vietnam, one of Neil’s dreams to visit and about to come true.