Singapore, Singapore

Late start, walked to Chinatown and had a great S$4 set meal of soup, chicken and rice before walking south to Marina Bay and checking out the new Sands hotel and casino development and also passing by the Asia Square development that I had come to Singapore to see for work back in November. We walked back along the river and had a nice dinner in Chinatown before making our way back to the hotel. A busy but good first day of the trip.

We went for a long walk through Clarke Quay to the Funan centre where Sandra got herself a new camera and I tracked down an adapter for my notebook. We had a great lunch of very spicy noodle soup which was great. Most of the shops were closing at 3pm for the eve ofthe Chinese new year and impending 3 day public holiday. After a quick look at orchard rd shopping we parked ourselves for a coffee and wi-fi access to figure out our next moves.

In the evening we made a quick stop off back at the hotel before taking a taxi out to the eastcoast seafood centre for dinner with a work acquaintance and his wife. It was a great meal including beer, wine and chilli crab and we also picked up many travel tips for Asia and Africa which I'm sure will prove invaluable. On the way home we had a quick drink at Clarke quay which was a bit pricy and pretentious but interesting nonetheless.

Today we had to check out of our very nice hotel and thought we would make a move to Melaka in Malaysia. Many shops were closed and the streets were generally pretty quiet on account of the Chinese New Year holidays but we had be assured there were still buses running so as instructed by the Lonely Planet we headed to the Golden Mile Complex to try to secure a bus ticket. Unfortunately all buses to Melaka were fully booked and the earliest we could go was 7.30am the next day...so we bought two tickets and had a great green thai curry at the Golden Mile Food Centre before heading to Little India to find a backpackers.

It was hot and very exhausting hauling our backpacks around in the 30 plus waether not to mention the humidity so it was with heightened dismay that we could not locate the backpackers cited in our Lonely Planet...actually we eventually did ask at a shop which turned out to formerly be the backpackers which explained the problem! But we found another place in Dunlop Street not too far away, although only a bunk bed in a 6 bed dorm was avaiable. We took it anyway as it had been such a long day already and we were leaving early in the morning anyway. On the upside our extra day in Singapore gave us a chance to check out Little India and have a fantastic indian meal.