Paramount Hotel Singapore

... Flyer all lit up was a bit of a mission due to road closures - the APEC summit was in town and there was a last-minute extra visitor. Turned out to be Barack Obama, also racking up the airmiles hot foot from Japan earlier that day!<br><br>New thing this time was a visit to the Changi prison museum which gives an educational and moving insight into what happened here during the Japanese occupation, not only to the POWs but also ...

... me the card of a friend of his who had a little shop just down the road that specialised in them. Off I scampered. When I found the shop I sat down and explained to the owner, Mr Lee, what was wrong with the lens mechanism. He told me that it was a common fault with low-end digital cameras, and that repair was usually only a short term solution before the mechanism got jammed once more. This seemed to apply to me, as my camera had been fixed only four weeks ...

... it was really good. We took a tram ride round the park; the tram itself was cunningly disguised as a tiger ... See if you can spot it in the pictures. Seeing it at night gave the illusion of actually being somewhere in the wild with these animals. More so was the fact that many of the animals were free to roam without many barriers or enclosures... Needless to say, they all pretty much stayed where they were put and didn't venture into the ...

... we now?! Some derilict bus station?! Surely not?! Yes it is!! What is this taxi driver on?! <br><br>DO YOU WANT TO GET OUT HERE?! Do I, do I really?! I doubt it mate!! But before I can answer he is off out the car returing 5 minutes later saying there should be a bus at 8am so I can get out!! What?! It's like 6.30am and you are dropping me at a derilict bus station?!?!!??! Ah well I hop out and he points me in the direction of a food court so I head over ...

... Again, thanks, but no.&#8221; &#8220;Heroin?&#8221; &#8220;I can live without it, cheers.&#8221; It tells you something about the spirit of determination in Asia when this chap opened with weed, which was refused, but wouldn&#8217;t give up until he&#8217;d offered smack. Sir Alan, take note.<br><br>Asia&#8217;s charms are often subtle, and contradictory. First world jars with third world, poverty with extravagance. Buddhas sit at the entrance of ...

... of a heavy bassline - where I could listen to the waves coming to shore and the wind rustling palm leaves - a chance to relax and find myself amidst the chaotic human creations that surrounded me!<br><br> <br>Overall, I'm feeling in great spirits. I feel blessed to have had the most wonderful experience this morning - breakfast with the orangutans of Singapore Zoo. To look at them in the eyes, and see their thoughful actions, like gesturing to hold hands with their zoo keeper, or a ...

... pretty much true. Shops weren't great to be honest, all the stuff we get at home, not cheap either (like rest of Singapore), and in fact most of the shops were pretty exclusive ones a la Gucci. Sorry Hannah and Natalie, you're travel pressies won't be coming from there.<br><br>In the evening before dinner we hit up Raffles Hotel, one of the oldest, and probably nicest, hotels in Singapore where they have the 'now-famous', apparently ...

Singapore is lovely! Everyone is really friendly and all the women are very elegent - in stark contrast to myself. It's so hot here!! My usual composure is out of the window. Seen lots of things - night safari, Sentosa island, eaten lots of nice food ...

... so we weren't all spread around the aircraft, checking our primas cooker to check there was no gas in our luggage (which of course there was not) we were just in time to board and had a long queue of frustrated travelers behind us!!. We just found it amusing and have to say from there on in the flights and Qantas staff were great. We arrived in Singapore to find uncle Mike waiting and sent the girls out to say hi while we waited for ...

... from the same city where Katie went to college and, as she was going jogging in the Botanical Gardens herself, was only too happy to lead us there. <br><br>Significantly late by the time we met Shannon in the garden food court, she then had to wait even longer on us while we found some lunch. I felt bad that we had wasted her whole morning, coming on top of the fact that we had already established it was her I had hung up on the previous morning in the ...