Riders Lodge Singapore

... to catch our bus into London, and within an hour or so we were at Victoria station (one of our favourite haunts by now!). We dropped our bags at Left Luggage (for the tidy sum of 8 pounds PER BLOODY BAG!) and set off with a tube ticket in our pockets and the purpose of making ourselves as tired as possible before getting on the plane<br><br>Our first stop? Oxford St of course! Quite odd how familiar some ...

... as it was the last muesli.<br><br><br><br>People were then sent to sleep while I continued to watch tv being <br><br>stuck awake, I think I may have had a short nap but was finding it <br><br>hard to sleep! Then there was an announcement over the pa asking if <br><br>there was a doctor on board and if they could make themselves known, <br><br>someone on the other side of the plane from us, but very near still <br><br>was not well, but ...

... walked down a street that was like a cross between a pikey Saville Row and a Soho backstreet. Each shop was a tailors, with the owners waiting outside like hawks. Every shop I passed, the people would step in front of me, trying to shake my hand (for good luck, they claimed. I don't think shaking hands with someone with questionable hygiene can be called good luck) and get me into their shop. I felt quite ...

... A nice chap called Erik I think it was helped us through the menu and we escaped with a tasty meal and no nightmares.<br><br>Also visited a few museums, the best of which was the Chinese heritage museum as it told the stories of people leaving China to come to Singapore. Families of 8 living in tiny units we wouldnt consider suitable for a single bed in the West. Also did a quick trip around the botanical gardens where I took a picture ...

... of the highest order and although my rage was well contained within polite smiles and sweat, I had to vent it off in small droplets by dropping a cold glance here and there, and taking walks alone in the park area we had settled down in order to clear my head. The stress was further heightened by the crowd and heat. Although I managed to get some good photographs of fireworks, I feel the day had been highly abused by the unwanted attentions of these 2 ...

Well we made here around 7pm on 14th July. We managed to catch the train from the airport to near where we are staying in peak hour which was fun, especially with our backpacks (Mark's = 13.4kg, Mine = 11.2kg).<br><br>We pretty much had showers, a bite to eat in Little India (near where we are staying), then crashed in our bunk beds (haha).<br><br>Our first full day was SO busy. We spent the morning walking around the ...

... Santa Cruz Boardwalk with the sky tram but enclosed)<br>which could be fun. The island is supposed to have all kinds of<br>amusement rides though our friend warned us that they are overpriced<br>and not really worth it. <br><br><br><br><br>Basically, we did everything we wanted<br>to and saw pretty much the entire country in one day and were ready<br>to move on to cheaper places. While I might not go out of my way to<br>check out Singapore, it is worth checking out for a day or two<br ...

... for the natural roaming areas of the larger animals, such as elephants, lions, rhinos etc. It was interesting to see a lot nocturnal animals, although I'd rather have watched them on TV in their natural habitats than in these small open enclosures. I spent Saturday morning with Linus going to Sentosa Island, which is a theme park like island which is ever growing. The only thing we paid to do was Luge riding, which ...

... is obviously a major international shipping hub. We rode a cable car in order to see the massive harbor. There are mountains of shipping containers waiting to be loaded by one of the many cranes onto a ship to be carried to distant lands (maybe one of them has our lost box!). Hundreds of anchored cargo freighters dotted the bright blue waters of the South China Sea and Straits of Malacca. Singapore has changed a lot since it was "founded" by an Englishman ...

... himself in an all-too-cheery voice as Geoffrey from the Singapore Airlines Stopover Desk in the reception of the hotel and informed me that we should meet with him before he left at noon in order to arrange our sightseeing options for the coming two days. With sleep our highest priority and the insides of our eyelids the only things we wanted to see right at this point in time, I put the phone back down with little more than a grunted &#8220;OK&#8221; and then we ...