London - February 2006

So, after spending a few days in Singapore, and heading to the airport a good 9 hours early!!!! We headed out on Lufthansa airlines to sunny London, via Frankfurt.

Well, I was told it was sunny once.

Alas, London was definitely NOT sunny when we landed. Some might say cold, grey and miserable were more accurate words to describe the weather…I prefer to say, cold, grey and with the definite likelihood of significant precipitation…but not miserable as I enjoy rain and after coming from Australia, where it just doesn’t rain any more, it was a welcome sight.

When we arrived, two lines were in place for customs entry. One line was for the Great Unwashed. Samantha entered the queue for this line. The other line was for foreign imports, for example South Africans, Kiwis and of course, the best imports into the country, Australians. Someone has to do some work in this country, so suffice to say, the line I was in was quite long.

Somehow or other, I managed to get into the country, thanks mainly to my Scottish (NOT ENGLISH) Grandparents.

So, we were free to continue our journey and we decided to take the subway and train to Samantha’s cousin (Angela) and her husband’s (Luke) flat in Souf London.

No dramas, but let me say, we were tired and when we arrived we were absolutely stuffed, however, it was only 1pm and the best way to beat jetlag is to get onto local time quick smart, so we decided to visit the local Horniman Museum…..a very eclectic museum, but interesting nonetheless. We both almost fell asleep in the museum but we managed to get back to the flat and despite catching colds from Paul and Silvia’s bairns, we were fine and the jetlag wasn’t a major problem.

Had a good time down in London, walked around a fair bit, saw the sights again, but decided against heading into Westminster Abbey (£10 each) and St Paul’s Cathedral (£9 each) as these prices are a joke, churches should be free and anyway, translated to the little aussie battler, these prices would be $25 each and $ 22.50 each….so, in our view, far too expensive, especially with better things to spend our money on than adding to the coffers of the Church of England!

London is definitely one of the class cities of the world, with so much on, so much to see and with a real buzz to it. I would recommend it to anyone….for a few days at least!!! Just don’t expect too many people to be friendly.

After a few days in London catching up with Angela and Luke and enjoying the sights, we caught our bus to Newcastle….only a pound each…so great value!

Singapore - February 2006

We flew into Singapore expecting to be greeted by a wall of heat as soon as we left the comfy confines of the airport lounge. Indeed it was hot. Possibly not as hot as we had anticipated, but it was humid, no question.

We were also advised that Singapore was a very clean city. Again, possibly not as clean as we had anticipated, but reasonably clean….after all, we had heard they ban chewing gum, but there were still loads of papers lying about, especially in the evening. That said, every morning the streets were quite clean once again.

The first thing we did in Singapore was take a taxi to our hotel….this was no drama and we arrived at our hotel easily. Finding the room was also easy and as always, we had a reasonable room. Despite Samantha’s ridiculous expectations of a room, it was nonetheless clean and served its purpose as we spend little time in the hotel room…there is after all, a new place to be investigated!

As it was night-time, we ventured out locally and decided to tackle the city the next day, after all, an 8 hour flight does wear one down a fraction.

As mentioned, Singapore is very humid, with year round average temperatures of around 30 degrees Celsius, so prepared for this, I ventured out wearing my seldom worn shorts.

Singapore is a decent city with plenty of things to experience. We saw the Lion Fountain on the harbour, the river – fronted by colourful terraced restaurants and shops, Little India and Little China towns, as well as historical monuments to WWII, including a bunker used in WWII, which was interesting and in the middle of a park.

The major highlight however, was Samantha’s discovery of a night food market, close to our hotel, where we ate Singapore Chilli Crab (twice no less), satay sticks and drank Tiger Beer….all for incredibly cheap prices. And let me say, Singapore Chilli Crab remains one of the major food highlights of our lives. It was SERIOUSLY TASTY!

Only four days were spent in Singapore, mainly to break up the long haul, but also to venture somewhere new.

Overall, Singapore is a great place to stay for a few days. I would recommend taking light clothes and as always, walk the city to discover it well.