Singapore part 1 by Christian

Phew,it's been a very hot and busy 2 days. Landed on Saturday evening after my first long-haul flight - now I see why they call it long-haul. I sat by the window so had a pretty good view of everything but it's still so boring. Got to experience the hot wall of air everyone talks about as we left the airport. Took a nice taxi ride down the motorway to reach our hotel - located near 'Little India'. First impressions of Singapore was that it is a beautiful and tidy city and this was reinforced over the next two days.

Hotel was massive and the air conditioning a relief - although it rattled in our room and almost drove me crazy. Had a funny porter guy who wanted to learn the Haka, seemed a bit like a stalker as he came and talked to us every time we left the hotel. Had an early night on Saturday but did go for a little walk around little India and got some food at a Chindian (Chinese and Indian) version of MacDonald's. There are quite a few of these style of places around and they are great value, with nice food. The Singaporeans are extremely efficient at food service - there are piles of great little food places everywhere, with fast service, great food and all for little money.

Woke up feeling refreshed on Sunday and ready to hit the town. Our hotel faces away from the CBD and after working this out navigating was much easier. After backtracking a bit we walked through little India on the way to town. Even footpaths don't seem to be a feature of this place, with each little section part of a shop front and all displaying different character and elevation. Got to an shopping plaza out of the heat and felt pretty faint from the heat - by the end of the day I was getting quite used to it though.

This place is absolutely insane for shopping - basically spent most of Sunday walking from mega-mall to mega-mall along Orchard road - masses of people everywhere - I couldn't believe this was all on a Sunday. Bit of a sensory overload but quite exhilarating. After Orchard road we walked out to the river front and took in the sites there before stopping for tea on the river.