AT

13/11/11

Not a bad night I have to admit and after yet another shower where I tried to remove my skin we were ready for a day exploring Singapore. Although they would probably never advertise it, Singapore is a walkable city, as long as you have a map of course. We went from the hotel to the marina district via the financial district, this being a Sunday the roads around the huge glass towers were deserted, but the pavements still had the usual mix of locals and tourists, but not so much that it felt crowded. Through Chinatown we passed the buddha's tooth temple with it's fearsome looking stone guards outside and huge gym complexes designed for the bankers and office workers around the district. If you've ever walked around Canary Wharf in London or 5th Avenue in New York, you'll get the idea of this place.

Drinks onboard at yet another Starbucks (I should have shares!) we headed into the heart of town. We decided to enter using the riverside as a guide, walking over 200 year old bridges and past the court house and parliament buildings. We also walked past the exact spot where Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles first discovered Singapore in 28th Jan 1819 and changed it from a sleepy fishing village to what you see today, a white statue of Sir Thomas now marks the spot, I only hope the river was cleaner then!

We walked to one of the many malls which are dotted around the city, it was here that Bex decided she needed some TLC and we grabbed lunch, which was quite possibly the most filling burrito I've ever had and continued towards little India. I am quite amazed how all the major cities in the world seem to have the same two basic areas, little India and Chinatown, of course there are others here and there but the same basic areas remain and at least you'll never run out of food.

Little India was quite disappointing again, no local stalls or shops just the same old shops selling the same tired goods so we headed off through one of the parks and towards Orchard Road and the main shopping district. We reached the junction of McKenzie Road and Orchard Road when the heat and humidity finally got to Bex and her legs went, so we detoured to the hill fort used to plot the downfall of the Japanese during world war II. I would love to tell you what it was like inside but the ticket office was closed and when it did finally reopen the tours were every 30 mins and you had to be guided in groups, we passed and started to head back to the hotel and rest up before doing the night safari at singapore zoo.

On the way back I stopped off to get a $10 hair cut, which was much needed and as I was being shorn, the heavens open and the sky's roared ( yeah ok, it was a thunderstorm) within minutes the roads were rivers and you could see why there were covered walkways. With no sign of it stopping after 15 minutes we bought some cheap umbrellas and continued on our way and that's when the next comedy moment happened, although as before, my sense of humor left me.

The water was now ankle deep as we paddled the last mile back and I was taking pictures of the storm when a passing lorry threw up a tidal wave of water which soaked me from head to foot, including the camera! Becky tried to hide her hysterics, but failed, miserably. I wasn't bothered about getting wet and had not been holding the camera I probably would have laughed as well, but all I could do was hope that no water had got in and fried it!

Back in the hotel I quickly showered and then took the camera apart, fortunately the battery was still dry and everything appeared to work but just incase I downloaded the pictures and left it out to dry, fingers crossed!

The night safari is outside of town back towards the airport and opens at 1930 closing at midnight. We chose to get there by taxi, although our hotel said it would be very expensive and if we had done their tour it would have been cheaper ( as it turns out they were wrong $25 out $18 back). The rain had got even heavier and our driver was slowing to a snails pace as you couldn't see 10th in front of you and at one point even asked us if we still wanted to go and on arrival, the place was half deserted and we wondered if it was still open. The people departing on tours soon dispelled that notion so we paid our $35 each ( this included the tram) and went inside. Inside the main courtyard, decorated to look like a tribal village you'll find gift shops and places to eat and since we had not eaten since the burrito  this was our first stop. After eating what only described as the worst chicken burger ever, so bad I'm not even sure it was chicken to start with, I checked the camera out. The lens was fogged on the inside, obviously due to the water from earlier in the day, but it was still working and the lens normally fogged like this when I skied, so I was not overly concerned and 10 mins under the hand dryer in the toilets pretty much cleared it.

There are two ways around the park, one is by the tram which gets you up close and personal to some of the animals but gets crowded and only stops at the most popular animals or follow the walking trail which takes you past all but a handful of the animals. Although the tram is hop on hop off at the two station stops we decided we were going to walk around and this was reenforced by the the three coach loads of Japanese that arrived just before we went through the barriers.

Walking round we were dive bombed by bats and other flying creatures, but we got to see the animals closer and spend a bit of time trying to locate things hiding in the dark. The otters went nuts as we stopped by their enclosure, it was obviously feeding time and we were the only people walking around, the two leopards were lying in some trees and the lions were roaring away quite happily all in all it took us two hours to walk around, a lot better than the 45 minutes on the tram!

So is it worth the money? I'd say yes. The animals arnt behind bars, but separated by moats and deep pits and you can buy combination tickets and do the zoo during the day and safari at night, unfortunately your limited when it comes to eating, either pay for the over priced buffet menu or the cheap and cheerful, but questionable meat from the burger counter.

Does anyone else remember the burger scene from Demolition Man? Hmmmmm

14/11/11

The fun and games for today begin at Singapore Airport.

We arrived in plenty of time for our flight to Jakarta, but Singapore Airlines can't find our booking. This is the first flight back on our original itinerary booked through Travel Nation months ago and since I have their conformation I can't see what's going on?

Apparently ALL of our flights with Singapore Airlines and Silk Air have been cancelled because we missed our flight to Vietnam!?! The last time I checked and by the fact I'm standing here having this conversation with you, I believe we were on that flight! Nothing they can do apparently, so we are now on the standby list for the flight we were originally confirmed for........

Because we have been cancelled from all our flights the ticket desk tell us we cannot fly back to the UK on the 22nd December as it's fully booked and the only flight they can get us on lands on Christmas Day! This news sends Bex into fits of tears, me personally I couldn't care about Christmas, but her family are very close and always make a big deal out of it, we are NOT missing Christmas are the last words I get out of her for the rest of the day!

I start hassling the desk and if we cut the last 7 days off our holiday we can make it back to the UK for Christmas and all the time I'm reminding them this is THEIR fault, this fact seems to be falling on deaf ears as our booking is confirmed for the 18th.

As if by magic seats become available to Jakarta and we board as normal. I'm already planning the email to Travel Nation and Singapore Airlines, trying to limit the number of four letter words to describe the service. We land in Jakarta to our next challenge.....

The queue for immigration and visas was long and when I say long, over 2hrs long. They didn't open anymore desks but just added more and more people to the line instead, then they turned the air conditioning off leaving everyone sweating and getting more and more annoyed. This did not improve the chances of Becky speaking to me. Eventually we were through and i found our bags dumped in a pile in the middle of baggage return, thanks!

Fortunately the hotel was already booked and the taxi was a flat fee, as we were about to experience the worst thing about Jakarta, traffic jams! Normally all taxis are metered and once you spend a few days here you realize why! Nothing moves. It can take you an hour to drive a mile and all the time the meter is ticking over nicely, a great little earner for the driver!

We arrived at the hotel, the Park Lane ( before you sneer, it was cheaper than most others in Jakarta!) and immediately upgraded when I found out the wifi didn't work and it was only and extra $70 for the business deal and free access to Internet terminals. While the room was very nice and plush, it didn't really compare to Singapore, but we had a gym and pool to use downstairs.

All unpacked we headed down to the gym and to our first real workout in 8 weeks and some serious squats! After an hour resulting in my inability to walk down steps we showered and headed up to the business suite and some strongly worded emails!

At this point I will stress none of this was Travel Nations fault and received nothing but help and assistance from them, despite the time difference and communication problems. Emails sent we ate in one of the in house restaurants and played " spot the gold digger" as more and more Indonesian females arrived to latch onto the western male business travelers in the bar.

Star Movies won again for in room entertainment as we finished trying to plan our day in Jakarta!