We both awoke to the sound of rather loud Punjabi music and when I asked Andrew what time it was he gave me the bad news that it was only 6:15am! I searched in my backpack for our earplugs and hurt my ears a little as I pushed them so far in to drown out the music. However, they worked a treat as the next time Andrew woke up was 8:30am when our alarm went off, but he had to wake me up at 9am or I would have slept forever. We went for our last breakfast at Old Town Guesthouse before packing our last things and checking out. We walked to the bus stop, which was only around the corner to wait for a local bus to Melaka Sentral. A bus pulled up after we had only waited for around five minutes, so we got on board and paid the RM1 fee. Once we reached Melaka Sentral we had to find an express bus to Singapore, but luckily one bus company ran a bus every hour, so the next bus was at 11am. I had only just eaten breakfast but still felt hungry so went in search of food. The most enticing option was a chocolate waffle, which Andrew described as disgusting! After an hour and a half into our bus journey we stopped at a service station where there was a wide range of food on offer. I bought a couple of curry puffs, whereas Andrew got some fried chicken and a fried fritter. We ate on the freezing cold bus as the air-con was overpowering. We set off again and literally drove into a thunderstorm as the sky started to turn black. We reached the Malay border so had to leave the bus and pass through immigration, where we were stamped out of Malaysia. We had no idea where we were going as the building was huge and there were many signs that we didn't understand, but I spotted somebody that had been on our bus so we followed them, but it turned out to be somebody else! We eventually found our bus and were the last people to board before setting off again across the causeway leading to Singapore. The bus driver then informed us that we had to take all of our belongings with us through Singapore immigration and if we didn't make it back to the bus within twenty minutes it would leave without us! We grabbed our backpack in a bit of a hurry and walked up the escalator to reach the immigration checkpoint. We passed through very easily and quickly and were given a 90 day stamp in our passport. Our luggage then had to be passed through a security scanner before we were free to find our bus. I made the mistake, again, of following somebody off our bus but they started queuing for a local bus, so Andrew led the way to our bus shaking his head! We made it without any problem and so we were on our way to Singapore! However, the bus driver dropped us off by the side of a road and we had no idea where we were in the city. We went inside a shopping mall and asked a man if he could point to where we were on our map, but we were so far out of the city centre that we weren't even on the map! We had no Singapore dollar on us so we had to search for a cash machine but when we found one it was out of cash. However, we did come across an 'Information Desk' in the shopping mall and the staff were extremely friendly and helpful by telling us where the next nearest ATM was located, so we found one without too much difficulty. We checked our map again but none of the street signs in the proximity were signed on the map. Andrew then spotted what looked like an MRT station a short walk away, so we took a risk and started walking in that direction. It was indeed an MRT station and we soon worked out which line we needed to get us to Little India. We tried to buy a ticket from the self-service machine but it wouldn't accept our $50 note. There was an 'Information Counter' in the station so we went to buy a ticket, but we were given change instead. We were already so impressed by the sheer helpfulness of the local people, who offered much appreciated advice with a smile. We bought a ticket and we were dispensed a plastic card that could be topped up with credit or handed in to receive a refund of $1 for the cost of the card. We proceeded down some escalators to a huge underground station, described by Andrew as a bat cave! It looked brand new and had a very civilised boarding system in operation. There was a red box painted on the ground to the left and right of where the train door opened for boarding passengers to wait, whilst a green arrow pointed away from the train door, so that passengers could alight without difficulty. The weird thing was that everybody followed this "rule" and so we waited beind the glass wall until a train pulled up and then the glass automatically opened at the door of a train. We boarded the Circle Line train to Dhoby Ghaut and were surprised at how well the school children spoke English. They spoke to each other in perfect English and sat helping each other complete school work. We later found out that English is the first language of the new Singapore generation. We changed to the North-East line at Dhoby Ghaut, which took us to Little India just one stop away. It was clear that we had arrived in Little India as there were many Indian ladies walking by dressed in beautiful, brightly coloured sarees and we could smell incense burning. As we walked down the road we saw many men making fresh flower garlands, which also gave off a nice aroma. We decided to check out another hostel before making our way to Ali's Nest, as we had read a bad report online, which involved a member of the family sitting in their own urine on a sofa! However, the two other places listed in the Rough Guide were full so we had to pay Ali a visit...
 
We reached Ali's Nest and after peering inside the doorway realised that there was nobody around so it wasn't the best start! We went inside and shouted up the staircase, but still didn't get a response so walked straight up in the hope that somebody was around . Ali met us at the top of the stairs and to be fair he was very welcoming and led us to the living room. He explained that the double room we had booked wasn't free as the person occupying it had not yet returned. I wasn't impressed by this statement as Ali had made such a fuss when we rang to reserve a room in the first place. He wouldn't take a booking so far in advance and then requested that we ring one week before we arrived, which we did do so we couldn't understand why we didn't have a room! Anyway, we knew we had nowhere else to stay so we accepted the dorm bed, but as I was putting my bag on my bed I turned around to see an old man lying in a pair of blue pants on his bed reading a book! I was a little shocked and needless to say we sharply left in search of a different place to stay for the following evening. We found a new hostel that was more expensive but money didn't matter! They only had dorms but anywhere was better than Ali's Nest so we booked a room for the following evening. We then had a walk to the 'City Square Mall' where we came across a Burger King and so obviously went and ordered a Whopper meal . We had a stroll around the shops and found a place where Andrew could buy a new pair of headphones and we spent a fair amount of time in the Popular Bookstore where I bought yet another Psychology book. As we were about to leave we spotted a supermarket so decided to go and check out the price of beer. They sold Anchor beer for $3.80 for a large bottle, so we carried four to the checkout. However, the bill came to a little more than expected as they added on an extra $0.15 per bottle as we bought chilled bottles rather than bottles off the shelf! We returned to Ali's Nest and got talking to other travellers in the communal area whilst drinking our Anchor beer. A very old Chinese lady came stumbling through the room muttering to herself and looked rather unsteady on her feet. She was apparently Ali's Grandma at the grand old age of 92 and suffering from dementia as she thought that everybody spoke Chinese!