Tuesday 18th May - Singapore

Serve yourself breakfast of instant quaker oats, toast, fruit etc in the hotel . Walked to the nearest post office, arriving just before it started to rain, to send a parcel back home. It's very hot, far too hot to walk very far so we took refuge in Raffles Hotel and treated ourselves to Singapore Sling cocktails (very nice) in the Long Bar. Made the most of the complimentary peanuts. Still in their shells but cooked in salted water for that salty taste one expects from peanuts.
Went to Clarke Key in the evening for dinner by the riverside. Compared to rest of SE Asia Singapore is very expensive. 7 pounds for a couple of pints of beer! Bring back Vietnam where it was more like 20p a pint. The MRT (tube equivalent) is cheap though and a good way to get around.

Wednesday 19th May - Singapore

Decided to go to the cinema today and ended up seeing 'Troy' with Brad Pitt. Quite good. Also got hair cuts. Derek's is nice but she chopped a bit too much off of Sue's. It's still shoulder length at the back, but not much left as she went a bit far when thining it out . Oh well, won't have to get it cut again for a while and hopefully it will have grown back by the time we get home!
We have never seen so many shopping centres in one city. Every street corner seems to have one of at least four stories. Derek says his memory of Singapore will be the traffic lights which leave pedestrians waiting for ages (about 2 minutes) before they can cross, especially when the city is supposed to be anti trafic!

Thursday 20th May - Singapore to Perth, Australia

Firstly we can't believe three months have passed since we started our trip and secondly we can't believe we are on our way to Australia.
Up at 5.45am for breakfast before taking the MRT train to the airport. Called to the plane ahead of time for early take off. Just started to taxi out when the pilot comes on and announces that there is a fault with one of the 'major componenets' so we won't be going anywhere for at least an hour so we all have to disimbark . As it turns out the delay was only about 45 minutes in total and we were on our way. The pilot announced that although the 'major component' didn't appear to be working whilst we were on the ground tests had shown it would work after take off. We took his word for it, what else could we do!.
There weren't many passengers on the plane and the friendly cabin crew were more than happy to keep us stocked up with australian white wine (please bear in mind that we have not had any white wine for three months) and peanuts which we gladly accepted and enjoyed immensly.
Arrived in Perth at about 3pm and got a taxi to a hotel advertised at the airport. Nice room and only 30 pounds a night which we thought was good for city centre Perth. Derek contacted his Mammy and Daddy who phoned us back for a quick chat which was great because we haven't spoken to them since St Patricks Day when we were in India.
It's raining and seems cold after 3 months of heat, but beleive us when we say we're not complaining, it's great to be away from the heat. Out with the shorts and in with the long trousers and long sleeved tops. We walked into the centre in the evening which for a city was very quiet and feels quite a relaxed place. I think we'll like it. But oh the prices - it's like being back in the UK! It all seems very expensive compared to what we've been used to.