Singapore was always going to be a little strange for us as we were worn out from the final week of leaving, had all our valuables with us and had the looming threat of the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud closing Heathrow (as it had for central Europe all this week).

We were staying in a hotel that had caught my eye as they had made a big deal about just how small the rooms are (only 14 square meters! the ad said) however they felt pretty much like any other cheap hotel I had stayed in (in retrospect I was quite disappointed by this and I have a mental image of complaining at reception that my room was too big) . 

Despite our apprehensions we had a lovely first morning walking through the colonial city with its flowers and nice open spaces admiring the interesting architecture all around us and marvelling at how uncrowded the city was. This first impression managed to last so that my impression of Singapore is still of a spacious quiet city even though the rest of the trip was in the bustle of Chinatown. The main highlights were

• - the oppressive humidity (Robbie was in jeans for all the first day) and the afternoon thunder
• - going to Raffles for cocktails (a Singapore sling of course) and throwing the monkey nut shells all over the floor
• - the night safari, basically a night zoo but nice to actually see the nocturnal animals moving
• - eating dinner in an open air market in Chinatown

On day two, exhaustion overtook all else, and after a wander round the ethnic suburbs (Chinatown, Little India and Kampong Glam), we headed back to the hotel for what we thought were well deserved spa treatments. A highlight for Robbie was the Chinatown museum: The museum is quite meticulous in its recording of the minutiae of life (which made it quite hard going), as it records the trip of the Chinese immigrants to Singapore and their exposure and frequent downfall to the vices of Western man (alcohol, gambling, prostitution and opium) as such things did not exist in China. Then at the end of a museum they have as accurately as possible recreated a Singapore Chinatown house from around 1900. In a space about half the size of our former house around 65 people lived, and in many cases worked, in one case 12 people fitting into a room 2 meters by 2 meters square. The recreation was quite thorough and for me it was real enough to give a feeling of what that life must have been like, definitely a 'oh wow' moment for me

Our three words for the trip: Humidity, Architecture, Contrasts