Saturday 1st March. Southern Ridges, Cable cars, a boat ride and Chinatown.

An early start was needed as we had decided to walk part of the Southern Ridges which is a walkway going through parts of rain forest on the southern fringes of Singapore Island. We used the MRT to get to Harbour Front and then took the cable car to Mount Faber. As we walked from the MRT station to the cable car we were surprised to see a real estate agent with a window display promoting apartments in the development around Battersea Power Station; a sign of the times! The walk from the top of the cable car headed north east through the forest with one section, called the Henderson Waves being a wooden section some 36 metres above the ground!

All very interesting and at times we were walking just under the canopy of the tropical forest. After a few kilometres we really were beginning to feel the heat and it was time to head down to the valley and catch a bus back to Harbour Front where we picked up the cable car again. This time for the fairly short and horizontal journey across the sea to Sentosa Island. Sentosa is one big resort and theme park, Universal Studios, and we had not planned to spend much time there but just to enjoy the view. A brief stop for a Frappuccino at, would you believe, Starbucks and we headed back to Singapore Island.

Back to the hotel for a swim and a short rest in the air conditioning and then we were off for a boat trip along the Singapore River followed by a walk to Chinatown. The boat ride was excellent and as often when on the water you get a different perspective of the city and since we went out into Marina Bay we saw some parts that we had not already walked around. The 3 tower blocks (Marina Bay Sands) with a boat shaped level built across all 3 towers is quite extraordinary as is the Arts Science building.

After the boat ride it was time for a brief walk to Chinatown and as we walked west from Clarke Quay it was as if we were entering a different world; the cosmopolitan area of the quays and the CND was left behind and replaced by Chinese medicine shops, hawkers stalls, large markets and food halls. Very colourful and teeming with life

Our time in Singapore is now coming to an end and tomorrow we leave for Changi Airport (recently and quite rightly voted the best airport in the world) for our flight to Heathrow and back to (we hope) early spring in the UK. Singapore has been fascinating and as we said last time about Hong Kong, you can just feel the thirst for knowledge and self improvement. Singapore already has the third highest GDP per head in the world and it still feels that the city state is on the way up!

The attitude towards learning was epitomised by the headline article in The Straits Times "record numbers of children enter spelling exam" which had a photo of row upon row of children taking the exam having voluntarily entered.

Friday 28th Botanical Gardens, Orchard Road and the Quays

No surprise that the weather was hot and humid again and apparently Singapore has been experiencing one of its worst droughts for many years. Apparently it normally rains every day but certainly we have seen none so far and the newspapers are saying that there has hardly been any since the beginning of January.

The Botanical Gardens were first on our agenda and as soon as we entered the gardens the effect of the drought was clear with very brown grass everywhere. I'm sure this is very unusual because, according to the guide book, normally it rains every day.

We had a very enjoyable walk through the gardens and the National Orchid Garden and the Ginger Garden were both excellent.

When we reached the southern end we were pleased to find that there was a bus to take us back to town thereby avoiding a 1.6Km walk back to the MRT station.

Our next destination was the shopping mecca that is Orchard Road which really is wall to wall shopping malls for a few kilometres and everything under the sun would appear to be available here. Some of the malls such as Paragon are very upmarket with every designer label you could mention. In Paragon we restricted ourselves to a brief pitstop in a basement food outlet called Grandma's. It seems to be the norm that the basement of the malls includes a number of food stalls or restaurants.

The LLW was very restrained with her shopping; I put it down to the heat!

After walking a further few hundred metres we decided that it really was too hot now and caught a bus back to the Clarke Quay area (we are quite expert with Singapore's transport system now!). BTW, the buses are also air conditioned and are a real pleasure to ride in. All transport in Singapore seems to work, is very clean and is relatively uncrowded.

A swim in the excellent hotel swimming pool which has a great view over the quays was just what was needed and after a relatively brief rest we decided on another walk south along Clarke Quay and then back along Boat Quay on the opposite side of the Singapore River. This was an excellent choice with lots of colonial buildings along Clarke Quay including a statue marking the landing place of Sir Stamford Raffles. On crossing to Boat Quay we discovered wall to wall small restaurants and bars along the river many of which were packed with office workers celebrating the start of the weekend. All very cosmopolitan. The LLW decreed that it was time for a cocktail!

Dinner was planned at Jumbo Seafoods to sample their legendary Chill Crab and we were not disappointed. The crab was huge even when shared between two. It was absolutely delicious but must have been the messiest meal either of us has ever eaten. Dealing with crab and a very rich sauce using chopsticks and fingers was never going to be pretty!