Singapore

What have we been up to so far I hear you ask. We'll quite a bit is the answer. We had a brief stay in Singapore which was odd and, unless you like your cities really clean and a little dull with it, frankly a bit of a dissappointment. We did however see a great New Year firework display at the harbour but then marvelled at how the Singaporeans, (who spent the whole time filming the display on their mobile telephones by the way - there was a sea of heads and then loads of little blue screens. It was like the modern equivalent of lighters at a rock concert), then all proceeded home in an orderly fashion in near silence without a single drunken yell of "Happy New Year!" or a manly hug given to a stranger. Odd. They call Singapore a 'fine city'. There's a fine for everything. Spitting - $500, jaywalking - $500. Keeps the city clean I guess but the sterility, after a day or two, is actually pretty disturbing. Hardly surprising though as, according to a chap we'd meet, they only have a resource back-up of four days. All the gas & 'tricity comes from Indonesia via pipe so if it goes tits-up they have less than a week in reserve. No wonder they're a little edgy.
Anyhow our hotel was pretty nice, good air-con room with a free bar-manager/information booth/crap magician/karaoke diva called 'Wilson' thrown in gratis. We met Wilson on our first night chatting, with his pilot buddy Christopher, to an English couple who'd been in Oz for a year called Dan & Lisa - they were to become our travel-buds for the next week. Wilson turned out to be a mine of information, (some of it probably dubious), and he seemed to love his job of drinking with the guests and ruining songs via the medium of karaoke. He did say every few minutes whilst pissed, "Damn I love my job."
After the New Year fireworks Dan & Lisa 'treated' us to a rendition of the Elton & Kiki classic "Don't go breaking my heart". They weren't good. In fact, had any of Elton's lawyers been within earshot I reckon they would've had a court order slapped on them before they'd finished the first chorus.
We also did what everyone apparently has to do in Singapore and visited Raffles for a Singapore Sling. Raffles looks nice enough and very high class from the outside but it's kind of Disney-ish inside and, being mere commoners, we could only drink in the commoners bar. A Singapore Sling set us back $20 each! To add insult to wallet-injury they don't even make 'em up there and then. Ours were poured, along with twenty others, from big jugs under the bar. To add even more insult they taste like shit. They're pink, fizzy and rank. Don't have one. Ever. Unless it's free.
So, marks out of ten.
Singapore - 4
Fireworks - 7
Breakfast - 2 (It's all overcooked hotdogs and a weird porridge stuff with onion in it. How can that be right?)
Singapore Sling - Minus several million.