We ended up staying six nights in Singapore as Laura was ill. We liked it a lot more than we thought we would based on what other people had said. It is clean but not too sterile. There are also a lot of colonial buildings amongst the skyscrapers and shopping malls. There are more shops than you can possibly imagine. I bought a new digital camera for about two-thirds the UK price.

We stayed in the Mayfair City Boarding House on Armenian Street. It is central and very good value for Singapore, a double with air con and bathroom costs only S$30.00 if staying two nights or more. Opposite is a 24 hour food court where you can eat for about S$3.00.

Apart from the shopping, the main tourist attraction is the zoo. It is an excellent zoo as most of the enclosures are very big and they use landscaping rather than bars to keep the animals in - this also means you feel as if you are a lot closer to them. It is possible to feed some of the animals yourself for a small donation. We fed the elephants which was really good. The zoo is a bit of a pain to get to though as you have to get the MRT to Ang Mo Kio which takes thirty minutes and then a bus which takes at least another thirty minutes.

At night you can go back to the zoo and at 7.30pm they open a different section called the Night Safari. Here you can see animals that are more active at night. The highlight for us was the Slow Loris (an animal we had never heard of before). It lives up to its name as it seems to move in slow motion. A combined ticket for the day and night zoo is S$22.00. There is a tram ride for S$5.50 or you can walk around. It is worth doing both as the tram goes through some bits you wouldn't see otherwise.