Arrival in Singapore

It's taken a while to get round to this.  First too busy and then limited internet access, but I should be able to get 2 or 3 posts up now.  Here's the first.

Travelling to Singapore all went very well. We managed to carry our bags to the tube station OK. What makes them so heavy? We thought we were going to travel light! Easy and quick on the tube and Heathrow Express to Heathrow, I even managed to pick up some id photos at Paddington for my Cambodia entry visa. The only bit that took ages was picking up our pre-ordered currency at the airport.  They had to re-enter everything on their system that I'd already entered on-line, and for 3 lots of currency that took ages.  Next time I'll do it earlier and get it delivered to home.

The flight itself, with Singapore Airlines, was great.  The best economy long-haul I've ever flown.  Brilliant service, huge number of good films to choose from and excellent food, especially the Thai chicken red curry.  Singapore airport was huge, spotless and empty of people.  It had the smartest airport loos I've ever seen and we walked through the empty immigration hall that at heathrow would be thronged with hundreds of frustrated people.  Straight out to be met by the smiling Daniel who was to whisk us off to Zeenit's flat.  Ironically, the main talking point was how dry it was, with it being some sort of record time since Singapore had seen any rain. Very different from the situation we'd left at home.

The rest of the day was a short nap, as we hadn't slept much on the plane, followed by lunch at a local food court, a bit of chilling on Zeenit's balcony and then an evening dinner and drinks party to celebrate Zeenit's recent birthday and meet some more of the people who are going to Nikoi.

Time for some photos:

We're actually staying with Chris and Sue, some friends of Zeenit and Alex in the same block.  They're on the ground floor and this is the view of the short walk they have each morning to the pool.

Here's Zeenit to liven up the scene:

This is Claire looking round Alex and Zeenit's living room.

And this is their kitchen, the bomb shelter is round the corner, no really.

Here's a view of the block from the outside.

Here's Zeenit with her cake in the evening.

And here's some bad shots of people chatting at the party. The guy in the purple t-shirt is Colin who is also over from the UK. He used to work at Logica.

When we staggered home to our room, we were lucky to see the Gecko living in the kitchen. Considered a prize asset apparently as they eat insects.

That's enough for this post. Next I'll tell you about the tree-top walk and a night on the town.