Day 10 - 16th September - A breeze through Singapore

Arriving in Singapore brought a flood of memories - lost baggage, someone vomiting on the floor, soldiers with machine guns (who were suspiciously missing this time). There was even a deserted piece of luggage near us that was tested for explosives...

We ditched our own luggage at the 'left luggage' counter, and were told not to lose our ticket or we would not be able to get it back. sound advice, I'd have thought.

We jumped on the MRT (that means 'Mass Rapid Transport', which is techno-speak for 'train') and I led everyone off at the next stop, to change to the MRT to the city. Unfortunately, this was a stop too early, so we had to wait for the next one to come past.

The girls wanted to go on the Singapore Flyer, a very large Ferris Wheel like the London Eye, so we headed towards the Raffles Place stop. this wasn't the right place to go, but we were in a beautiful little harbour with nice food. So we stopped and had fish and chips for lunch. The guy who ran the place was hilarious - very Italian in manner, despite being Chinese/Singaporean.

Afterwards we walked towards Chinatown and more shops. Everywhere we went there were shops. I think for the first time, Sopeepee and Feslipity wanted to buy stuff - and they were continually drawn to Chickenfeed type shops for things like pens and stationery... things that are MORE expensive in Singapore than in Hobart...

I was on the hunt for a Christmas present for my own girls, so needed the technology shops, so we headed towards the Funan centre. This place was quite amazing - one shop sold LCD monitors/TVs in many shapes and sizes from apples to fire-engines, basketballs to rabbits... very cool. I found a few suitable shops, but again, Singapore proved to be more expensive than Hobart.

By this stage, some of us (one in particular!!!) were in 'shop or die' mode. At one point, said person even ran across the pedestrian crossing with only three seconds before it went red (they have timers that tell you how long before the lights change), just to get to a clothes shop that had cheap stuff. I don't think the shop would have gone anywhere if we waited for the next green signal to cross, but the excitement of a bargain in Singapore was too much. We all did manage to get across the lights in one piece, though. If it were Phnom Penh, we would not have...

Many items were scavenged from this shop, then we moved on to the Flyer. With a price tag of $30 per adult, it was not worth the fuss, so the girls went by themselves. It was a good chance for us oldies to have a rest, and afterwards it was time to find food and then back to the airport.

All went smoothly until we attempted to collect our baggage. Someone (again, I don't want to slander anybody specifically!), who frequently forgets where she puts things, couldn't find her luggage ticket. I told one of the guys behind the counter, and in a horrified voice he gasped "You can't find your ticket??? Oh no!!!". His counterpart, with a wry grin, said that a passport would be enough, at which point our un-named can't-find-things travel partner pulled out her passport, inside which was the missing documentation required to get the luggage back.

According to the guys working there, that always happens. People can't find it, but it is where the staff always put it - in the passport.

So, after another moment of panic, we checked our luggage in and were out of Asia and on our way home.

We had successfully chewed up eleven hours in Singapore without going completely broke!