Singapore

Thain Hock Keng Temple
Originally uploaded by lucie.gray

As I stepped out of Singapore airport my glasses steamed up and I knew I had arrived. It was a half an hour cab ride into town and I was staying in a district called Little India. Singapore is a city of contrasts, on one hand you have amazing colonial buildings rich in history among shiny skyscrapers and postmodern tower blocks but what unites them all is the shear colour of the city.

My first day was spent finding my way round both on foot and by bus. Little India is a mass of brightly coloured colonial buildings. Right at the heart of it there is Tikka Market, Downstairs is filled with a meat and fish market, chicken feet and all. It smells of a mix of fish and incense, upstairs is filled with birightly coloured Sari's all so delicatly detailed.

In the eveing I went up to the 'Night Safari' ( http://www.nightsafari.com.sg/ ) a zoo filled with nocternal animals. After a 45 minite ride on the tram which takes you through the animals you can walk through the grounds. The paths are all dark and although you know they are all in enclosed your imagination goes wild and you see every rock as a pouncing lion.

Friday I took a night tour which included a dinner, a boat trip on the river finishing at Raffles for a Singapore sling. I left the tour before the Long Bar to go and meet some friends who were staying at the hotel and snuck into the residence only bar. As I walked in the pianist said 'good eving miss, how lovely to see you' Of course I had a Sinagpore sling of which I had no idea what they put in it! The building itself is timeless and as you look up you can see the corridors and imagine ladies in big dresses swooshing their way back to the suites.

I was really surprised by Singapore it has such a strong sence of difference, although they are 80% Chinese they see themselves as very differnent from China and are proud to be seperate from Malyasia.