OK, I’ve been “inactive” for a while so this’ll be a big catchup post! All the relevant pics are at FotoPic so please pop over there and check them out! Updated just before I left Kuala Lumpur on December 12th.

So what have I been up to? Well… chilling out, mainly. My last few days in Singapore were spent with some really nice people and I’m definitly going to stay in touch with them all. The main “crew” were Karen. Angelo, Raj and Dylan. Karen and Dylan work at the Inn Crowd, Raj is a local and Angelo’s from the Philippines. We pretty much spent a good few nights painting the town red with a couple of other backpackers in tow.

Wednesday night was moderately quiet. We took a poor, unsuspecting American guy out to a bar near Raffles. Free entry (good), $14 for a bottle of Bud (bad). I just enjoyed the music and the incredibly drunk middle-aged Brit pretending to be Mick Jagger in front of all his work colleagues. I don’t envy him when the work newsletter comes out next week.

 Thursday was, as they say in the trade, a “doozy”. Raj is one of those people who make connections. He’s a talker – very outgoing – and completely mental. As we left the hostel, he flagged down a man driving a flatbed truck and tried to convince him to give us all a lift into town. I swear he almost managed it as well.

Instead, we split up between two taxis and arranged to meet outside “Double O’s”, only that failed as Raj went straight to the end destination bar and then didn’t answer his mobile. A pain as Karen didn’t know where it was. Eventually, he picked up and we walked down. The bar was opening that night, and Raj had been to school with the owner. That’s how we ended up being in a very small crowd drinking very free alcohol until 2am. Beer, Drambuie on the rocks, two types of Sours, Souther Comfort, tequilla… When the bar closed, we walked to Monkeys. Raj had a bottle of Black Label behind the counter and we split that between us.

 Next stop was Ministry of Sound – the largest of their clubs in the world, although it’s not the biggest club in Singapore any more. $20 got us entry and two drinks, which was enough to last me the rest of the night. Impressive club, naff music.

I think it was 4am when we got the taxi to a nice street restaurant. I had chicken steak (with spices, obviously) and a glass of milky tea. Then I fell asleep. Back at the hostel I discovered insomnia and ended up eventually going to bed around 8am.

 The following day was quite chilled. A Canadian girl who’d arrived wanted to go to the Botanical Gardens and, as I’d not been, I decided to join her. It did mean getting public transport as it’s a bit of a hike but it’s free to get in and a lovely place to spend a few hours. We managed to waste three of them, in fact, and we were rushing a bit. Albert would love the Bonsai section, there’s a lake with swans in, and the Evolution Forest with it’s description of the flora of the region over the millenia is fascinating. All free as well!

A quick dinner was followed by a walk to the Fountain of Wealth and then time to collapse at the hostel. The next night was to be a biggie.