I'm at Singapore's flashy Changi Airport (free wireless!) waiting for my flight home. It's on one of the new Airbuses so I'm geekily excited about that, and I managed to get an aisle seat with leg room to save my leg from going dead like it did on the way here.
Singapore was fun, though exhausting. It is boiling hot here and very humid, making it a bit uncomfortable. Also I had to trek round in flip-flops/jandals as I haven't yet replaced my trainers, which were on top of the deckhouse roof and accordingly went overboard when we got hit by the wave. Not the best footwear for a whole day! Anyway I managed to see the national museum, do a spot of shopping on Orchard Road, and see Little India, Chinatown, the colonial district and Raffles, and of course the Arab/Malay district where I was staying, as well as catch up with my friend Lauren who I used to row with in the UK. It rained yesterday which took some of the humidity away but made it harder to take photos!
It's a very multicultural sort of place, though the cultures are dominated by Chinese and even Little India was ringed by Chinese shops and people. Everything's very colourful and busy and smelly - the smells of various different foods, medicines, that sort of thing. Chinatown is quite touristy and there's a lot of hassle from stallholders as you walk by (hint, photo people, if I'm carrying a digital SLR I probably already have a spare battery ...) I was extremely annoyed to have to fork out $50 for breaking a lacquer boat thing in one shop - backed into it with my bag and it went flying. I don't know why I couldn't have broken something small and cheap!
Anyway, duty free calls so I'd better get moving. Next stop, Heathrow.
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