Touchdown Singapore!

I'm liking Singapore - It's a kind of easy-to-use friendly place for the first time traveller; the train from the airport is easy to catch and inexpensive, English is spoken by the majority and is sign-posted on everything, the city is laid out in a grid system that makes it very hard (though not impossible) to get lost.

I know people generally live in fear of hostels, but this one has a clean comfy bed, good security and tea and toast on offer any time you want it. It's also in a pretty central location and costs less than 20quid a night. Bazinga.

Whoever tells you that Singapore is expensive is a liar. Well they are if you've been to London. Or Paris. My lunch cost me $3.50 (less than 2 pounds) for a generous bowl of wanton noodle soup. My dinner ( a masala dosa from little India) cost me $1.40. God bless the hawker centre! (If you've not heard the term before, a hawker centre is typically a grimy mall full of plastic furniture where loads of independent stalls bash out hundreds of tasty, weird, cheap and cheerful dishes.)

I've also tried a drink called 'Chandol' which is made of coconut milk and loads of sugar, and contains lots of what I think are pandan flavoured Tapioca 'worms'. I'm making it sound really gross but it was really nice, especially after burning my mouth off with an over-generous helping of spicy sauce on my dosa.

In addition to the cheap food, Singapore is ultra modern and incredibly leafy. I am really enjoying the leafy-ness of it. There are climbing plants clinging to the concrete walkways, which makes them look a little less 'crime against the environment' and random parks, trees and lawns all over the place. I was walked round some massive trees and spice gardens in the park surrounding Canning Fort by a nice old man, who also took it upon himself to read my palm. I was especially surprised when he did not ask me to cross it with silver for his services of showing me lemongrass and basil, and then telling me I had boy troubles last year.

The one sight I really wanted to see was the 'Super trees;' massive tree-like structures that will eventually become upright gardens. They also use and store solar power so that they can light up at night, and collect rainwater to irrigate the surrounding gardens. I really hope all new structures start to look a bit more like these (it makes me feel as though we're living in 'Avatar'). Unfortunately, this is the point where I have realised that my camera is totally crap. I'll have to imprint the image on my brain instead.

Oh and if you want to find them -  facing the  bay, they're behind the big hotel that's got the Titanic stuck on the top of it.