Wednesday 23rd January 2008

We woke up in our 'Penthouse' apartment this morning and, after having some breakfast, we were sad that we'd have to move on - unfortunately they didn't have any more room for us. Before we left, our lovely 'landlady' Jennifer, let us use her phone to make some local calls to find somewhere else to stay.

Nikki managed to find us a hostel in Little India, which had a double-bed, so we packed our things and at about 12.30pm (we spent all morning watching SKY TV and using the free internet) we made our way over. The bus journey was a nightmare - it was absolutely packed, and not easy when we were wearing our huge backpacks. It turned out though, the journey was the least of our problems. When we got to the hostel, Sleepy Sam's, we asked to look at the room before committing to two nights but they wouldn't let us. The girl got really rude and gave us some crazy story why it wasn't possible - in the end we just walked out and made our way to another hostel. We couldn't be bothered to walk and so we flagged a taxi, who's driver turned out to be just as rude as the girl at the hostel... what is it with the people of Singapore?

The hostel we checked in to is called The Waterloo and is a bit strange, so we only booked one night. Once we'd put the bags in our room we couldn't wait to get out and start exploring. We had a look around the hostel area and then walked down to Clarks Quay. When we got there we went into Hooters for some lunch. When we'd finished, Nikki went to look round the shops while I sat and watched the footie. This afternoon we looked around the shops together and then when it started to get dark this evening we went on a river cruise from Riverside Point.

Tonight we walked down to Chinatown, which is all lit up because it's the Chinese New Year on February 7th. It's going to be the year of the Rat and so there are pictures of cartoon mice(?) everywhere - including Mickey, Minnie and Jerry (from Tom & Jerry). On the way back to our smelly hostel this evening we stopped for a well earned coffee and slice of cake - just what we needed after a long day walking.

I didn't know what to think of Singapore - until I found Hooters... then everything was ok again!