Evidently Kylie was quite taken by Singapore first time around as she was happy to return there for a few days with me before we set off for Indonesia.

We took the 10 hour bus journey straight from the Cameron Highlands to Singapore. As we queued briefly in the sparkling clean, air-conditioned immigration room at the border crossing we couldn’t help but contrast it to some of the more ‘rustic’ immigration facilities we’d experienced in Africa.

Arriving in the evening, we swiftly dropped our bags and walked down to the marina area to see the city at night. Our camera doesn’t really like nighttime so you’ll just have to take it from me that Singapore at night is spectacular! We finished the day with some yummy food from a hawker market.

After one night in a downtown hostel we were lucky enough to get to stay a couple nights with my old dorm parents from Chefoo, Don and Glenda, who are now working in Singapore. It was fantastic for me to see them again and be able to reminisce as adults about those days long ago at Chefoo. As a child you live a very one-dimensional life, always seeing everything through your own eyes. So it was fascinating to hear some perspectives on Chefoo life from the ‘other side’.

We were also able to catch up with an old Chefoo classmate of mine, Nate Curtis, whom I’d last seen in California in 2007. We went for a burger and then back to his place to meet his wife and one-week old daughter. Good times.

Kylie maintains that Cambodia was the hottest, most humid place we’ve been. But for me Singapore takes the award. As we walked downtown at mid-day I felt every part of me slowing down. My eyes were hurting from the heat and the sunlight. My brain was frying. The glass-walled skyscrapers all around us simply magnified the heat bearing down on us. So we escaped to the cool sanctuary of the cinema for the afternoon.

Whilst in Singapore we also went to the Botanic Gardens, conveniently just opposite Don and Glenda’s apartment, and Haw Par Villa – probably the oddest place I’ve ever seen… Its a ‘theme park’ built by the brothers who developed the famous Tiger Balm. It has over 1000 statues and 150 dioramas of scenes from Chinese mythology and folklore. And they are CREEPY! Especially the Ten Courts of Hell which is ridiculousl gruesome. See for yourself…