Singapore

Singapore brings us our first taste of the exotic Far East - and we are excited to be in this historic and cultural melting pot for the first time.
We are stopping in the extremely affluent and modern high-tech island metropolis on our way to Thailand, where first call will be Bangkok.
Check into the Copthorne Orchid for three nights. It's a smart hotel with a decent-size pool - we'll need a quiet soak come tea-time as it's a hot and sticky 30C here - in a quiet residential area with an abundance of upmarket homes.
The hotel is a little way out of the city and its main attractions, so we make full use of its free shuttle bus service which runs guests into Orchard Road, the main shopping area and a mecca for every top designer label under the sun.
Feeling that the best way to see this former British trading settlement - it attained independence only in 1965 - we use the hop-on, hop-off open top bus and take a boat trip along the languid Singapore River.
Both forms of transport prove a rewarding experience, giving us a great insight into what makes this vibrant hot-spot tick with its fascinating and heady brew of Chinese, Indian, Japansese, Malaysian and British influences.
Chinatown is relatively unchanged from its earliest days, where traditions and centuries-old practices still flourish today in streets which bustle with activity, while the smells of curry powder, incense and perfume that waft from the area known as Little India are more in keeping with Mumbai or Madras - even St Helen's Road on a sultry summer evening in Swansea.
It's here in Singapore that we try out first taste of street food - enjoying an incredibly cheap meal (2.90 Singapore dollars a head, around £1.45 each) of stir fry with noodles - in a covered market stall, which boasts an amazing array of exotic dishes to suit every taste and pocket.
While there are fancy fine dining restaurants galore, Singaporeans appear to head in their droves to the hawker centres (huge indoor and outdoor food markets) for down-to-earth unpretentious, filling and cheap food - so for us it was a case of when in Singapore do as the locals do .......
Eating in these day and night markets is a fun and affordable way to stave off any hunger pangs. The food is cooked in front of you, so you know you are getting it fresh and the choice is mind-boggling.
Food aside, there are some other attractions! The Singapore Botanic Gardens is a major highlight, even if you are not particularly a flower lover. This 64-hectacre oasis of beauty and serenity in the middle of a bustling city boasts the largest collection of orchids in the world - and they really are a sight for sore eyes - even John (Chris is the one with the green fingers) agreed. He's learning, although Alan Titchmarsh he is not about to become.
Meanwhile, the man-made sight that stands out is on the marina - the gob-smacking statement that is the Marina Bay Sands resort. Owned by the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, it is a symbol of Singapore's reputation as one of the world's top travel destinations.
It is ludicrously over the top - this monster-sized structure consists of three brand spanking new high-rises linked together on top by a cruise ship-like structure which houses an Olympic-sized swimming pool - yet you can't help but admire the sheer audacity and vision of those who designed it. Welcome then to Las Vegas in Singapore.
The city - a nation too - really comes to life at night. Singa's skyscraper hotels and towering office blocks are awash with neon lights of every conceivable colour - but all in the best possible taste, of course.
Singapore is squeaky clean (drop chewing gum in the street and you are in big trouble. Wind Street offenders please take note) and very safe. It is virtually crime-free - and there is little chance of being hassled or hustled by anyone while walking the streets in the early hours.
John, however, did - and it was 10am - have occasion to firmly, but politely, decline the offer from a gentleman calling himself Sammy Boy to show him where the ''best tailor in Singapore'' would fit him up with the best and cheapest of suits. John felt he didn't really want to be fitted up or, indeed, stitched up, so he bade 'Sammy Boy' farewell without exchanging email addresses. Of course a visit here would not be complete without calling into the Long Bar for a Singapore Sling sundowner at the famous Raffles Hotel. Two of those for Chris and a few pints of Guinness for John make for a pleasant few hours - until the bill arrives. John declares himself to be feeling slightly under the weather - and it's nothing to do with his alcohol consumption, rather the cost of our late-night excursion.
But this is THE Raffles Hotel after all - we probably won't be passing by this way again sometime soon - and we feel we shouldn't really 'sling' our Singapore hook without a visit to this iconic and legendary watering hole. Would have loved to have been transported back to its heyday when the ex-pats would sip their G & Ts and smoke their Havana cigars, but even today the atmosphere here ain't half bad. Not the best monkey nuts we have tasted, though, but that's only a tiny quibble.
We are greeted on our final night by a torrential rainstorm. Just as our courtesy shuttle bus pulls in to drop us off for a night market nosh the heavens open. With no umbrellas to hand, our driver has a ready-made solution - cardboard boxes to put over our heads as we dash to escape the downpour.
Good call, drive. We stay relatively dry, though hardly cut elegant figures in this swishest of cities, to which we bid goodbye tomorrow morning before boarding our plane to Bangkok. Thailand here we come.