Singapore

In this picture of Singapore, you can see where old meets new.

On April 29th 2003 I flew from London to Singapore.

Our Quantas flight was (our, meaning me and my travel companion Fiona) practically deserted. Singapore had just began recovery from the SARS outbreak and I guess few travellers were still heading that way. Even though we had to remain in economy, were given the treatment of business class passengers and left the flight with a free bottle of champagne. We were also handed face masks (our choice to use them or not).

Upon entering Singapore's Changi International airport we were met with a machine to take our temperature (a procedure to prevent any more SARS outbreaks). There were still people walking around the airport with masks on.

We hadn't booked a hotel in advance, so we just made our way out and met a friendly taxi driver. We told him the price we wanted to spend on a good hotel and we negotiated our fare with him. He was true to his word and our price and took us to a lovely, but basic hotel.

On our way to the hotel the driver reccomended sites for us to visit. From the car window I could not help but to notice how clean Singapore was.

We were jet lagged! We went to bed and straight to sleep!!