31st October 2009

Arrived in Singapore after a long but quite good flight to be greeted by rain and lightning; however it was still warm, in fact as high as 26C. Although we were tired we had to keep going and decided to go to Clarke Quay. What neither of us had remembered was that it's Halloween and the place was absolutely heaving. Rosalyn and I felt grossly under-dressed as we watched swathes of people going by wearing fantastic masks and equally outlandish costumes. Everyone was in party mood with live music and the sheer weight of numbers. Interestingly enough, whilst everyone was drinking quite freely (they have 'happy hours' here as well, there was no evidence of the binge-drinking culture we see at home.

The hotel, Pan Pacific, is absolutely great but with one drawback – no wifi. It seems strange that in this day and age and in a place like Singapore we cannot get on-line in the hotel. Never mind, we will write up the blog off-line and find a cafe where we can get on-line and post it. As a result you may find that a day or two goes by before the appearance of a new blog. Certainly this will happen once we board the ship. There will be no free wifi and I understand it is quite pricey to log onto their system. We will just have to see how it goes.