Day 74 – 21st January – Koh Phi Phi to Singapore
We got up and then went to go say bye to Matt and Danielle as they were going to Koh Lanta that day and we were travelling to Singapore. It was sad to say goodbye as we’d had such a good time together over the past 12 days.
We got the ferry to the Phuket and then a shuttle to the airport and arrived in Singapore in the evening. We got the train from the airport and managed to find our hostel ok. We went for a little walk in the evening to get our bearings and found some nice bars / restaurants near to our hostel.

Day 75 – 22nd January – Singapore
We got up and ready and set off for a day sightseeing in Singapore. The first stop was Chinatown which was good to see and there were a lot of decorations up for the Chinese New Year; the year of the pig.  I think Dan and I were born in the year of the pig!  After looking around some of the streets we went to have a look at the Hawker stalls (a bit like a food court).  We found the stall that was  previously awarded a Michelin star and joined the lengthy queue for lunch.  We ate there (chicken and rice) for $5 for the both of us – what a bargain especially considering how expensive Singapore was on the whole!  
After this we got the train across town and saw the iconic Marina Bay Sands building and then walked to the Asian Civilisations Museum and spent some time looking around.
In the evening we stayed local and had a couple of drinks and dinner near our hostel.

Day 76 – 23rd January – Singapore
Today we went to Singapore Zoo for the day.  This is ranked as the third best zoo in the world so we were looking forward to spending some time here.  The zoo didn’t disappoint and we spent a few hours looking around at the various different animals. 
In the evening we went to Marina Bay Sands to see the sunset and also to see the impressive building including the roof top infinity swimming pool and bar. It costs $20 to go up to the bar, however they refund this off the price of a drink so it’s not bad value really (although you can’t get a drink for less than $20!)  The rooftop is really impressive as it has a huge infinity pool that hotel guests can enjoy.  Unfortunately for Dan and I, it was quite a bit out of our budget! After a couple of drinks on the rooftop we decided we’d best eat and started looking at food options.  There seemed to be a reasonably priced buffet on the ground floor of the hotel so we decided to eat there.  The food was incredible and we had a lovely evening until the bill came! What we thought was going to be about $100 was in fact over double the amount! The reasonable price I thought I had read had a star next to it……. Basically the price was ‘from’ $45pp and I read it to just be $45pp.  We were informed that this was the price for breakfast – whoops! On top of this there was also a surcharge for Chinese New Year as well as tax and service charge!  Dan spoke to the manager and managed to haggle some money off the bill! Lesson learned, make sure you read the stars / small print! 

Overall we both liked Singapore and would come back, however to do it well, we just need to win the lottery as it was so much more expensive than the other South East Asian countries that we had visited!!  This was also the last stop in our 8 weeks in South East Asia and we’d had such a great time.  An area of the world to highly recommend.  The five countries (Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand & Singapore) we visited were all very different and unique in their own way and we’d seen some amazing places along our travels.

Next stop – Australia!!