This is one of the last sights of Indonesia...

   and this one of the first of Singapore.

The contrast could hardly be more stark. Singapore reminded me of Simcity. Everything looks as if it was built very recently and kept in perfect condition. It is like a real life version of those architect's impressions of how they hope their plans will work out. Carefully regulated people move about by foot, train or car in perfect precision and (very un-Indonesian) hardly a scrap of litter. We even saw 2 men washing the main shopping street with mops and buckets because red fruit falling from the trees was staining the pavements.

No traffic congestion because of electronic road pricing.                  The ship on top of the three tower hotel here is actually a swimming pool.

We stayed at Raffles Marina which, although not quite the famous Raffles Hotel (at $700 a night), was for us very luxurious with electricity and drinking water on tap next to the boat (something we haven't experienced since Darwin), free shuttle bus, a luxurious swimming pool and even free newspapers delivered to the boat everyday....all for about a quarter of UK marina prices. The only problem we had was, because we had not been in a marina for so long we had various jobs to do and only managed a couple of days in central Singapore. It certainly deserves longer, but we may well be back.

A  stall selling all sorts and sizes of dried fish .

The old and the new.

Buddhist o.t.t. temple...

and its much more beautiful roof garden.

We also visited this only slightly less o.t.t. Hindu temple.

Singapore is truly multi-cultural with people from all over the world.

We spent most time in China town and had  a couple of excellent Chinese meals in local restaurants. In one we sat at a table with some young locals who helped us with the menu and chatted to us about this extraordinary country..