Good morning everyone,

We arrived in Singapore at around 22:30. First surprise was the incredible heat once we stepped outside. It's warmer here in the middle of the night then it ever is in the Netherlands. Second surprise was the taxi we got. It felt like the driver had purchased an air conditioner and put wheels under it. It didn't really matter though because it got us from the airport to the Marrison hotel (103 Beach Road).

The hotel room itself is quite small, but we do have a window which is uncommon here. The bathroom is a shower with a toilet underneath it and a sink on the side. We do have a big flat screen tv though and free Wifi. It's not a bad room at all, and the air conditioner works wonders, it really does.

We had a good night sleep and the next morning we went out to explore Singapore. Of course it was even warmer than the night before and the humidity didn't help either. We walked to the City Hall train station and bought ourselves a 3 day tourist pass. Thankfully all the stations - no, every building in entire Singapore - is air conditioned.

We went to Chinatown first. Here we walked around, checking out the shops until we stumbled on a Hindu Temple. We looked around a bit and then went on to the Chinese Heritage Museum. There we heard a tour had just left for around Chinatown so we quickly went around the corner to look for the guide.

She gave us a very interesting tour of the suburb and told us a lot about the lifestyle of Singapore citizens. She avoided the tourist sites which we could very well discover on our own so we got to learn a lot about the country and about the strict rules they had. Afterwards we went to the Buddhist Temple nearby. There were lots of people there playing Chinese Chess, it was very hard to follow but fun to see.

When we got out of the Temple on the other side we went back to the subway station and took the train to Little India. We walked around a bit there too, got a fresh fruit drink and then went back to the hotel. I was exhausted. Maybe it's the jet lag, but probably just the extreme heat. We get tired quite fast and taking an afternoon rest with air conditioning helps.

At night we went out for a bite but had a Singapore Sling first at the Rafflers hotel. Nearby were great places to eat and after dinner we walked back to the hotel because it was getting late. Still extremely warm outside though, so we were thankful for the cool air in our hotel again. It was time for bed though, so we got a good night sleep and today we'll go out exploring some more.

Jeremy