I'm a little Dumpling....hot and steamed !!!

We arrived in Singapore at 2 am and it was still 31 degrees, and felt like 99% humidity!  That's when the sweating started - and it hasn't stopped since.

Our hotel is approx 100 metres from the Formula 1 racing track, which for petrol heads like us is awesome. We get to watch it on TV and through the window with real sound. With air con. For Free!

There will be a concert after the race.  The locals told us it would go to 6 am, but thankfully it finished at midnight. We can see the stage from our room and heard the "doof doof" and the performances. Among the entertainers on stage were Rhianna and Sir Tom Jones. We also heard that Dynamo, the Magician Impossible, was surprising people with his amazing talent.  We have been watching him on TV - he is unbelievable! We'd love to see him in action.

The first people we met here at the hotel when we went down to breakfast, was a Kiwi couple.

It turns out that they have a farm in the place Bob grew up in NZ, and they attended the same school and were in the same class in Putaruru, a town that was about the same size as Yarram. 

Such a small world!

The highlight was going to the historic Raffles Hotel. The building is very large and well preserved, and is celebrating 125 years this year. It was not hard to imagine life in colonial days, when the British ruled Singapore and gentlemen used this exclusive Hotel to strengthen their social and business connections. The courtyard now has a full bar, but back then they had lounge chairs out there and attendants to bring them whatever they wished.

This is also where Somerset Maugham wrote some of his literary masterpieces. The "Singapore Sling" , the famous gin based cocktail reputedly inspired his creative thoughts, so of course Bob and I had to have one in his honour.

In keeping with tradition, Bob and I drank and shelled peanuts - which are then discarded on the floor as Somerset Maugham and his contemporaries were said to have done.  There are bowls of peanuts everywhere in the long bar, and big sacks of them at the door.  You can't see it in the picture because of the patterned tiles, but the floor in the long bar is completely littered with peanut shells. 

Bob wasn't sure about all this litter, and was keeping a watchful eye out... (pictured below).

...but I was quite happy to get into the spirit of it!!

We've got another few days here - time to enjoy seeing some more interesting stuff.

Till next time...