Well Singapore is a jolly little place - clean streets, great food, all the air-conditioned malls you could wish for and a bit of British history thrown in for good measure.
It was a real change to the chaos of Manila. I still wasn't quite right physically, so it was good to be on near familiar ground. Although it was a bit weird coming across the auditions for Singapore Idol!
I'd originally only planned to spend a couple of days in Singapore, but needing to recover myself coupled with the very pleasant feeling of the place meant I actually stayed for four days.
They've got a great National Museum with interactive guide gadgets and although I've tried to avoid museums wherever possible on this trip, I did lose myself there for a good four hours.
Not very blog-worthyI know, but the gadgets were really cool. You just pointed it at an exhibit and as well as the audio commentary you'd get extra written information and any multimedia content they had. Kind of like being able to google everything in a museum - it was really absorbing.
Well I thought it was cool anyway.
After such a tough day I thought I deserved a drink. So it was over to Raffles for a little mooch around.
I'm not sure what the attraction is about Raffles. I mean it's a lovely hotel, but nothing that special. Yet somehow it's burrowed its way into our nation's iconography, and there is a certain 'something' about the place.
And the iconic Singapore Sling was actually pretty good I thought - if a little expensive at 13 quid a pop.
Most of my time in Singapore was actuallt spent organising my run up the Malaysian and Thai peninsular to Bangkok, but I did find time to go and visit the Battle Box - the British military bunker where the loss of Singapore to the Japanese was orchestrated.
Inside they'd made a valiant effort to liven what is essentially a giant concrete box up a bit, but while the history was interesting the waxworks and animatronics left a little to be desired.
Still, this is actually the room where Percival and his colleagues held the meeting and made the decision to surrender.
The guide also told us about the 'secret' escape tunnel and ladder that led off this room that the generals would use in the event the bunker was over-run.
In a wierd piece of reverse snobbery we were told that the ordinary soldiery knew nothing of this escape plan. But you'd have to have been an extraordinarily stupid soldier not to have noticed the exit on top of the bunker!
I was actually sad to leave Singapore, it's a really pleasant place - if you ignore the 2,000 pound fine for riding your bike through an underpass, the lack of a free press and a choice of political parties.
But then the Chinese are usually more concerned with money than politics, and on that score Singapore has no worries.
