South East Asia

Our three nights in Singapore were lovely and relaxing. Singapore was as lovely as we remembered it; warm, humid, clean, organised, and covered in flowers. It is also reassuringly familiar, probably because they drive on the left. We did very little and enjoyed our hotel and especially the pool. We had stayed at Raffles before and Peter really liked it, although our currency must have been a lot stronger on our last visit because this time prices felt really exhorbitant. We had our obligatory Singapore Sling in the Long Bar - for the princely sum of £15 a throw which seems a lot for a glass of juice with a bit of gin in it. Whilst I shopped one morning, Peter had the pool terrace to himself but for one very old gentleman with skin the colour of a faded aubergine - who as it turns out was the man who played the piano so beautifully in the lobby in the evenings.

We visited the zoo for a very touristy night safari which was actually quite interesting and saw some animals we didn't even know existed. Peter had also arranged a lovely harbour tour for us on a replica of a lovely old fashioned Chinese junk. It was pouring with warm rain when we set off that day, but we persevered in the hope that it would brighten up and it did. The boat took us all over the harbour, quite far out and past Sentosa and from the water we watched the cable car taking people to the island from the mainland. We went out to sea a little bit and weaved between some of the enormous ships waiting for customs and immigration clearance before being allowed to dock, and motored past the most massive and complicated docks which, apparently (by tonnage) are the biggest docks in the world.

On the flight from Singapore to Kong Kong I devoured a book which was given to me by a friend shortly before we left: "Many Lives, Many Masters" (Dr Brian Weiss), a totally compelling read and really appropriate given all the new stuff we are learning about religions and the afterlife. I shall say no more, except I recommend it as an excellent read which will get you thinking about the eternal question "is this all there is?". (having said that, my life at the moment is however pretty damned fine!)

On arrival in Hong Kong we were lucky enough to be treated to an upgrade at the Peninsula Hotel in Kowloon. Our Harbour View room (which Peter had paid an arm and a leg for last time we were in Hong Kong) declined to reveal much as it was very misty and more of the same was forecast for the rest of our four day stay. As we consoled ourselves that the weather didn't matter as we would be coming back again for two days after a couple of weeks in China, the sun came out and stayed out - except for one rather alarming day... Peter had arranged for us to take a private gondola on the cable car up to see the "Big Budda" on Lanau Island. It was very misty and we were advised not to bother, but we did it anyway. The views were still pretty spectacular, but when the weather worsened they closed down the cable car service. When it reopened after lunch, Peter flashed the VIP card he had cleverly bought, we jumped the enormous queue and took our carriage back to sea level. On the way down (about 35 mins) the storm grew worse again, only this time with high winds and we were swinging around all over the place. It was quite frightening and I felt really nauseous. Dinner that night was a reassuring million calorie fondue in the Peninsula's Swiss Restaurant as I certainly didn't feel like anything spicy!

We took a day trip to Macau - the Las Vegas of Asia and had the most fascinating time. Macau's population is half a million people and they all live in a total area of just 29 square kilometres! It is getting bigger though as they reclaim more and more land from the sea. The Portuguese were there for about 400 years (the Dutch too for a short time before that) so the architecture is quite European and not at all what you would expect at one of China’s southern extremities, and food takes on a Portuguese slant. It's only an hour on board a TurboJetfoil and very comfy it was too. We were met by our guide at the port in the brilliant sunshine and whisked off to see a temple (quelle suprise!), then to the Macau Tower which, despite our mutual dislike of heights, we decided to ascend. We shot up 61 floors to the top in a lift that made our ears pop but I found myself clinging to the "core" and simply couldn't venture to the glass walls at the edge. I used my camera zoom to get some great shots of the surrounding landscape with its weird and wonderful array of shiny skyscrapers. We walked past the station where the bungee jumpers leap off front a platform 61 floors up and my stomach turned as we saw a couple of instructors standing casually out there with some brave (mad?) Europeans in harnesses. On the glass-panelled floor of the 58th story we laughed at a considerate yellow and black warning sign stuck to the window below the bungee station declaring "Caution! Falling People". After a bit of lunch on Fisherman's Wharf, a long pedestrian street lined with replica Dutch and Portugese architecture - all built within the last three years on reclaimed land, we headed off to The Venetian for a look at the Macau gambling scene. The Venetian in Macau is exactly the same as The Venetian hotel and casino in Las Vegas, complete with canals, life size gondolas and singing gondoliers. I would like to say we visited a lovely old Portuguese Catholic church, but in fact we visited a lovely old front of a church. The front facade is all that is left of a 16th century cathedral which is propped up from behind by a complicated structure made out of steel and is a major tourist attraction on a hilltop looking over downtown Macau. Apparently there is thriving sex industry in Macau for the curious Chinese visitors who like to see Russian girls, and it may be that we just weren't taken to that part, but we didn't see anything. Shopping is another tourist attraction, (although there was no time for shopping that day), with taxes being non-existent or at worst very low - and over lunch we noticed that imported wine was considerably less expensive than we had seen it anywhere else in Asia. Apparently the taxes are non-existent because the casinos pay 50% corporation tax and the Government is happy with that! Although it may be fair to summarise Macau as a centre for gambling, sex, and shopping, I still got the strong feeling that there is so much more to discover if you just scratch the surface a little deeper. Sadly on this visit we just didn't have the time.

We are in China now for a couple of weeks and will be returning to Hong Kong for a couple of days afterwards before leaving for the States. We still haven't killed each other and Peter continues to be the most wonderful travel companion.

by Angela Warrener

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