Singapore

We went to the observation deck of Bitexco Tower, the tallest building in Saigon.

Flight to Changi Airport, Singapore (great toilets!) and smooth journey to hostel, bought 3-day tourist MRT pass.

Spongebob thing in Changi Airport

We had our own room in a dorm again.

Hostel had a rooftop jacuzzi!

Explored the area, found the food court and some karaoke bars.

Went in the jacuzzi with some Malaysian lads who were there on a hockey coaching course.

Slept like babies.

Took until 11 next morning to figure out what we were doing with the day.

Took bus 145 to Buddha tooth temple, there was a ceremony happening but we were able to explore anyway. After going up the wrong set of stairs and hitting a dead end (annoying after 5 flights of steep steps) we found the Buddha tooth, and an exhibition about the Buddha himself and his life story.

Rooftop garden

10000 Buddhas

Walked out of the temple straight into Chinatown and had lunch.

Went down the MRT to Farmway and swam at Sengkang Swimming Complex - very cheap as it is a government owned and run pool, a relic from an initiative to build lots of affordable pools in the city to combat the intense heat. We weren't complaining, as we got in for $2! We also chose one with some cool slides and a jacuzzi which was an excellent decision.

Zoomed back to the town centre to eat dinner at Little India - we were literally the only non-Indians there, it was very surreal.

Went looking for Merlion Park, instead found Singapore Flyer (think London Eye), which was lit up spectacularly, along with a helix-design bridge which we had some photos taken on. We also watched the free light show from across the river and a free stage show that was going on.

Found Merlion Park and had some photos, before dragging ourselves home. Intended to go and have some pictures and a chill in the rooftop jacuzzi, but passed out as soon as we hit our beds.

Spent most of the next day wandering around a train station trying to figure out what to do next. Seems like we hit a bit of a dead end; Bali Indonesia was too expensive to reach by air, and too impractical to reach by bus and ferries, we couldn't afford to fly back to Vietnam or Cambodia, particularly as we would need new visas, and we couldn't stay in Singapore as it was too expensive there. Eventually we thrashed out a plan which involved us travelling North to Penang in Malaysia by bus and/or train, and then onto Southern Thailand and perhaps Bangkok before travelling back to Kuala Lumpur for our final weekend and flight home.

Decided on getting a bus as it seemed like the cheaper, more convenient option, particularly as it wouldn't necessitate an overnight stay in Singapore train station (the train we needed leaves only at 8am, daily).

Got a cheap bus over the border to Johor Bahru, and from there we got a bus to Butterworth, where we would catch a ferry across to Penang. 40 ringgit (£8) for the journey seemed a fair price for the distance we were travelling. Until the driver kicked us out in Kuala Lumpur (approximately halfway through e journey) at 1am, despite our protests that we were going to Butterworth. Our theory is that as we were the last passengers, he decided it wasn't worth his while taking us all the way to where we had paid to go.

So there we were, on the streets of KL, bus station closed, looking like we were going to be sleeping rough. It wasn't too bad though, I taught Andy a couple of card games and we swigged away at our grape Fanta like veterans. We were just getting comfortable, when we had a stroke of luck, as a Butterworth-bound coach stopped by around 3 hours later and allowed us to hop on for another 40 ringgit each. There were a few nervy moments where we thought we were going to get kicked off in the wrong place again but we were lucky and the bus left us right outside the ferry port.