Singapore is EXPENSIVE! Haven't bought anything (at least according to my standards) and have blown all my money. Am actually starting to miss Bombay now....much as I love travelling, somehow home is always the place I end up longing for. Everytime I look at the harbour here it reminds me of the view from my bedroom window in Bombay. In these last two weeks have experienced every kind of accomodation possible - from Backpacker's Cozy Corner, which is an extremely neat 'n clean and centrally located backpacker's hostel with airconditioned doubles starting at S$30 (inclusive of breakfast and internet) to the Sentosa Resort and Spa where my suite cost approx S$1000. Tomorrow I go to the Raffles Hotel for two days and am really looking forward to experiencing this historic property. From there its back home on the 2nd :)

Went to Kuala Lumpur for three days, but frankly did not like the city too much. Its dirty, the roads are not safe after dark and the public transport system is murder. All the cabbies will take you for a ride if you dont know the routes - charging you upwards of thrice the amount. Stayed at the Heritage Station Hotel there, which was pretty OK except that the cupboard in my room would start making the most scary and loud screeching noises at exactly 7 in the morning everyday - and for absolutely no reason at all. For the first time in my life I actually believed in ghosts!!

The two things I really liked in Kuala Lumpur were the Petronas Towers and the Sepang F1 circuit...pretty impressive stuff. They allow only 100-120 people on the Petronas skybridge everyday and tickets are available for only a couple of hours in the morning. I believe people start queing up there around 6.30 in the morning. This was one of the times I was really thrilled that I had left law and returned to journalism, because the press card works wonders in such a situation :)

Must do for Singapore visitors: the Water Tours Harbour Cruise. This is a two-and-a-half hour cruise aboard a Chinese Junk, which takes you to some of the far-flung islands past the Singapore coast. You actually go pretty close to the Indonesian waters and can see their skyline in the far distance. The Singapore coastline, of course, looks simply amazing from the boat. If you are taking the afternoon cruise, pay the S$6 extra and opt for the High Tea version. That way you get to do three things at the same time - the cruise itself, experience the inside of a traditional Chinese tea house (replicated on the lower deck) and taste the famed Chinese savories.