Singapore and Indonesia

Got a bit confused with my days in the last week.
We flew out of Australia at 1am on the 31st and arrived in Singapore 5 and a half hours later (in the same time zone) having had very little sleep.
So it was 1/4 to 7 when we arrived and just getting light outside but it was already 26 degrees and it was very humid. The airport was all very efficient and we took a taxi to our hotel, chosen because it would allow us to have our room from 8am without paying for the previous night, most hotels make you wait to check in until after midday. We went to sleep for a few hours and then went out to have a bit of an explore.
It was sooooo hot, above 30 and really high humidity. The streets were really busy, very clean and the people all very purposeful, no teenagers just lounging/hanging around.
We found our way to the train station and onto the beautifully air conditioned trains. The tickets were like plastic credit cards that you paid $1 for on top of your fare, and then when you returned the ticket at the end you were refunded your $1, so there is no littering of tickets and wasting of paper - Clever!
We got off the train in Chinatown and wandered through the streets, loads of little shops selling everything from miniature plastic flipflops to Bhuddist monks! No, not really, but if you look at the photos you'll see what I'm talking about; but there were an amazing variety of shops from antiques to modern electrical goods. At the end of Pagoda Street is the Sri Mariamman Temple - an amazingly gaudy affair with incredible paintings and statues everywhere. The bare chested priests wander around administering to the statues which sometimes involved pouring coconut milk over the top of them (the statues). There were several worshippers who sat cross legged and watched all this whilst rocking back and forth to the sounds of two musicians - a drummer and a man playing some type of oboe like instrument.
We left Chinatown and wandered through some of the modern part of central Singapore with huge high rises towering above us... but we were now hot and tired again, so after some food we returned to the hotel to have another snooze! On the way we visited a fruit and veg market we had seen on our way to the station and bought a huge bag of fruit - mangostenes, guavas and lichees for a pitance. As we returned to the hotel the heavens opened and the rain poured down for the rest of the afternoon. So we ended up not seeing as much of the city as we could have / should have and instead sat in the hotel and gorged ourselves on fresh fruit!
The next day we took a taxi to the ferry terminal and took the one hour ferry (sleek, modern, comfy catamaran style) to Bintan Island which is in Indonesia, we were met there by a representative from the hotel that I had booked on the internet and taken 45 min along tiny roads at hair raising speed and with life threatening overtaking manouevers on corners. However it was interesting to see the country, so very much like Ecuador, lots of very similar plants and the houses in the same sort of style too. One big difference though was that here there are endless numbers of mopeds being driven at snails pace with huge numbers of passengers or enormous side baskets laden with goods - unfortunately at the break neck speed we were travelling I did not manage to get any photos of these.
Our room at the hotel was roomy and cool. We ate at a restaurant set out on the end of a long peir where Celso was allowed to select his own fish from the nets at the back. We took a walk along the beach and explored all that was to offer before settling in for the night.
The next day I went for a pampering massage whilst Celso went to explore a bit more and take photos (his new passion), we all went for a long swim in the hotel pool and spent a large amount of time trying to get a picture of us jumping in - I don't know why we just decided that that was the thing to do!! It was a very relaxing day.
Our last day was Thursday the 3rd of June, we packed up and left our bags at the reception to go on a 3 hour Mangrove tour in a small motor boat with a driver who knew very little English and none of the names of the animals except for 'Monkey', 'Snake' or 'Bird'. However it was a great trip, first passing through a small village with all the houses on stilts, loads of boats and lots of net mending going on, then into the river. We saw a few 'black with yellow spots' snakes, monkeys, eagles, kingfishers (some white with rainbow colours and some blue), bright red or shiny black dragonflies and a 2 foot monitor lizard lazing out in the sun as well as several other small birds, some big birds (!) and of course all the weird and wonderful plants. It was a great few hours.
At the end we were met by a minivan that had our bags in and we were taken to the airport, a much calmer and more leisurely journey this time. However the ferry was anything but modern, sleek and comfy. The conditions were cramped and we were in an area with 60 seats with only one way (single file) in and out up a staircase and then one ladder up through a porthole at the back. If there had been an emergency I doubt that everyone would escape very easily. Anyway there wasn't (an emergency) and we arrived in Singapore on time well shaken and quite deafened from the noise of the engines and the vibrations that shook throughout the boat.
We took a taxi to the airport and are now awaiting our flight to Southern Africa, another one of those early in the morning flights. We arrive in Johannesburg tomorrow morning and then take a connecting flight to Windhoek Namibia around lunchtime for the start of the last leg of our journey - the African safari.