We're staying in a palace!!

We're in Singapore and we're staying at my cousins' house. Oh my god, it's amazing...it's huge, and lovely, and they've given us their room which is ENORMOUS - we've got a double bed EACH and enough floor space for Vic to do handstands as well (always good). And an ensuite bathroom. And a balcony. It's just so luxurious compared to little hostel rooms and dormitories.

My cousins aren't around yet - they're on holiday in England and get back this afternoon. They have a nanny/maid who let us in - she's really nice and has been doing so much stuff for us, but we just can't really cope with it, not being used to that kind of thing. She did our washing and hung it out to dry! She set out breakfast for us! We've spent our time stammering inarticulately: "it's ok - thank you so much - no, we're fine..."

Singapore really reminds me of Barbados: same climate (it's so hot and humid), same size island...walking here (town) from Sue and Petes' house really made me feel like I was there. Really quiet streets with white houses and palm trees. Dogs barking in the distance. It's making me want to go to the beach, but apparently the sea around here is incredibly polluted. Weird considering how authoritarian the government is (the streets are so clean; there's a huge fine for dropping litter. No chewing gum under the seats; it's illegal. Ditto smoking in public places and pissing in lifts. Vic and I were drinking water on the train yesterday and realised we could probably get fined for it. Plus drug trafficking is punishable by DEATH, whoa). The political history of Singapore is pretty interesting. The government provides so much for the residents whilst at the same time restricting freedom of speech and controlling...everything. You can get fined for criticising the government here. I'm scared.

We're currently on Orchard Road, which is kind of the main street, lined by incredibly posh shopping centres and stuff. We've got a plan to go to see "Street Scenes" by the Singapore lyric opera, a jazz/opera thing tonight. Tomorrow we will hopefully be going to the Singapore WOMAD festival with a friend-of-a-friend of Vic's who we're trying to meet up with. (It's all about the connections for us here, apparently!)