Singapore!

The first thing I heard in Singapore was the sundown Rawa from the Sultan Mosque right by the hostel. Nice to hear it again, felt like life just stopped as everyone took some time to pray.  Singapore's beautiful, and full of great places to eat and drink and have some fun, but it's not as cheap as you might think! Really enjoying my hostel -  met some great people and had lots of fun with them. 

We went to Little India for lunch and a wander....

We also went to the Night Safari Zoo where we saw lots of animals just roaming around. We had to walk through a bat enclosure where all the bats were flying around just free as you like!

On my last night in Singapore we saw an awesome light show down on the harbour and wandered around all the swish hotel areas feeling like posh tourists instead of backpackers!

Insa and I had our Singapore Slings - a cocktail invented in Singapore many years ago and now served everywhere in the world.  It was worth the $15!

Ready for the off?

"I'm sitting in the airport feeling sick with held back tears.  Very hard to say goodbye. Can't write about it yet." I don't think I'll ever forget the feelings coursing through me as I wrote those lines in my trusty pink travel journal.  Once I got on the plane, I spent TWELVE AND A HALF hours desperately trying to sleep, but unfortunately I ended up spending all that time squished between a 6' 5'' man who snored and a girl who had the audacity to look perfectly comfortable and slept like a baby. After about three hours in the air, there was a medical emergency on board and the poor attendants were rushing about with oxygen, looking for a doctor, defibrillators and the whole shebang.  By the time I got to Singapore, I was very happy to get to my hostel and dump my bag! 

Free accomodation and food?! I'll take it!

 

 

I've just discovered a great website that offers hosts for voluntary work.  Each host asks that you work for 4 - 6 hours a day for either a 5 or 6 day week in exchange for accomodation and 3 meals a day.  Sounds good to me! What a great way to see places in Australia that I may not otherwise get to see.  You can organise to stay with a host for a period of a couple of weeks, or a month, or as long as they need you.  Once you've made contact and agreed all the terms by email, all that's left is to get to your hosts. 

 

Now I realise that not all work is for me - I don't think putting up electric fences or splitting logs is really what I'm into.  But working in B&B's and backpacker hostels or even on animal sanctuaries helping look after orphaned joeys could most certainly be an attractive prospect.

 

Watch this space, eh?

It begins!

This Griffin is also about to take flight. I have booked flights, bought travel insurance, and booked hostels in my first couple of stops.  The itinerary so far is as follows:

London - Singapore

Singapore - Hong Kong

Hong Kong - Sydney

Sydney - Christchurch

Auckland - Fiji

Fiji - San Fransisco

San Fransisco - Miami

Miami - London

That's a whole lot of flying! And that doesn't include all of the travel in between flights!  I'm so excited about the year ahead, but have to admit to being a little nervous too.  I know once I get to Singapore though, all worries will be left behind.  My plan is to write every day of my travels in my big old travel journal - I'll then update the blog as regularly as I can. 

That's it for now, but I'll be blogging more and more closer to the first flight on the 15th of September.