Singapore and my birthday

The last two weeks in Singapore have been just wonderful and have flown! I have visited interesting art museums, jogged along the river with Bec and lunched from street stalls with fascinating food, bought fruit in little India, took photos of exotic flowers and trekked out to Changi with its heart wrenching history and tragic photos. Singapore is a beautiful clean city with amazing parks, a stunning botanical garden, endless shopping malls with boutique shops and loads of history. It is growing and the mammoth new casino being built is testimony to its expansion. We ventured out to Sentosa island, a small island connected by a causeway bridge and filled with fun parks. The beaches and cafes there are clean and worth a lazy afternoon. I am unable to load photos at this moment in time but will do later on.

My birthday was full of wonderful surprises. Bec and AJ have spoilt me with not only a delicious dinner out at one of Singapore's best restaurants named Senso, but with tickets to see Al Jarreau a few nights ago. For his age, his crooning style of old jazz and romantic songs were just delightful. I also now have two new wonderful books with awesome salmon recipes and one of unusual juicing styles. I cant wait to try both and feel a few relaxing lunches coming up at home with dear close friends.

The highlight of my birthday is yet to come. Bec knew I always had a dream to see the orangutans. These magnificent human like apes have always intrigued me. We decided that a visit to Borneo was out of our budgets so canceled that idea. Little did I know that SOMEHOW Bec managed to get the two of us permission to work directly with the orangutans, in their cages, feeding them, cleaning the caged areas and making observation notes in a special compound in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for a few days. Normally vet students or other animal studying people can only go there, but they have accepted us. I am beside myself with anticipation of this visit.

So we fly out of Singapore for KL tonight only taking light back packs. We had to purchase gum boots for working with the animals and will have to have blood tests tomorrow morning for H1N1 flu to make sure we cant infect the orangutans.
Part of this special birthday present is staying at a beautiful hotel in KL for 4 nights. I am hoping that I can take lots of special photos to show you.
After that we decided to travel to the Perhentian Islands for 3 days before heading back to Singapore the day before I head back to Oz. Apparently these islands are totally unspoiled with crystal clear water filled with loads of fish and white beaches. We managed to find a beachfront hut nestled amongst coconut palms just ten feet from the waters edge in a gorgeous bay on the bigger island. It seems there still are places that are dirt cheap and just paradise - we must search them out and experience them before the high rises and developers get in and leave their concrete footprints......

For anyone wanting to know when I return home. I was unable to get onto the earlier flight, it is totally booked out being a direct flight. So I will enter Oz via Perth and come home at lunchtime on the 22nd. OMG!! Thats the end of next week! Am really looking forward to catching up with everyone. I feel I have been away for AGES!
Better go and finish packing..........XX