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 We arrived from Thailand midday at the clean and crisp
Singapore airport and were met by our driver who took us to the hotel. The ride in was down a flower-lined motorway with everything neat and tidy. This was a pleasant contrast to the ride
out to Bangkok's airport. We were staying in the legendary Raffles, which was in the heart of Singapore. It only took about 20 minutes to get there and we received a friendly welcome from
the staff. Our room was actually a mini suite and was very comfortable. It had a separate sitting area and dining area, a bedroom, and a two-room bathroom the size of many apartments
in New York. There are only 103 rooms in the hotel so it is small and comfortable. However, it is connected to a larger plaza with the usual high-end boutiques. The upside of this was that the
complex had 15 restaurants so there was not far to go to find good food.
 Our first task was to get connected to the net so we could send some emails and
faxes. We had been informed as we left Bangkok that our Blue Train trip from Victoria Falls to Pretoria had been cancelled for safety reasons. This led us to
conclude that we should cancel the water safari as well, since the political situation in Zimbabwe was still going downhill fast. We contacted our travel
company in South Africa and rejuggled the trip to spend more time in the South African winelands before going to the Kruger for the main safari. This
took some time but we played the time zone game and had everything resolved by the next morning.
 It was time for dinner and we went to the Long Bar Steakhouse at
Raffles. We had been on a nearly all seafood diet since Australia and we needed a good steak. We were not disappointed with our excellent steaks and a good bottle of Australian wine. The only downside was this
was Raffles and Singapore and the prices there make New York look cheap. Oh for those expense account days….
 We got up the next day, and after breakfast in the Tiffin room, went
exploring in the vicinity. Singapore is very close to the Equator and you could tell. It was hot and steamy.  We viewed some of the monuments and walked along the riverbank. A huge statue of a "Mer-lion", a cross between a lion and a fish dominated one area. You can see
Arnie checking it out. It seems to be a symbol for the city as copies are sold in all of the souvenir shops. Singapore's downtown area looks like a smaller version of Hong Kong, only a lot neater. They have also
preserved an area along the waterfront and turned it into boutiques and restaurants. Like this entire planned city, it looked neat and clean.
  Our walk left us hot and tired and we went back to the famous Long Bar to have a beer. Actually we had several half yards of beer and Arnie tried his hand at it as well. One of the
attractions of the place is that you can sit there and shell an endless supply of peanuts and just throw the shells on the floor. The only thing missing was sawdust
on the floor. Larry and some friends spent a weekend there a few years ago doing nothing but that. He was disappointed to see that
they had not named the table after him since they had purchased it several times over. Arnie gave it a shot but its hard to shell peanuts with your paws sewed closed! The Long Bar is where
the Singapore Sling was invented but we stuck to the beer. It was amusing to watch the tourists come into the bar, order a Sling, take their pictures with it and run out the door to the next photo op.
As an aside, the influx of outside visitors is the only downside to the hotel. It has been magnificently restored to its former glory and cost was no object. It is a registered national
monument. However, with only 103 rooms, there is no way the place can pay for itself, no matter how high the rates go. Thus, the shops and restaurants are keyed to the bus tour trade where
you make a quick visit and leave lots of money behind. They have gated off the walkways where the residents stay but you still half expect to open the blinds and have a flashbulb go off in your face.
 We had dinner the second night in the Raffles Grill, their best
restaurant and it did not disappoint.  The food, surroundings, and service
were outstanding. It was a wonderful dinner and by eating early we got out before the crowds arrived. We went to the Billiard Room bar for an after dinner drink.
We heard the story of a tiger that was shot under the pool table almost 100 years ago. We went back the next day and looked in the light and found out that they had missed one. Thankfully, no one had a gun.
We were leaving at midnight the next day for Cape Town but extended the room so we could rest before we left. This allowed us to spend a relaxed third day exploring and shopping. Larry
found an antique map of the Pacific drafted after Captain Cook's voyages. Gisele bought some more silk to go with the Thai silk and a small gold dragon to add to her collection of carved
animals. We had dinner at the Empire room, the Chinese restaurant at Raffles. The food was good and obviously appealed to the locals as we were the only Occidentals in the place.
We packed up and took a nap for our late evening trip to the airport. Checking out was interesting as all of the first floor restaurant areas and the lobby were taken over for a big
function. Finding an armed guard at the door made more sense when we learned that it was some big party thrown by the local Harry Winston jeweler outlet. The people in the cheap seats even
blocked the way to the checkout desk. The nouveau riche smell was in the air (along with constant cell phone rings) and it was sort of funny to see a very high end California red wine
(Heitz Cellars Martha's Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon) sitting in Champagne buckets full of ice!
We arrived at the airport only to learn that our Singapore airlines flight had a major delay due to equipment problems, this meant they had to find a spare 747. We went to the lounge and
spent the next 3 hours until 2 am in the morning waiting to board the flight. This meant that our Jo'Burg to Cape Town flight was going to be missed. Singapore airlines promised to take care of
it but did not. It was a poor start to an 11 hour, two-stop journey to Jo'Burg. We won't recount all of the boring details here but we have come to the conclusion that Singapore Airlines (once a
great airline) is now one of the world's most overrated airlines. We hope that their service attitudes don't spread as they have taken big minority ownership positions in two of our
favorite airlines, Air New Zealand and Virgin. The service in business class on Singapore air was worse than on any other airline we have flown.
The trip was uneventful although it was weird to be served a full dinner at 3:30 am and a breakfast 5 hours later before our first stop in Mauritius. We arrived in Jo'Burg the following
morning to start the African phase of our adventure.
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