travelling allrite

Waiting at the Qantas Lounge in Singapore for our flight home. I've just been too busy to finish writing updates these past few days, but I'll publish them eventually. In short: I caught the train from Penang to Singapore while the others flew.  We visited Sentosa Island and the Singapore Zoo.  I lost my appetite.  Would either be happy to stay here for another week or to be at home right now. Hope the flight is good, but I doubt it.  Write more later. 

More indecision about where to go. Singapore Zoo was high on our list of "must see agains" so that's where we decide to go. It's a bit easier to get to than before, with a couple of MRT rides and the Mandai express bus from Khatib station. The zoo itself is beautifully designed. Water barriers rather than fences separate the visitors from the animals so your feel like you can really see them. Our favourites were definitely the primates. The black siamang swinging through the trees while gharials pretended to be statues below. The comically big nosed proboscis monkeys with bulging bellies that will explode if they eat fruit. The orangutans that perform in the trees above onlookers, no fences between them and us. The big male Sumatran orangutan who sits up at the glass as if to pose for the selfies with the visitors, his sad eyes bringing tears to mine, while his mate lounges back in his nest acting out my fantasy of the moment. A group of four...

I have a problem. I'm in Singapore and I have no appetite. Maybe I just ate too much in Malaysia, but I simply don't feel hungry. Also, I'm getting sick. Fortunately Alex is fine after throwing up over a day ago. And B is as hungry as ever. Our hotel, the Dorsett, is located at the end of Singapore's Chinatown. We walk in towards the communist sounding Peoples Park complex, looking for diarrhoea medication for me, but the pharmacies are all closed. The others have bowls of noodles for breakfast, I a wedge of shallot pancake. When the pharmacy opens it doesn't sell any useful medication. Alex is going through a phase of indecisiveness where "it's okay" or "I don't mind. I kind of want to and kind of don't care." So he kind of wants to go to Sentosa Island. but we aren't going to Universal Studios Singapore again, okay? "Okay." We catch the MRT to Harbourfront and ride the Sentosa Express across to t...

It makes no sense. I could sleep in, have a wonderful buffet breakfast and fly to Singapore in a bit over an hour. Instead I have to wake before dawn, skip breakfast and spend at least eleven hours on trains, arriving at midnight. Why? Because I'm me. Last time I did this trip was 22 years ago and it involved almost two days of travel sitting up in a slow train with terrible programs and advertising playing out loud over the carriage screens. It was horrible. So why am I doing it again? Since then the route has been electrified to Gemas and the trains modernised to run up to 140 km/h. No more night sleepers, just a new electric multiple unit set. It's a chance to sit back, relax and enjoy the scenery without worrying about the weather outside. I wake, as usual, before the alarm clock rings. My body doesn't know what time zone it is in and I haven't had the best sleep. Unfortunately, I seem to have a bout of the runs, just the thing you don't nee...