I'm writing this from our youth hostel, The Inn Crowd, in Singapore's Little India. We've been here a few days now: it's taken a while to find the time to post this, so there's quite a bit to write about!

We arrived in Singapore safely with no problems. We both made the mistake of admitting at the airport that we had slight coughs, were taken to a special swine flu unit in the airport and told that (despite all indications to the contrary before and since) we were both feverish. Still, they gave us pieces of paper telling us to see doctors and let us go.

We proceded to our posh hotel we were staying at for the first night. We'd got a special offer on this hotel with our flights that meant we paid £1 each! The hotel was very swanky and we spent a good bit of time enjoying its two swimming pools. I was extremely tired by the time we got to the hotel (to the point that I was actually falling asleep standing up). I've found that I've got this every day since at a particular time in the early evening; apart from this, though, we've recovered fine from the jet lag (my first jet lag experience).

We moved the following day from the swanky hotel to the youth hostel in Little India where we plan to spend the rest of our time here. It's a very nice hostel.

I've seen lots of Singapore already. Going around the city with Hanna, who last lived here when she was 10, is rather like having a 10-year-old tour guide: as well as the usual highlights you'd expect a guide to point out, I get useful info on details like the best 40-40 hiding spots and good things to climb on.

We took a visit to Yong An Park, where Hanna used to live: interestingly, they seem to have made everything smaller than it used to be. We also spent some time in Holland Village, where we ate dinner and enjoyed an iced coffee in a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf.

Yesterday, Sunday, we went to an interesting mass at the Church of the Sacred Heart. The church itself is decorated with an odd semi-influence of Chinese decoration, with a lot of bright colours. In most respects, the mass was exactly like mass back at home only without the consonants. We had a Casio strings accompaniment to the hymns, with Casio beats to go with it and finished with that well-known hymn There'll Never Be Another You (no, it doesn't work as a hymn, really).

We then spent the rest of the day in the National Museum of Singapore, which was fantastic. Hanna had budgeted a couple of hours for it, but it's been revamped since she was last there and has a huge amount to see.

We went to a seafood restaurant on East Coast for dinner. This was excellent, but disappointing much more up-market than Hanna's memories of it. Now we're off to the botanic gardens today.