Where the old meets the new

Beyond the Bosphorus, we travel further to South-east Asia - the region with perhaps the world's best hotels, friendlist people and most spectacular scenery (though watch this space, no doubt there'll be some superlatives left for the other stops on our travels)!

Singapore, unlike our previous two places on this tour of ours, is somewhere to which we've already been, so we had always intended to devote the time more to relaxation than adventure... we just hadn't quite realised how much more, since we were met at the hotel (itself a glittering modern marvel with miles of marble and cascades of crystal) and with a complimentary upgrade not just to the next class of room but a whole classier wing! Thus the Boyds got to spend 4 days being waited upon hand and foot in Shangri-La Valley-Wing comfort; lounging either by the pool or in our massive room (with its own view over the city, dressing room and butler service), scoffing free snacks and sandwiches, and imbibing free (and free-flowing) cocktails, mocktails and Moët et Chandon champagne!

We did, however, manage to drag ourselves away and visit perhaps the most important and oldest sight in this modern city-state: Raffles hotel. Not only colonial masterpiece with its signature cocktail, the Singapore Sling, but defininitely the only place in this sparklingly clean metropolis where littering is not only permitted but encouraged! (It's a tradition to throw the husks of the peanuts you've eated onto the floor by your feet - and who are we, tidy though we usually are, to argue?)