Bruce and Vicky got me to the airport last evening in plenty of time for the chaos to begin. I was too early to check in so managed to find somewhere to sit. When at last the desks opened for the flight to Kuala Lumpur I joined the long queue of mainly Indian looking people. A lot of them had loads of suitcases, and either the multiplicity of their cases or the combined weight resulted in would-be passengers being expelled from the queue to try again. At least one Indian was rather abusive towards the poor staff. To my grateful surprise I managed to book myself and my case onto the connecting flight to Singapore.

I slummed it at Auckland Airport by having had sausage egg "McMuffin" at Macdonalds. For some reason my credit card was refused so had to fall back to cash. There was a lady surveying what passengers thought of New Zealand tourism but she bypassed me - did I look too odd? On the plane saw a Korean film Along with the Gods (great will get BDs of this and sequel) plus Bodies at Rest a quality Hong Kong thriller plus a lot of "Joker" which didn't really click for me. Singapore airport is a delight compared with so many - no queueing at immigration, so soon out that the private car hire driver wasn't there. He had parked at an angle in the car park and we got told off by another driver.

I stopped over in Singapore both on the way out and way back. The only place I've been where I didn't have to queue going through immigration. Subway trains clean and safe and functional and open. A city of people upon people, buildings upon buildings. I got sweaty from stupidly trying to carry luggage from MRT Bugis to the Albert Court Hotel! And getting lost in the process! Exploration was a failure but did find an Indian run Internet cafe (real hole in wall stuff). So I could email home. The electrical sockets in Singapore are UK style so I managed to recharge my batteries.