Friday 1 August, Swiss National Day

Making the most of WiFi at our Singapore hotel. We had a good night's sleep and a late breakfast. Weather forecast rain. We hope to visit the Gardens of the Bay today. Pickup for the airport for our Emirates flight to Melbourne is at 20.00 and flight time 8 hours.

The new Gardens by the Bay are very imaginative

This morning we took a taxi to the Gardens by the Bay. We saw the whole park from the comfort of a little train before exploring some of the Heritage Gardens and taking the lift to the Sky Walk. We had lunch and a cold beer in the Majestic restaurant there, which served dim sum -very delicious.

In the Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapore

We also visited the nearby Asian Civilisations Museum, which had art and artefacts from China, Malaysia and India among others. Then back to the hotel to check out and relax in the lobby bar. We listened to the jazz singer.

Our driver to the airport was rather late, but then the flight was also late. We arrived in Melbourne at 8.30 am the next morning.

Wed 30 / Thur 31 July

Up early to finish packing and enjoy breakfast. However as we stood outside in the rain, our taxi failed to turn up at 9am. We had to call them. We arrived at the airport at 9.45 but our plane was delayed by 4 hours. In the end we took off 6 hours late at 17.30 - very frustrating.

A very expensive drink at Raffles' famous Long Bar

The flight was full and went smoothly. We had two meals on board and watched the Woody Allen film Fading Gigolo. We arrived in Singapore, six hours ahead of Europe, at 11.30 am the next morning. Our driver was waiting to take us to Grand Park City Hall.

Outside the Hindu temple, Sri Mariamman

We explored the Padang area, the river and Merlion Park before taking a taxi to Raffles Hotel. We had a very expensive Singapore Sling in the Long Bar. Then back to the hotel for a nap before dinner.

We took a taxi to Chinatown for a meal at Blue Ginger. We ate soup with crab balls and then ayam buah keluak, a chicken dish with tamarind paste, and deep fried bean curd. We also had a local dessert.

We walked back past a colourful Hindu temple and ended the evening with a cocktail in the hotel bar.

The day before - packing

I am collecting together everything I would like to take on our holiday to Australia, Singapore and Malaysia. I have assembled all the travel documents, money, gifts and mails, travel guides and so on. The taxi to the airport is booked for 9am tomorrow. Packing is more tricky.We need to cater for two different climates, Melbourne in winter and Singapore and Malaysia always warm and humid. Plus the graduation ceremony will require more formal clothing than we normally wear. Shoes are a big problem!

We fly from Zurich to Singapore with Singapore Airlines and stay there overnight.We leave here on Wednesday morning and arrive early on Thursday morning. We are staying one night at the Grand Park City Hall hotel. We leave Singapore on Swiss National Day, 1 August in the evening to fly with Emirates to Melbourne, arriving on Saturday morning early. Then we will stay six nights at the Travelodge Hotel. The main event of our stay this time will be Matthew's graduation on 5 August. I'm looking forward to it!

We leave Melbourne's cool climate on Friday 8 August to fly with Emirates to Singapore, arriving just before midnight. We are staying two nights at the same hotel as before. Saturday 9 August is Singapore's National Day and there will be fireworks. We leave early on Sunday morning to take the train across the border to Melaka in Malaysia in the first day of our 10 day Impressions of Malaysia tour. We have an English-speaking guide and will travel by car or minibus, hopefully air-conditioned.

The Malaysia tour takes us to Kuala Lumpur, Cameron Highlands, Penang, and the east coast resorts of Pulau Banding, Kota Bharu, Terengganu and Kuantan. We will be staying at some rainforest resorts. On 20 August we fly back to KL and the next early morning straight home to Zurich with Singapore Airlines. I'm not looking forward to those 12 hour flights. We'll be home again on Thursday 21 August where we hope all will be well.