It's fruity… and fecking expensive!

After our 24 hour journey from Tokyo via Bangkok we were pretty much shattered so our first day in Singapore was spent asleep. I love a good 16 hours in bed… After we woke up we made up for lost and went exploring in Singapore. I quickly found that there's not much to do in Singapore except shop, it's the national past-time! Elaine was more than happy to go native and as I'd dragged her to some outrageously nerdy places on the course of the trip it was only fair to let her have some retail therapy. Unbeknownst to us we would be in probably the nerdiest place of the whole trip so far! Feeling a bit shopped out I suggested we have a look in the Singapore Art Museum, which was on the way to Raffles hotel, where you can get an authentic – ie expensive – Singapore Sling. As we walked in I thought "this pace is busy for a Sunday…" and the next thing I see is an Imperial Stormtrooper marching in the door! It turns out we'ld stumbled into a local toy and comic fair being held in the museum. I was like a pig in carbonite, and got to nerd it up big time, while Elaine waited patiently. How the tables have turned!

We did have a look at some art too, but E needed a stiff drink after so much geekery so we headed to the Long Bar in Raffles Hotel and had some very tasty Singapore Slings. We made the most of the free peanuts, whose shells you throw on the floor, much to the horror of a very proper Swiss gent sitting near us at the bar. We're heading to India next which is a bit scary, so in the mean-time have a gander at the shots on Flickr. Toodles!

The Man with Two Red Shoes**

We hopped on the train for a little day trip from Kyoto to Osaka. There was a nice graphic design exhibition on that I made Elaine go to and after I'd ogled all the lovely work for about 10 hours we had a wander around the city. The first thing we noticed is that everyone rides bikes! Everything from full on racers to stripped down courier single speeds and those cool little folding bikes. And all the kids look super cool… Maybe a little too cool.

There wasn't a lot to do in Osaka, but it was nice to go for a little day trip. As ever, photos on Flickr. Enjoy!

* Too Cool For School
** The Man With One Red Shoe was an offbeat spy comedy starring Tom Hanks. This man has two red shoes and is on a bike.

"Were you with a lady last night sir? Did she want it sir? Ooh, suit you!"

After the slightly bonkers few days in Dalat we got to Nha Trang, which is apparently "the third most beautiful bay in the world". Well, we couldn't really tell for the first few days as it pissed down rain. Myself and George did manage to get a game of beach football with some locals, and I scored a nice chip from the halfway line, mainly just 'cause I was too knackered to run with the ball. After the rain cleared up we spent a few days just lounging by the beach and getting dumped around in the massive surf. There was one poor guy in the water wearing a hat (bald) and prescription sunglasses (blind) who got picked up by a huge 6ft wave and dumped, sans hat and shades onto the beach.We had a bit of a search but to no avail. Then the poor bugger lost his watch to another wave, and I think he lost another pair of shades the next day aswell. Poor sod, his missus didn't look too happy, I think he got an earful when she got him off the beach.

From Nha Trang we got a night bus – a very bumpy 12 hours – to Hoi An, which is a really nice old town with Unesco World Heritage Town status. Hoi An is packed with about 200+ tailor's shops, so Elaine and Vicki were in their element. George got a few suits made but I held off, as I don't really need suits – I have one that I've worn twice since I bought it. I eventually gave in and got a few shirts and some linen trousers made, which worked out pretty cheap, cheaper than getting off the peg stuff in H&M or Flopman. Because the place is protected, there's loads of great old buildings and loads of lovely signs and type, which brought out the design nerd in me… George & Vicki left a few days before us, they're off to Hong Kong and then home to Lincoln so we're back to travelling alone again. We'll be stopping in Hué next and then on to Hanoi, so more soon.

As ever, check out the photos on Flickr and leave some comments!

Happy Star Wars Day! I hope you're all running around with your lightsabre and trying to do the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs…

Just on another nerdish note, I think I've managed to fix the blog so it'll work properly with other browsers instead of just Firefox. So if your on a Mac or PC you can use Safari, or if you're a poor unfortunate stuck on a PC then you can use Google Chrome or Internet Explorer 8, only the new version though, sorry! And if you are using IE, why? I also optimised the blog for anyone who has an iPhone (that means you Mam) or Blackberry, so you can keep up with all the bloggy goodness wherever you are!

Glayvin!!!

Ok maybe I haven't gotten that bad yet. One of the highlights of being in the hell-hole that weas Sydney was a cool Star Wars exhibition on in a nearby museum. They had original models and costumes from all the films which made we wet myself a bit…

You can take the geek out of Ireland, but he'll always find some Star Wars stuff! Glayvin!