Final day...via China

Well it's the final day, we're in Little India in Singapore, and the screen on the free-to-use PC is in Chinese. Basically sums up our experiences. Travelling around the world, meeting different people from different cultures but ultimately communicating in English.
We're staying at what was Singapore's first modern hotel, built in the 70's and now looking a little jaded. But, it has prime location in Little India overlooking the Sultan's Mosque and every so often you can hear the call to prayers as wafts of exotic smells drift over you.
We've had a surprising 2 days here. After leaving Borneo, Marie and I were a bit deflated as we knew we were heading back to the UK. But, on Sunday we took a long walk through Little India. We headed past the mosque as Sunday prayers were ending and into a huge Muslim street festival and hundreds of people enjoying the street food and music. We then wondered into the heart of the district into thousands of Indian's (we presume celebrating Ramadan) - past all the Bollywood music shops, curry houses, tea shops, fruit stalls - all the colour of sub-continent India. We passed into Thieves Market - basically a bizarre "bring what you want" market - stalls selling single shoes, broken sunglasses, worn underpants (well not quite, but the smells were exotic!!). After eating, the taxi driver explained that we'd walked through one of the most dangerous parts of Singapore were tourists were easy pray! Thankfully, I was wearing a bright pink Toulouse rugby shirt so no problems there!
On Monday, we took a "Duck Tour" of Singapore - an amphibious bus ride - partly on the road and partly in the river. It's always a great way to see a City, around on a boat, gently drifting along, waving at kids bathing in the river, pondering life's complexities in different cultures...only to hear the tour guide shouting into his mike, "Yo, can I get a yee-ha from the English...hey, give me 5". Apart from that, very good. Ate some of the best food so far a Singaporean food village (steamed dumplings...yum) and then had the evening in Chinatown where the Full Moon festival is about to happen so the whole place was lit up in full Oriental splendor.
The highlight of the trip then occurred. From out of the distance, amongst the hundreds of people came a familiar but otherwise terrifying noise, "Boys, boys, boys, just waiting for the good times"...aahhh, Euro-pop blasting out from some ghetto blaster. Then through the crowed comes a huge rickshaw with a mad-goggle eyed driver. "Hey, you wont best ride of yor live" he shouted to me in Chinese pigeon English. Never one to deny a young man a dance to gay Euro pop we said yes. Marie, madly into the photo opportunity and me thinking about the bumpy ride! So, we quite literally squeezed into the disco-rickshaw and Lee, our driver, drove us around the district with his Euro-trash pop sounds blaring out. Not looking too out-of-place amongst hundreds of people, cars, hawkers, etc...we drove around to the tunes of BigFun, Donna Sumner, Gloria Gaynor (you've never lived unless you're in the middle of 5-lane Orchard Road, on a rickshaw with "I will survive" pumping out. The boys were in fits of laughter with each other - Seba waving and shouting out in mock-Chinese accent "Hello Ladies" and Oscar with one finger in his ear and the other hand pretending to scratch DJ - don't ask - its all part of his education! Good old Lee though for the not-intending-to-be-funny-but-was comment - when I asked what his job was like, above the 3rd playing of "Boys, boys' boys..." he said it was "Hard on his bum" - I could have died.
So, we're on the plane back to UK tonight. We're all ready for the off but really wish we could stay for another month or so. Marie is amazed we've done so much, I'm amazed we're been around the world. From the USA, to New Zealand, Oz, Malaysia we've met some great people, seen some amazing sites, spent almost 110 days together, 24hrs a day, and have come out a lot better on the other side.
I'm sure Marie will finish the blog off (last-word syndrome, and all that) but for me we've shown the boys' that people live different lives and understanding that will make them better people. We've seen that the environment means different things to people and if you're poor then forget thinking globally. For us as a family, we can survive on our own resources and wits, and if you mention Manchester United to anyone who serves alcohol you get one free beer (it's a fact - try it).