Stepping off the plane in Singapore, everything looked so modern and clean. There is a huge Chinese influence here but also a lot of Hindu temples and Christian churches. We ate at some great vegetarian restaurants and ventured to the "beach" island called Sentosa, this place is incredible it has a huge Merlion statue, an imaginary creature with the head of a lion and the body of a fish/ mermaid. The fish body comes from Singapore's ancient name Temasek meaning "sea town" in Javanese back when it was a fishing village and the lion head represents Singapore's original name Singapura meaning "lion city" or "kota singa". Around the Merlion was a Gaudi inspired walk with water flowing through it. From Singapore we traveled for 5 hours to Malaysia, as soon as we crossed the boarder the landscape turned very green and lush. We stayed in Kuala Lumpur for 1 night, the mall at Time Square is MASSIVE! It even has a full size roller coaster on the top floor, the vibe is like being in a busy loud and Chaotic Asian market outside but its all in doors. We were up at 4am for our flight to the Philippines, Air Asia was pretty good, one of the better cheap airlines i have been on. We landed at Clark Air Base which is west of Angeles City, this place makes its tourist $ by catering to western men who retire here and spend their days drinking and their nights at strip clubs and bars, most seem to have a beautiful young Filipino or 2 in tow. I didnt see any other western women there either, our lonely planet travel guide recommended not to come here as well! But it was the better option then landing in Manila. Early the next morning we caught the first bus out of town and headed north to La Union province and back to the beach. The picture of Garuda is to help remind us all of courage and honesty even when you are surrounded by a raging inferno.