Struggling with jet-lag. The best news on the early-morning radio was that the euro had made something of a recovery, though it's still below parity with the dollar.

Awoke about 4:00 AM (after having fallen asleep around 2:00), not a bit tired, and took a look at the local news in the complimentary newspaper, the English-language Straits Times, where I found the following snippets:

• Pride of place on the front page was given over to the trial of an attractive 27 year-old pet-shop owner who was caught making an illegal U-turn in a £90,000 Mercedes--the investigating police then found that she had no driving licence, no insurance, and that the car had been stolen.
• A poll of readers found that, despite their "dirty" image, most preferred the tasty food and character of the hawker centres. The more modern food courts, though maybe more hygienic, lack the charm of the older haunts.
• The latest figures just released show that Singapore is the busiest port in the world.
• An intensive drive is being made to extend awareness of internet and e-commerce (there are 3 IT fairs running concurrently), the aim being to have Singapore among the top 5 IT nations in the world.
• And of course lots of pictures of pretty local babes (the one on the left is from an ad).

Then I typed up this stuff. Having air-conditioning in the room is great--I don't how I'd be able to sleep (even those measly 2 hours!) otherwise. This reminded me of what my Spanish friend Clara had said at the hotel last Sunday--she mentioned how couples in her part of Spain were splitting up because the heat was so overpowering at night, and they couldn't sleep.

At 9:00 went for breakfast: toast, baked beans with sliced sausage (good snack tip! I've eaten this somewhere before, probably in Germany, although there are more refined versions of this dish in other places, ie Brazil). Also doubled fried eggs and a kind of noodle dish with bamboo shoots and various other bit of chopped veggie thrown in. Ate a sufficiently large portion of this to keep me going most of the day.

One big omission from my Rough Guide is the mention of internet/cyber cafes--unforgivable in this day and age. There are probably lots in Singapore--the one I used this morning is right next to this hotel--not a cafe, just PCs. There's a cafe on 109 North Bridge Road and another in the CHIJMES centre, and several on Orchard Road. I ended up paying 10 dollars for about 2 hours, which included uploading files to my Journey to the East web site, then testing the new pages, reading the Irish Times, emailing a few people on the general course of the trip, and checking email accounts.

I took a stroll through the various arcades at the Raffles hotel, viewing designer shops, bars and restaurants. As I emerged from Raffles it started to rain, heavily, so I ducked back into my hotel where over a refreshing cup of tea I waited for the storm to blow over. By this time it was after 1:00. First I took in the Raffles city centre, to view the world's tallest hotel, the Westin Stamford. Then to the shops and cafes of the CHIJMES centre. Afterwards a long walk southwards along Hill street to the river, where there is a contrasting mix of high-rise office and apartment blocks and clusters of renovated old buildings, now housing bars and restaurants. Here I took in the river-front from North Boat Quay to Clarke Quay. I was thinking of taking a cruise, but the whole place was very quiet, and I didn't want to be the only person on the boat. It was so quiet in fact that I was wondering whether it was a public holiday--I would have thought there would be a lot more tourists around these areas (or maybe it's just low season?). The long walk had made me peckish, so I had a snack of spiced crispy calamari with a hot chili sauce and a pint of own-brew lager at Brewerkx, a micro-brewery. S$10 for the beer, S$8 for the grub.

Walked back via Canning Park, intending to visit the war-time bunker HQ of the British forces, but could not find the entrance, and didn't fancy walking all around the park looking for it. At the hotel had a refreshing shower and a nap. For dinner I fancied Indian and walked towards the Little India area around Serangoon Road. At a little Tamil hawker's place across the road from Albert Court had a filling meal of chicken curry, carrots with coconut, mixed veggie currie, popadams, boiled rice and sauce, all served on a palm leaf, for S$3.50. A pint bottle of Guinness (popular among the restaurant owners at the end of the day) was S$8 (!)--brewed at a local brewery, and not as dry as back home, but a great accompaniment for a curry.