Wed, 21 Aug 2002

author Tim	location Cyberstar Internet Cafe, Singapore
posted 17:02 Singapore Time	section Europe2002/Asia/Singapore/Singapore 1 ( all photos )

Woohooo connectivity! ( 24 photos )
A nice little internet cafe which will let us use the laptop. I'll attempt to bundle some pictures for the next update.
The new hotel is the Novotel, and it is quite a bit nicer than the last one. The pool is actually outside, which is a strange concept here. We've both worked on our tans a little (don't worry mum I'm not pink yet!).
This cafe is right near the Raffles Hotel, which has some historical significance in that some guy landed here, walked up the beach a bit and built a hotel. Or something.
I managed to restrain myself as we walked through eight levels of heaven at the I.T. Mall - so many computers! Liz had to physically restrain me as we walked into some of the shops. Interestingly enough, they had a few "girl" shops (Liz's term, not mine) to keep the women occupied. This worked well enough so that I bought an extra set of batteries for the camera.
Enough for now, will write again in a couple of days. Cheers!

author Tim	location Singapore
posted 10:52 Singapore Time	section Europe2002/Asia/Singapore/Singapore 1 ( all photos )

Concorde Hotel ( 24 photos )

(Continued from Before Leaving Australia)
We've successfully survived a flight, transfers, lots of queues, two meals and a very hard bed.
It's been great so far - last night we went to a place called the Heng Heng Fish Head Steamboat (I'm serious) for dinner. The food was great, washed down with a few Tiger beers. However, it was a bit overpriced. We stand out a mile away over here - taxis stop and beep to see if we want a lift, and the menu prices are only shown if you ask enough - some not at all. It was late, and we just wanted some food.
So, this morning we set out to get miles off the beaten tourist track, and instead had breakfast at a little "cafe" in the middle of a business district. Prices (suprise, suprise) were much cheaper, and the food just as good.
The hotel is reasonable - we're on floor eight out of twenty-seven, and there's open-glass style lifts in the middle which are lots of fun. The "entertainment" at the bar downstairs last night was four young kids and a drum machine doing Abba hits, so we stayed well clear.
I had to teach Liz how our shower worked last night - it's one of those ones where you only have one set of taps for both shower and bath, and you have to pull a little button up to get the shower to come on. I think they are going to become very common sights from now on.
We're just having a bit of a break now before we transfer to our other hotel, which I can see out our window so it's not a long haul, and then head up to Orchard Road to hunt out Internet connectivity, change some money and perhaps spend some of it.

(customised)