In Singapore

Hi All --

I arrived in Singapore at approximately 7:30 am this morning. The flight was running a bit late getting out of JFK, but aside from that, everything went perfectly. Singapore Airlines is ridiculous. It seems like every time I woke up, there was someone hovering over me offing food, or a hot towel, or a beverage. If this is how the treat their economy class passengers, I can't even imagine business or first class. If I get the chance, I'll definitely fly them again.

Arrived at my hotel a little after 9, and my room wasn't ready yet. I went of in search of Internet access. The Singapore government runs a large network of free wifi hotspots, one of which was at a McDonalds two blocks from my hotel. Tried to sign up for the 3 years of free access, but it turns out that you can only recieve your password via text message from hotspots. If you're already online elsewhere, you can recieve it via email. I'm not looking forward to seeing what Verizon charges me for the mysterious SMS from SE Asia sitting on my phone in the apt. back in NY!

So, my first attempt at updating you all failed. I'm now sitting at a public workstation in a pool hall. My conference access turns on tomorrow, but I'll probably be out site-seeing, so there may not be pictures until Tuesday.

The rest of the day, I wandered down to the waterfront, through some odd watersports event, around some of the bridges and neat public spaces down by the harbor, then up through Chinatown and back toward the district where my hotel is. All food thus far has been hawker food from patios surrounded by stalls. They're everywhere, cheap and tasty. Trip one, lunch in Chinatown: some dim sum, a plate of mysterious slimy flat noodles with misc. seafood, and a yam fritter. Dinner, closer to the library and hotel, a plate of satey chicken skewers and a plate of chicken fried rice. Both meals accomponied by the ubiquitous Tiger beer.

I meant to go explore Little India & the Arab Quarter this afternoon, where I'll be staying for a few nights after the conference. Instead, I dozed off for a few hours. Hopefully that doesn't hinder the ability to sleep tonight. I doubt it, though: I'm still pretty tired.

Anyway, that's all for now. I'm here. I'm well. Hopefully I'll start getting pictures up shortly after the conference begins on Tuesday.