Singapore day one Sunday 13/11/11

Had breakfast and ventured out initially looking for some light clothes for Carol. Bugis street market was recommended but as it was early Sunday most shops were closed. Wandered on in the direction of town and investigated Clarke's quay but again that was closed. Nearby mall presented us with the morning coffee we were in need of then we  set off in search of the Selangor pewter shop again without much luck aswe only had the address and not the location map - turns out we were very close. The battle box at fort Canning was next on the agenda but we just hit lunchtime and had a wait for the next tour so we walked around the fort area for a while. Returning to the bunker we were transported back in time to February 1942 and the making of the  fateful decision to surrender Singapore. Returning to modern times we moved on to the MRT station to get our rechargeable tickets and then moved on to look at the famous Orchard Road. Just beginning to rain as we got there. Very different to the street I remember from the 1970's full of enormous shopping malls which were all packed with shoppers. Found a food hall in one of them and had a lovely (apart from Carol's near death experience with a chilli!) and extremely cheap late lunch with loads of nice iced lemon tea.
Thunderstorm still in progress and as we don't really do crowded shopping malls very well we got on the MRT and went the two stops back to Little India and then walked through torrential rain and occasional lightning back to the hotel. Had a cup of tea in the same mugs as the hotel in Sydney well they are Ikea, watched tv and read books for a couple of hours and still it was pouring down so decided to forgo dinner rather than get soaked. Logged on to the wifi in the breakfast room and discovered the  forecast for the rest of the week is dry mornings and thunderstorms in the afternoon and that November is the second wettest month here and is inthe North East monsoon season - good timing!