It is incredibly nice to be in a place with infrastructure!
A few hours after arriving I ducked into a 7-11 and bought a sim card for my cell phone — it cost about US$10 and took 5 minutes or so to get local service.
Now I’m sitting in a coffee shop, and I’ve discovered that Singapore just set up Island-wide municipal wifi — free half-meg service until 2009. So I filled out a form online, gave them my mobile number and immediately received an SMS with a login and password.
So, this is probably socially inappropriate, but I’m now working while enjoying my kaya toast and ice milk tea. There’s outdoor seating at the other end of this mall — with luck I’ll get service there as well.
The downside to this… I well, I did have to provide my passport at each step along the way. Lots of technology here, but not so much privacy.