Highlights - walking around Fort Canning park, getting soaked in a thunderstorm walking to where Katherine lived and shopping on the way to Mustafa. Then Boat Quay by night.

Chris got up first (no surprise) and checked out a potential place for breakfast as well as planning a morning walk. We did breakfast at her suggested place and enjoyed it - full breakfast for John to prepare for the UK and pastries and coffee for Chris to get used to Europe. We then walked over to Fort Canning Park, and historic area just a few hundred metres away. We were exploring by geocaches, starting with a cache at an archaeological site. This also took us through a spice garden and later we found we were seeing Raffles Hotel from the back.

Prior to 1984, most historians believed Singapore (previously known also as Temasek) was nothing more than a quiet fishing village before the British arrived. In 1984, an archaeological dig headed by Dr. John Miksic on the slopes of the hill near the Keramat Sultan Iskandar Shah uncovered a huge surprise, Pottery shards and coins from the 14^th century were found in the soil, with a mix of Chinese porcelain ceramics and earthenware of Southeast Asian origin, indicating that Singapore was already a busy trading port before the British arrived. The varied origin of the artefacts means that traders from throughout the region were once converging on Singapore. 

Dr. Miksic's excavation revealed an interesting past of this part of the hill. The area we visited is believed to have been an artisan's work area, where foundries and potters worked. After this particularly industrious period, the activities on site ceased for a few centuries, until the Colonial era, when the hill was used for military use as Fort Canning.

We then walked part of the history path, until sidetracking to look for a cache centred on the military use. It was at a hidden entrance to the fort - one of three that existed. Nearby was The Battlebox, a former WWII British underground command centre inside Fort Canning Hill. Sadly the only way in was to do a tour and they were not until later today so we opted out. It was at this time the skies opened. We had been hearing thunder and seeing lightning - but the downpour was now added to the mix. We still found the cache and moved under cover to sign it. After about 5 minutes, the rain was clearly not stopping in a hurry so we headed for another cache on our way back to the hotel. It was a pity our tour of the area was cut short by typical Singapore weather. It would have been worse for families who were hoping to get out and about for May Day as it is a public holiday here today. 

We were wet enough to need a change of clothes - and the hotel is old style so has a clothes line in the shower. We assume in the past it would have been over a bath. We had looked into various transport passes but opted for two feet and walked towards Little India. We had two aims - to buy some cable and batteries at the Mustafa Shopping Centre and have lunch where we went previously with Katherine. We had no problem finding both places, and even had a similar meal to last time. John had a fall on the way there when he didn't see a curb but appears ok. The walk back was a bit slower. John doesn't do heat and it was getting warmer. We had also not slept well. We have a comfortable bed but maybe the duvet was a bit warm . So John had a cuppa and a sleep, while Chris logged caches, wrote the blog and went for a short walk back towards Fort Canning looking for some historic pillars. We will both go back to get the cache from them as she was too short to reach it!