SO there I was, sipping a Singapore Sling in the Long Bar in Raffles Hotel, figuring out tomorrow's story . .. isn't this what a foreign correspondent dreams about, living an experience that once made Singapore one of the most desirable journalistic stop-overs in the world.
So why did it feel a bit phoney?
Well, for a start, the Long Bar, the haunt of legendary scribblers, which used to be just off the lobby and across from the (long-gone) UPI office, is now on the third floor of an annex where it was relocated when the hotel was refurbished a few years ago.
Also the other customers - like myself I suppose - had dropped in only because having a Singapore Sling in the Long Bar is as de rigeur for visiting tourists as an Irish coffee at Shannon - enjoyable but not quite the real thing.
Raffles Hotel, symbol of opulence and the golden age of travel, is in fact today a slick commercial enterprise, a theme hotel owned jointly by the Development Bank of Singapore and the Overseas China Bank Corporation.
The Long Bar takes in $16,000 Singapore (£8,000) a day just on serving gin slings at S$16 each (£8) to tourists. It is but one of 15 bars, cafes and restaurants (or "food and beverage facilities" outlets as the management calls them) and 70 specialty shops in the hotel complex trading on the name of the hotel, which is called after Sir Stamford Raffles, the British administrator who established Singapore as a free port nearly 200 years ago.
In the shops you can buy Raffles golf balls, wine, tablemats, cookbooks, money clips, sewing sets, painted eggs, calendars herbs, fridge magnets, address books, compact discs, pith helmets, miniature Singapore Slings (the top seller) and dozens of other "collectables" including fluffy tigers commemorating the last tiger in Singapore which was shot when cornered beneath the elevated Bar & Billiard Room in 1902.
There are also Raffles plates and cutlery for sale if, as my guide book put it, "you can't afford to. stay at Raffles and nick your own". Staying at the hotel is still for the serious wealthy. Its suites cost from S$600 to S$6,000 (£300 to £3,000) a night. The poet Rudyard Kipling recommended travellers to "feed at Raffles" but the hotel publicity omits to mention that he also advised them to "stay elsewhere".
Raffles was opened in 1887 by the Sarkies Brothers, three Armenians who built a string of hostelries throughout the east. Until recent years it still had, by all the charm and genuine atmosphere of by-gone days. But it was run-down, unable to compete with modern Singapore hotels, and at the mercy of the wrecker's ball, and was only saved by being designated a national monument by the government in 1987.
The Singapore landmark was closed from 1989 to 1991 and completely renovated at a cost of almost S$1 million a suite. While it may not be the old Raffles, the renovations are faithful to the original and it now has a museum with a wonderful collection of Old postcards and memorabilia, including a painting of Winston Churchill inscribed, Did war of country/Make him great/Or did he in war/Keep her great.
Modern historians in fact blame Churchill for the inadequate planning which led to the loss of Singapore to the Japanese in 1942, the most catastrophic military defeat ever for the British empire, and an event which was marked by British colonials gathering in Raffles to dance and sing, There Will Always Be An England.
In contrast to the tourist arcades, the restored rooms succeed in recapturing the oriental opulence of the golden age of international travel. Despite the commercialisation Raffles is still one of the great hotels of the world. Its 104 suites have hardwood floors, Persian carpets, grand arches, period furnishings and ceiling fans.
The top prices are for "personality suites", living areas the size of large bungalows with private verandahs overlooking manicured tropical gardens and named after the writers who stayed here, such as Joseph Conrad, Somerset Maugham and Pablo Neruda. Maugham is said to have worked all morning under a frangipani tree in the palm court turning the bits of gossip he picked up at dinner parties into short stories
The hotel also keeps up a tradition of New Year's eve balls high society in Singapore This year it is planning a "Russian Imperial Ball". The hotel is already 30 per cent booked for New Year's Eve, 1999. The cost a room to see in the new Millennium at Raffles is, appropriately, S$ 1,999, and one extra dollar for a spouse.