Thanks for the tips, Ioannis. I was afraid there would be no avoiding the regulator.

In the meantime, more confusion. I did not get any documentation with the module, and the same (looking) module from different vendors have at least 2 different versions. At least the power, Tx and Rx pins are the same, but the activity LEDs and the mode control are on different pins. I suspect its absolutely the same hardware, but the firmware levels are different. Since this is such a breadboard-unfriendly module, I'd rather have the right data before I proceed, so I've written back to the vendor for the right documentation. Hopefully should get it soon.

Regards,

Anand