With over 4 million people on a tropical island not twice the size of Barbados, Singapore is a handful with enough rules for everyone. Warning signs that drug dealers face the death penalty greet you at the airport (any marijuana found in your blood stream results in a few lashes and a year in prison). The well laid out city is efficient, clean, safe and adorned with lush vegetation. On very rare occasions people spit in the open and though "regular" chewing gum is illegal "sugar free" gum that improves dental health (Orbit and Orbit White, both made by Chicago-based Wrigley) will soon be sold in pharmacies. With the foreign media hype on Singaporean canings and McDonald's sponsored TV competitions like "Singapore's Brainiest Child" during prime time, one might not expect Singapore to have a most happening night life seven days a week, or even a local reggae band sporting long locks and singing the words of Bob Marley. More surprising might be a drive through the crowded streets of Geylang Way where red lanterns over doorways indicate the location of a legal sex worker (usually requested to get tested regularly, provide a health certificate for her customers, and only allowed to work during set hours), or hearing Kevin Lyttle's newly released soca song featuring Spragga Benz "Turn Me On" on the local radio, or seeing Bollywood's leading star Shahrukh Khan live.

September 2003 marked my second trip to Singapore though this time I'd stay 3 months rather than 10 days. Within the first week I had linked with a local Singaporean businessman who was friends with a Jamaican man living in London who was friends of a Guyanese friend (the great Caribbean network). My new tour guide informed me that he partied every night of the week and knew every spot that opened until 6 am. He surely knew every bar, bar owner, bartender and of course the best chef at places "only locals go" (the hawker center on the old airport road). The first Monday night included a stop at the Hard Rock Cafe to see the comedian Kumar, an Indian man who told lewd jokes and dressed in drag. During intermission the band playing sung No Doubt's hit with Lady Saw "Underneath It All". The lead singer was Trinidadian. My first week looked promising. About a block away lay Orchard Towers reputed for having "Thai and Filipino" girls who arrive in Singapore to make a quick buck on a two week visitor's visa....this I learned after dancing the night away at Ipanema with the resident band and DJ Dinesh's world music (most men going to Ipanema laud this band as being one of the best in Singapore and overlook the fact that the ratio of working girls to men is about 20 to 1). One storey up and you'll find Crazy Horse and its majority transvestite crowd or the massive Top Ten. Police constantly patrol the outside, but the parade of "illegal" sex workers and foreign businessmen never ends. I am told the scene is tame compared to Thailand's Bangkok and Puttaya where a significant portion of sex workers are young 13 and 14 year old girls, duped into the trade. From Orchard Towers a fifteen minute drive to the East Coast lands you at Tampinese, a karaoke club that opens until 6 am. Karaoke is so big in Singapore that street banners will advertise "Karaoke Classes at Community Center." If you are looking for a Caribbean tune, learn Jimmy Cliff's "I can see clearly now the rain has gone."

A quick internet search for reggae in Singapore turns up The Bushmen and a contact for lead singer Syed who has been instrumental in building the reggae scene in Singapore. After my Singaporean tour guide tired me out in my first week my social outing routine for the next two months was simply a trip to the Hard Rock on a Sunday night to hear the Bushmen. I don't think there's anywhere in the San Francisco Bay area with such a vibe at 3 am on a Monday morning as the last song plays. The Bushmen sing many a Marley tune, new reggae and dancehall hits, their own music, and even a soca song, "Shake It." The crowd is young and the fellas rush the floor in a frenzy doing what I call Singapura reggae...unlike Red Rat's Tourist dance this one is very much on time. You'll hear lots of Sean Paul, lots of TOK and Eddy Grant's "Give Me Hope Joanna." Most other local bands will play a few reggae tunes, and you'll find a one man African band singing everything from Frank Sinatra to Celine Dion to a reggae beat 7 days a week at Coco Caribe in Clarke Quay (pina coladas are about $18 Sing = $10 US).

JOUVAY.COM interview with Bushmen lead singer Syed.

If you're looking for a drink with a view try the Equinox bar at the top of the Suisse Hotel (70th floor and mango margaritas during Happy Hour are $9 Sing). BQs in Boat Quay is the hang out spot for expats. Weekends are crowded, partying starts early as many arrive from work, everyone knows the words to the songs (you would too for most are from 80's pop), and the bar is forever covered with dancing bodies. Bar top dancing was only recently legalized in Singapore (Sept 2003) and remains a novelty. At the Wu Bar in Mohamed Sultan, the only hip-hop club in Singapore, signs by the bar read, "Bar Top Dancing Allowed. Do So At Your Own Risk." After two months of only partying on a Sunday night to the Bushmen I met up with a Trini friend at BQs and that was the end of my somber weekends touring the museums like The Chinese Heritage Museum in Chinatown (which is excellent).The Trini fella was not a party animal, but that night I met a Tanzanian woman and secured her number and the number of her hairdresser (if you need your hair braided email me for the contact). Here's a summary of some more neat places: SWING is a jazz club that opens until dawn. Various bands rotate through there and it seems to be the hang out spot for musicians; EMBASSY has a great sound system and huge dance floor. Barbados' Mount Gay is the house rum. It's surrounded by restaurants and the Esplanade theater which is spectacular. The promoters change and if you're lucky you'll hit it during a Bhangra party/Bollywood dance so you can shake your shoulder and twirl your hands to a wicked rendition of Sean Paul and 50 Cent till 6 in the morning; CARNEGIES and CHJIMES are usually crowded on Wednesday nights and both can get pretty wild. That's ladies' night so booze is free; ZOUK is probably one of the most popular clubs known for Techno and House and it's situated with a series of other spots that make it the "in place". LOLAs at 1 Fullerton also opens until 6am and plays good house music, but the wait can be painful after 3am on a weekend. BAR NONE has a very popular band and around the corner there's BRIX which features salsa on Sunday nights. You'll also find a live salsa session at Harry's in Boat Quay on Monday nights. Resident bassist Christy Smith hails from Compton, California. If you are in Singapore for a while, are slightly athletic and need a social network I suggest the Australian Dragon boat team....they train by rowing to their sponsors, a brewery.

The Singaporean tourist board sponsored a series of concerts and shows featuring international artists from places like Cuba, South Africa and India. Some say this was a campaign to revive the tourist industry from the SARS scare (hotel occupancy had dropped as low as 13% in 2003) and some say that Singapore wants to be the cultural hub of Asia (future destination for some Caribbean entertainment). I could not resist buying a ticket to a Bollywood Extravaganza even though it was $200 Sing (prices went as high as $500 Sing and the show was in a stadium) for the show starred Shahrukh Khan, and Rani Mukherjee. My Trini friend warned me that until recently ushers would ask you to sit when you got up to dance in a concert hall so I was a bit skeptical (this he also said was not the case when Shaggy performed there in January 2003 at Fort Canning Park). Like the movies there was lots of music, well choreographed dance sequences, costume changes and crowd interaction. The calm, mostly Indian crowd lost their cool when Shahruhk Khan appeared from the back of the auditorium on a rolling platform, throwing out gifts. Married women, old women, young girls, and men vied for his attention to join him on stage. After 2 hours the hostess announced we were getting ready for the finale. I dashed from the venue trying to be smart and get a taxi before the huge crowd. Dinner beckoned next door and after an hour as I stood waiting for my cab I could hear loud screams and what surely was "Kuch Kuch Hota Hai", theme song of the movie that rocked Guyana and Trinidad in 1999. That was probably the grandest of grand finales.

Singaporeans will say their national past time is either eating or shopping; the party atmosphere relies a bit more heavily on the Expat community. With a diverse pollution of Chinese (76%), Malays (14%), and Indians (8%) there is definitely a choice of good food which is especially cheap at the numerous Hawker Centers. If you can eat Thai mango salad everyday try the the Thai Mall (same as the Golden Mile mall where you'd catch a bus to Malaysia), the Lemon Grass restaurant or the Thai Express by the Esplanade. By far the best Chinese food (sting ray, crab, grouper, octopus, etc.) was eaten at the Hawker Center on the Old Airport Road. Just don't be offended by the small roaches that might bless your table. Before you can finish a beer your glass will be exchanged for a colder one about 3 times. If you are a fruit lover the grocery stores and markets will turn up some familiar delights (soiree, five fingers or star fruit, passion fruit, mangoes) and tune your senses to uniquely Asian flavors (lychee, rambutan, mangosteen and maybe durian). Fancy shopping malls spot the island, some even specializing in speakers. Books were probably the only commodity consistently cheaper than in the states. Clothing prices are halved in Malaysia and even cheaper still in Thailand. Finding your size might be problematic as things tend to be little. The plethora of "body slimming" ads and "slimming boutiques/centers" is a bit mind boggling in a place where a US size 6 has to many times squeeze into a Singapore L, sometimes XL.

Apart from drinking the national past time for most expats seems to be travel. Understandable as the island can get claustrophobic and there are always great vacation packages. If you're there in the fall be aware that the weekends of Diwali, Hari Raya, Thanksgiving (depending on who you work for) are booked way in advance and from the beginning of December flights out of Singapore are full. Not to mention that the monsoon season soon sets in and many beautiful islands offering surf and diving are inaccessible. Most travel brochures cater for at least 2 people traveling so if you're alone expect to pay more than the "single" fare displayed (it must refer to the bed). A short ferry ride will land you on the Indonesian islands of Bintam and Bantam which offer little when compared with the vast artwork one could find in Bali (2 hrs by plane). Many say that Bali to Australian youth is like Cancun to Americans during Spring break. However, from the top of Mount Kintamani to the rice terraces to the jewelry village of Celuk, Bali in November 2003 was suffering from a dead tourist season since bombs destroyed a nightclub in 2002. And right in the heart of Legion, one of the tourist areas, you will find the Bob Marley Rasta shop. Hotel Links: Asiarooms; Lee Hui Eng at Travel GSH (65363933); Leela Sivadass at Choice Travels (6720-6878).

Written by Maya Trotz for jouvay.com. January 8th, 2004. Click here for the Photogallery.