My first visit to Singapore came after having just spent a few days in Penang, Malaysia. For those of you who don't know the history, Singapore--established in its modern form by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles in 1819--replaced Penang as the primary trading post of the British Empire in the Far East. With a reputation for order and cleanliness that borders on obsessive-compulsive, Singapore interested me less going into the experience than Penang. Granted, the passage of time may have taken some of the gleam off "the pearl of the Orient," as Penang used to be called, but it just seemed to promise more authenticity than Singapore.

May 2009