Tourists file into the side door of the Shangri-La with Jim Thompson shopping bags. Others head down to longtail boats that take them across to The Peninsula and elsewhere. Chubby and well lit up, the teak Loy Nava rice barge putts back from its sunset dinner cruise down past the Temple of Dawn. I find a seat and take it all in.

Tarp gets wound down on a nearby stall selling bright orange pineapple sliced to order. Umbrellas appear out of nowhere. A tuk-tuk goes by sounding more agitated than usual. The rain comes down straight and hard and refreshing. It's over before I know it and the humidity has lifted. The tarp gets rolled back up and I trudge back to Silom and the Night Bazaar in my squeaky flip-flops, sipping curiously from a plastic cup of sugar cane juice.

SINGAPORE – Chances are, if you know someone in Singapore they will invite you out for a meal. And if you are lucky it will be dinner at an open-air hawker center serving local fare, like Lau Pa Sat at Raffles Quay.

Vendors in stalls and booths – too many to count – cook chili crab, chicken rice, satay and Laksa to order. Chinese, Malay, Indian and Peranakan dishes are served side by side – reflecting Singapore's cultural diversity – and in a sizzling array of color and fragrance all is enveloped in a maddening din and an omnipresent equatorial heat.  

The bobtailed cat near my table no longer vies for our attention and has moved on. Replete, I wander back up to Merchant Road and cut through to the Singapore River, where Boat Quay meets the Riverwalk all the way along to the Novotel on Clarke Quay. Two bum-boats cross paths and there are nods all around. Who would have thought that this island city state would have such a vibrant river scene? Boat Quay is the center of Singapore's nightlife and it is buzzing with ritzy restaurants and alfresco dining with music pulsating out of bars and pubs. Tonight, a Tiger Beer beckons and no tout needs to encourage me for my patronage.

Sitting back and watching expats pass by as they head from dinner to dessert, I think back on the last couple of days and realize that there is so much more to Singapore than I anticipated. Yesterday, being guided through the Civic District past the Padang, the Cricket Club and the historic Parliament House, everything around me was so orderly, tropical and lush. But my thoughts keep coming back to the Chinese woman out in the back alley of her shop, busily advancing baskets of shark fins drying in the sun in order to avoid the creeping shadow of the Suntec office tower looming high above. A juxtaposition indeed.

HONG KONG – Leaving the Renaissance Kowloon this morning and heading along Salisbury Road I had every intention of hopping aboard the next Star Ferry across the harbor to Central. Instead, with mouth slightly agape, I watch a signature green Rolls Royce Phantom pull out of The Peninsula Hotel and head up Nathan Road. What's up there? The map in my pocket points to Mong Kok (or "flourishing corner" in Cantonese) and a new plan materializes.

In absolute contrast to the opulent and spacious lobby of The Peninsula, on my right is Chungking Mansions, a 17 story eyesore that houses somewhere in the region of 4,000 in a labyrinth of low budget guesthouses, bistros, sari stores and money changers. The activity here is frenetic, fueled by hundreds of small shops dealing in Asian and African parallel goods.

I cross the street again and board the number one double-decker bus and make my way upstairs and to the front. Once seated, I take in the kaleidoscopic neon outside, temporarily muted in the morning light. The bus moves north and to my left I see the sidewalk widen and Kowloon Park opens up like an urban oasis. Three couples get off heading east on Tung Choi toward the Ladies Market.

The bus continues through Jordan and Yau Ma Tei. I spot the Peninsula Rolls again sweeping left into Argyle Street and making a beeline toward a silver sleek new building jutting high above Mong Kok. I get off and follow suit. People are everywhere. I am thick in the middle of the highest density area in the world. A 30 feet high Happy Man bronze sculpture stands between me and 15 stories of modern vertical retail at Langham Place. I rehearse my rate of exchange times tables and delve right in.