Return to a Sexy Island

Singapore got sexy and the country’s best-selling author got jealous. After five years chasing echidnas and platypuses in Australia, Neil Humphreys returns to Singapore to see if the rumours are true about the island’s newfound sexiness.

So he went off in search of new Singapore, vowing to visit only locations that either did not exist five years ago or had been extensively rebuilt or revamped in his absence. From the cloud-topped heights of Marina Bay Sands and Pinnacle@Duxton to making ill-advised bomb jokes at the subterranean tunnels of Labrador Park, Humphreys walks, cycles and hitchhikes across a rapidly evolving country, meeting Guinness-swigging aunties in Resorts World Sentosa, eccentric toy museum owners in Bugis, fierce creatures in the Chek Jawa jungle, political cleaners in Aljunied and a security guard at Marina Barrage ready to ‘tekan’ anyone who crosses his path. In new Singapore, Humphreys discovers a country still grappling between the economic rewards of progress at Biopolis and Fusionopolis and the historical cost at Bukit Brown Cemetery.

With Humphreys’ characteristic honesty and wit, Return to a Sexy Island provides an insightful, humourous account of new Singapore; its best bits, it ugly bits and, most importantly of all, what it’s really like to pee in the world’s best toilet.