If only for its excellent jazz music, Somerset's Bar in the Westin Plaza hotel, is especially worth watching. Elsewhere, film-lovers are likely to enjoy a stay in Singapore, as most major releases can be seen some time before their Irish release. Singaporean films are hard to come by, although 12 Storeys , a movie which made a strident critique of the modern Singapore, was a major hit in 1997 and is well worth a watch. An elegant witty novel about a pornocrat and benevolent pimp, Paul Theroux's Saint Jack is a good-natured irreverent portrait of seedy Singapore in the '60s. Though the city is more sterile these days, the book admirably captures both the heat of the place and Singlish, the remarkable local variation of English.
Hygiene levels are very high.
If travel elsewhere in Asia is planned, then inoculations will be needed.