Head for Singapore when you need a good dose of English, Western food, and shopping. Orchard Road has all your high-end fashion stores, from Ferragamo to Nine West, and there is a Borders, too.

The small city can be done comfortably in two or three days, especially if you're seeing other parts of Asia.

We particularly enjoyed the Night Safari at the zoo, which has lots of animals not found in North American zoos. The Bird Park has the world's tallest manmade waterfall, and the birds are outstanding, if you like birds.

Good food overall, very polite people, English spoken everywhere.