Singapore's Sentosa, a curious "fantasy island" accessible by cable car and causeway from the main Singapore island has had a patchy history. When I first visited around 15 years ago, the main attraction was the "dancing fountain" and a "maze" made out of blue wooden panels which occasionally blew over in a strong wind.

At that time and for many years subsequently, Singapore's main tourism images have been those of safety, modernity, convenience, cleanliness and varied, if not cheap by Asian standards, shopping. Slowly dying was the traditional "exotic surprise" essence of the Asian holiday - the snake charmers you stumbled on rounding a corner, the street hawker, the colorful street hookers of indeterminate gender. Replacing them were US fast food franchises, re-creations of old hangouts with actors playing the transvestites and plastic souless copies of the old hawker centers with expensive prices.

By many measures, the Singapore tourism pitch was highly successful. Combined with the attractions of a significant Asian and stop-over airhub, Singapore became one of the region's most recognised holiday destinations, competing with the still more expensive and "in-your-face" Hong Kong, and the tarnished island jewels of Bali and Phuket. Singapore attracted the right kind of tourist (rich ones and families who made little trouble and spent heaps), and diverted the pauper back-packer class to Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Faced with the disadvantage of a small island, attractions such as the Jurong Zoo continued to be developed as tourist attractions in their own right in the last decade.

Yet indications are that visitors are becoming more jaded, that they are looking for more of that "exotic surprise essence", including that great tourism destination attribute of "fun".

Sentosa in the meantime was developing fast. Beautiful resorts, high prices, lavish sophistication began to replace the blue wooden panels of the Sentosa maze and the "Dancing Fountain" as the key energy centers.

Now, Singapore is yet again trying to recreate the exotic surprise essence by importing Thailand's famous "full moon parties" to Singapore. A new bar - Bora-Bora - which opened a few weeks back is now holding monthly all-night "foam" parties with well known DJ's spinning the disks. According to the bar, "...They'll be like Koh Samui theme parties, but they'll be good clean fun..."

The full moon parties originated with new age Western baby boomers visiting Thailand's Koh Phang-ngan every night of the full moon many years back, having bypassed Singapore to make their own fun, often involving the traditional recreational pursuits of the hippie - drugs, sex and rock and roll...

Of course, there will none of that stuff in Singapore.. but Singapore has always been determined to prove that fantasy can approach reality, .. and much more safely.. It's the sort of stuff that may well attract the comfortable jaded Western and Asian yuppie class that have increasingly avoided Singapore. The old back packer class, whose passports were adorned with the Singapore immigration stamp S.H.I.T. (Suspected Hippy in Transit), have grown up, have grown up families, and now have the money to spend.

Perhaps its not such a bad idea after all.

It will be interesting to see how it all turns out, but Singapore as "fun city"? That may take a few years...