It used to only be about the shopping, I think. Come to Singapore for the bargains! Shop till you drop in Singapore. Save, save, save, went the inducements.

Well, there is still shopping, but now as I sit forty-two storeys high in the world's largest eye in the sky – the Singapore Flyer – I realise getting discounts on cameras or watches is no match for such an experience. From here I overlook all this compact island city-country and it's clear enough today to see into Malaysia across the Johor Straits too.

It's been ten years since my last real visit _ you can't count transits – so for fun while I am still there (always a good enjoyment indicator) I start to put together a list of ten reasons to return.

First, of course is the amazing Singapore Flyer, 30 metres higher than the London Eye. Brand new, opened on March 1st 2008, it was built at a cost of A$268 million. There are 28 enclosed gondolas each carrying 28 passengers. The trip takes around 30 minutes and is nowhere as scary as I thought it would be. The fact is, the movement is so gentle it's more like gently ascending in a hot air balloon.

Later that night we visit Clarke Quay, a new riverside development. Definitely come for the restaurants I decide. Singapore is a swinging city, and this precinct is packed with amazing places.

We eat a lot in Singapore over the next few days. At Kaya Toast in the Far East Square we breakfast on thick toasted bread spread with coconut jam (kaya) and traditional "coffee-in-a-sock" beside locals already in on the secret.

One day we lunch on exquisite Indian food at Rang Mahal in the Pan Pacific Hotel, another time on Nyonya (Straits Chinese) dishes at Blue Ginger, then the following day at Saltwater Cafe in the Changi Village Hotel on some of the best Singaporean food anywhere.

Later we drop in on St James Power Station bar, hyping up for the all-night shift, then walk next door to The Station Kitchen for dinner where we sit in the Japanese restaurant and order from both its menu and the associated Chinese one next door. It's almost a metaphor for Singapore's multicultural community that coexists so effectively.

Everyone should visit Singapore's various precincts to better understand this. Vibrantly different, from the flower garlands and incense of Little India, to Arab Street, or the smells and tastes of Chinatown's food street and night market. In the Katong area we climb steep stairs to see Nyonya dumplings made, and stand amazed at the meticulous and brilliant designs of Peranakan (another name for Straits Chinese) beading on clothing and shoes.

There are many boutique hotels too. Naumi, where we stay, is fresh and central. The rooftop pool offers perhaps the best view (stunning by night) of the city with a Manhattan-esque skyline unrecognisable to anyone who has not visited recently. Scarlet Hotel is funky too –it's lobby bordello-red and black, the rooms small but ideal for business travellers who need to be in the heart of it all.

The Raffles Long Bar

The old hotels are even more beautiful, of course. We tour the wedding-cake white Raffles, with palms and turbaned doormen, then kick through the traditional litter of peanut shells on the floor of the Long Bar upstairs. Shame it's too early for a Singapore Sling, for this bar put it in the cocktail hall of fame.

On Sunday we brunch at the Ritz-Carlton Millenia on foie gras and oysters, poached lobster, dozens of French cheeses and mounds of strawberries – and everything else you can imagine – plus Moet vintage champagne.

Across town (another day, you realise!) we lunch at the so-French Les Saveurs restaurant in the just-opened St Regis hotel. Five stars seem hardly enough for this place with rooms which remind me of Hotel de Crillon in Paris.

And yes, there is still shopping a-plenty. Orchard Road crammed with department stores and boutiques, and huge shopping centres such as Vivo City opposite Sentosa. But serious inspection of these will have to wait for my next trip.

Meanwhile we check museums: the Asian Civilisations Museum sympathetically demystifies the various heritages which make up Singaporeæs community, but the exceptional Chinatown Heritage Centre, small, dark, steep, and tucked in the back of a shop in Chinatown, is the one that sticks in our minds. It shows the plight of the early Chinese emigrants, fleeing drought and poverty in China, to find life equally harsh in the infant colony.

Oppression of another sort is commemorated at the Changi Chapel Museum. Here a chilling display of records and photographs tells in graphic detail the horrors of Japanese occupation during WWII. It was full of tourists but the abiding memory I have is the shocked silence. No one speaks. It is unspeakable.

By contrast, on Sentosa, the city's island playground, a short drive or cable-car ride from the city, the Carlsberg Sky Tower takes visitors 110 metres up then, instead of plunging them hair-raisingly as some rides too, simply twirls them gently a couple of times to take in the sights of Singapore from other angles, then lowers them. At the spa we raise and lower our feet into tepid water so Dr Fish can cleanse them.

My ninth reason to return is not even Singaporean. Bintan Island, is actually Indonesian, but its resorts are best accessed from Singapore. A 45-minute ferry ride is all it takes, and Indonesian visas are easily bought on arrival. Bintan Resorts then whisk you off to your accommodation which in our case was Club Med, beautifully beachside.

So what is my tenth reason to return? Should I say the Formula 1. Or maybe the new resort recently opened at Sentosa the fun island?

No, my choice is more abstract. The Merlion, a mythical beast, half-lion half fish, symbolises complex Singapore.

And that's why I will always return – for the cultural mix, the flavours, the scents, that unique feel of Singapore.