Singapore is a trickster, but it doesn’t know it. It makes you think it’s a business city with obsessive-compulsive disorder and no sense of mirth.

What a farce. Singaporeans take their pleasure very seriously. Venture past the tourist trail of Chinatown, the malls of Orchard Rd. and the overpriced cafés of Sentosa Island and you’ll a city contending for a spot among the great capitals of fun.

If you’re there, don’t miss these delights:

Seafood at East Coast Park

The food stalls at East Coast Park specialize in the fruits of the ocean. You’ll find dozens of hawkers serving up local specialties like chilli stingray, pepper crab, and prawns, along with Singapore classics like satay and fried oysters.

Buddha Tooth Relic Temple

Singapore’s Chinatown doesn’t really deserve the name. It’s too clean, too orderly, too colour-coordinated to be a Chinatown. But it’s centrepiece, the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple, is a treat. The main floor, the worship hall, is intensely ornate, while the upper floors offer exhibits on Buddhism.

The namesake display, the Buddha’s tooth relic, is enclosed in a sealed shrine. Holiness drips from the walls.

Cable-skiing at the lake

Actually, before your seafood session, work up an appetite cable-skiing at the lake on East Coast Park. It’s like water skiing with robots instead of boats. You’re pulled by a rope attached to a cable system that rotates continuously around the lake, passing over jumps and ramps.

It costs $32 SGD for one hour and is loads of fun.

Asian Civilizations Museum

The Southeast Asian backpacker trail takes you through several countries of contrasting cultures. This museum does a fine job of putting it all together, giving your trip a historical and cultural context.

Pulau Ubin

A short bumboat ride from the mainland is Pulau Ubin, a little island that reminds Singaporeans what nature looks like. Spared from the bulldozers of condo developers, it’s a leafy getaway where the sound of crickets and cicadas take over from engines and horns.

Visitors can rent bikes to explore the island, eat some decent seafood, and see the Chek Jawa wetland a mini-ecosystem of anemone, algae and crabs that shows itself at low tide.

Five-star street food

A national dish of Singapore is the Hainanese chicken rice, and few serve it up better than Five Star Chicken Rice on East Coast Rd. near Kantong Village. Locals and expats swarm the sidewalk tables and order portion after portion of the slow-cooked bird.

But the area is a big eating hub with lots of other quality cheap eats. Try the laksa at 328 Katong Laksa a few blocks away.

Free luxuries

At the time of writing, the Marina Bay Sands, a mammoth shopping-casino complex was still under construction, but some shops open for business. Some of them offer generous free samples of luxury foods.

Like Yummi House. They specialize in high-end honeys from around the world. One pot costs $120 SGD. But they will gladly dissolve a big spoonful in hot water, chill it with ice, and give it to you for nothing. It’s exquisite.

Next door is a tea shop with tea sets priced in the thousands. Again, enjoy some samples on the house.

Big desserts

In the Chinese neighbourhood of Bugis you’ll find Ah Chew Desserts, a landmark with locals. (Notice a big focus on food? Get used to it in Singapore) They serve delicious sweets like grass jelly, bean curd, and several flavours of shaved ice with fruit.

It’s at 1 Liang Seah Street #01-11

The most fondled Buddha in Singapore is in Bugis.

Cosplay café

This one is more for the blokes, but girls can have some fun as well. In Chinatown, there’s a cosplay café where girls dressed as characters of Japanese male fantasy dote on you through the night. Clients can have their food hand-spooned to them by these girls, for a frugal $1 a bite.

The A87 Café and Bar is at 108 Tajong Pagar Rd.