It's been a week since our almost-epic 30-hour Polo Non-Stop Challenge in the new Volkswagen Polo. We started at 10am Saturday morning (21 November) and ended at 4pm Sunday afternoon.

When I got home, I had just enough energy to have a little birthday cake with the family to celebrate my youngest one's fourth birthday. Then I crawled into bed and slept like a baby.

The 30 hours on the roads of Singapore was great fun. We did not drive all the time, of course. We did linger at our checkpoints and met folks who came to look at the car.

Having spent a reasonable amount of time with the car, Ryan and I found ourselves fairly conversant about its features. Instead of just standing near the Polo and looking pretty (like male Race Queens), we ended up chatting with people who wanted to know more about it.

"Yes, the leather seats and 15-inch alloy rims are standard. Which part of the cow is the leather from? Er, I'm not sure."

"Four disc brakes, yes. No, the ESP on that button stands for Electronic Stability Programme, not Extra Sensory Perception."

"No sir, I am not sure if they sell bigger spoilers than the one included."

One thing you discover about Singaporean car buyers is that not everyone is into engines and power. We got asked about cup holders a lot (there are four in the front alone, and in the back seat, one big enough for a 1.5-litre soft drink bottle). Singaporeans must drink a lot of soft drinks while driving.

Many wanted to look at the boot. We felt a little shy about that because our own bags and random barang barang were still in there. And our luggage wasn't exactly Louis Vuitton. It was more Lewis Futon.

We kept feeling that maybe we should have used a more branded plastic bag for our clothes. But people did not seem to mind and I think most understood that our car was actually being driven around for real.

Not every location we stopped at was a hive of activity. Our Sentosa, Palawan Beach, stop was somewhat quiet simply because the car park was located a little far away from the beach and also because people were there to do beach stuff, like play beach volleyball.

Muscular bare-bodied hunks and bikini-clad chicks tend to be very focused on their beach volleyball game, and looking at a new car is the last thing on their minds. They did thank us for the goodie bags though.

I was a little relieved, too, because I kept thinking of how to deal with sand getting on the seats and floorboards. Sure, it's not my car but I can be such a neat freak sometimes.

Our most interesting stop was at ONE°15 Marina Club. It is also where the famous Sentosa Cove condominiums are being built. We got there at 3am in the morning and checked into one of the luxury yachts there. The massive catamaran we were given had four tiny cabins -- two doubles and two singles.

When we stepped onboard, the boat's caretaker pressed some button in the ‘living room’ and a big-screen LCD TV rose from the wooden cabinet. Then he set up the amplifier and microphones and let the karaoke music video play.

I was most impressed with his service and the level of entertainment this yacht had to offer but it was 3am and we had been driving around for more than a full day, so karaoke was the last thing on our minds.

In my room, I plugged all my gear in, to be charged, did some last-minute blogging, and tried to catch some sleep. Even though I tried to be careful, I hit my head at least three times. Boat cabins, even in luxury yachts, are fairly cramped affairs with low ceilings, and I have a big head.

Ryan chose to sleep in the open deck, not because of any romantic idea of sleeping under the stars, but because he could not get used to the hum of the boat's power generator.

Our brush with luxury and sleep was brief. By 6am, it was time to wake up and get on the road again. The view of the sunrise at Sentosa Cove was lovely though, and we hung around to soak it in the million-dollar view.

We spent the rest of Sunday at East Coast Park, Katong, Bishan Park and Ang Mo Kio Central, meeting more people. By the time we got back to the Volkswagen showroom at 4pm, there was a big crowd waiting for their turn to test drive the car.

"Wait in the car for a minute, there will be supermodels to welcome you," we were told.

"Is that the model?" I asked later, pointing at an attractive woman in the distance.

"No lah," Ryan said, "I think the lady is just coming out to wave for a taxi."

My one big lesson learned from our almost-epic outing?

Jeans are not optimal clothing for beach volleyball -- very hard to do my Killer-Brown Spike.

About mrbrown
mrbrown aka Mr Kin Mun LEE is the accidental author of the popular Singapore website, mrbrown.com, and has been documenting the dysfunctional side of Singapore life since 1997.

Affectionately known as the Blogfather of Singapore, his readers follow his writings closely, which these days range from current affairs, his family, and even his trips abroad.

Currently, mrbrown also hosts the mrbrown show (mrbrownshow.com), probably Singapore's best known comedy and satire podcast.

mrbrown is married to Ginny, his long-suffering wife for 12 years, and is father to three lovely kids, Faith,  Isaac and Joy.