Prejudice runs deep in Singapore, and this culturally accepted ignorance has an effect on adoption issues as well as all the other aspects of life.

Single women, yes.

Single men, no.

This is the strict rule Ms Alice Kaveree of Lotus Child Adoption Agency International sets for herself.

Her agency, which handles adoptions in Asia, has seen more local singles enquiring about adoption over the last year.

She said: 'I handled two adoptions done by single women last year. This year, there are already four on the waiting list.'

She firmly turns down single men.

Ms Kaveree said: 'There is a real danger of getting into incestuous or paedophiliac situations when men are the primary caregivers of young children.

'That's why the law prohibits men from adopting girls.'

Although the law here doesn't disallow single men from adopting baby boys, Ms Kaveree is skeptical.

For the single women who approach her to handle adoptions, she advises them to adopt girls as 'girls are easier to look after' and 'bond better with women'.

I'll be in Singapore later this month, but only for a week, so won't have a chance to educate the population of a couple of million, but the opportunity will arise often to teach one at a time.

Whenever we're in that country, we are starred at, stopped and commented upon. Transracial adoption is so rare there that seeing us with our kids is almost shocking to some. Coming from Seychelles where no one gives a second look, we're always taken aback by the attention, but do use it when we can to try to score a few points for international adoption.

One very surprising question came one day while we were on the MRT (the Singaporean subway system). A lady boarded and sat across from where I was sitting with Sam on my lap. After a stop or two, she moved to the seat next to me.

"Does he swim a lot?" she asked.

"Yes," I said, very surprised, as this was not a question I expected.

"Oh!" she said, looking satisfied with my answer. "That's why he's so dark!"

Turns out that it wasn't seeing a Caucasian couple with Asian kids that was bugging her, but the fact that Sam, although looking as if he could be Singaporean, was so much darker than any family there would ever allow.

I explained, of course, that he is Khmer, so naturally darker complicated than Chinese or Vietnamese, and that he does, indeed swim a lot because we live where we do.

"You should keep him out of the sun," she said. "Being that dark is ugly."

And our train rolled into our station and Mark dragged me out and on to the platform ...