Singapore

It has been popular in recent years to dismiss Singapore, the tiny island city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, as a sort of “Asia Lite”; a destination offering a blandly efficient and boringly tasteless way for timid travellers to sample South East Asia without leaving behind their Western comforts and conveniences. I have heard Singapore labelled as unadventurous, soulless, boring and overly disciplinarian, a place where citizens and visitors alike are robbed of their cherished freedoms to chew gum, drop litter and spit in the street. While it is certainly true that Singapore is a squeaky clean and rigorously well-organised melting pot of Asian civilisations in a very modern, Westernised city, I certainly didn’t find it bland or dull. When natural historian William Hornaday visited Singapore in 1885, he described it as “the handiest and most marvellous city I ever saw...it is like a big desk, full of drawers and pigeon-holes, where everything has its place, and can always be found in it”. Despite the immense changes and development that the intervening years have imposed upon the city, this appraisal feels as relevant today as it did then.

Modern Singapore was only established in 1819, when a British official working in South East Asia decided the island would make an excellent location for a trading hub within the East India Company. That man, Sir Stamford Raffles, is now considered the founder of Singapore, and his influence on the development of the island was profound, not just in the lasting prosperity of the city, but also in its layout. The island of Singapore is roughly diamond shaped, and at just 26 miles long, it is a very compact area to explore; the state’s central or downtown district lies within a two mile radius of the mouth of the Singapore River on the south of the island, and this is where the majority of visitors will likely spend most of their time, but the rest of the island has its attractions too. The area immediately around the river mouth has formed the hub of the city, with the core of downtown Singapore becoming what is now called the Colonial District, the area where the British colonisers were settled. The basic plan of Singapore’s streets has changed little since the British assembled it in the early 19th century, and outside of the Colonial District, the different ethnic groups who came to Singapore were settled in “native divisions” or kampongs around it, which still exist today – firstly Chinatown and the Arab Quarter, and later Little India. The city boomed for many years as a centre of trade, but only relatively recently became what we might consider to be a First World nation. The core of the modern Singapore success story is an unwritten deal between population and government that critics describe as soft authoritarianism (where some personal freedoms have been restricted in return for prosperity), but which I think is better summed up in a phrase I heard from another traveller – “a happy little consensual dictatorship”. This approach to government has left Singapore with some famously strict rules and the running joke that it is a “fine” city; up to $1,000 for littering or smoking in public areas, for example, and the sale of chewing gum is outlawed entirely for the mess it can cause.

The Colonial District
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The British left Singapore with an impressive collection of stately 19th century piles in the Colonial District. The most famous in this area is the “grand old lady of the East”, Raffles Hotel, which has become almost a byword for colonialism. First open for business in 1887, it was during the first three decades of the 20th century that the hotel really reached its heyday, when it established a reputation for elegance and luxury (it was the first building in Singapore to have electric lights and fans, for instance). Apart from being an impressive place to visit in itself, with lofty halls, imposing architecture and peaceful tropical garden courtyard, you can also join in the tradition of taking tiffin or drink its famous cocktails. As well as being one of the most famous hotels in the World, which “stood for all the fables in the East” according to Somerset Maugham, Raffles is home to two little pieces of Singapore history. In 1902, the story goes, the last tiger to be killed in Singapore was shot in the Long Bar after it attacked a member of staff – it is now the only place in Singapore you are allowed to litter, as dropping the shells of the delicious roasted peanuts the bar serves apparently serves as an early warning sign of any other approaching tiger. Thirteen years later, the Long Bar became home to the legendary Singapore Sling cocktail, a delicious drink, but something of a mystery to me that anyone would think it necessary to make cherry brandy cocktails in the tropics. Slings are widely available across Singapore these days but trying one in their place of origin is a something of a must-do; you can even buy your very own Raffles sling glass to take home with you.

The other key landmark of this area is the Padang (“field” in Malay). As the immaculate playing ground of the adjacent Singapore Cricket Club, it is the very essence of colonialism (and the colonisers’ stubborn resistance to adapt to the local environment). The club itself, a suitably imposing Victorian building, still operates a strict “members only” policy, but as a guest there on one night during my stay in Singapore I can assure you that while you are missing out on some impressive architecture and attentive service, there are quite honestly plenty of better places to eat in the city. For those of you not related to club members, this area of Singapore also offers attractions open to all; a short walk away is the famous Raffles landing site, where you can see a statue of the man himself at the place where he first set foot in Singapore, and the excellent Asian Civilisations Museum. For a very reasonable $8 ($4 for concessions) you can spent a fascinating afternoon exploring the many and varied cultures of Asia in beautiful Neoclassical surroundings; I especially liked the engaging Singapore River gallery, which used oral history to good effect in bringing out the stories of the river that flows right past the museum from the people whose livelihoods once depended upon it. From the museum, cross the Cavenagh footbridge (constructed in 1869 from imported Glasgow steel) to take a stroll along the south bank of the river, which comes alive in the evening with bustling riverside restaurants, cafes and bars.

If you head in the opposite direction from the Padang, you can visit the Civilian War Memorial – four tall, slim columns known locally as “the chopsticks” that commemorate those civilians who lost their lives during the Japanese occupation of Singapore between 1942 and 1945 – and reach the CHIJMES complex. CHIJMES (pronounced “chimes”) is a Covent Garden-type affair of eateries, drinking establishments and boutiques built around the husk of the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus, from where the name derives. Built around lawns, courtyards and fountains, it provides a pleasant setting unique in Singapore, but you pay for the location and expect food here to be on the more expensive side of things in the city. Along the northern edge of this area is the famous Orchard Road, Singapore’s answer to Regent Street or Fifth Avenue. A long shopping belt of back to back malls, hotels, cafes and restaurants, it forms the shopping hub of Singapore and is usually listed in travel guides as a “must do” experience. Personally, I disagree. I’m not a natural born shopper, but even if I were, the crowds, the repetitiveness of the shops and the fact that most malls offer little that you couldn’t get at home would put me off. The only one that stood out for me was Tanglin Mall, one of the older establishments and home to more specialist stores with an interesting array of Chinese craft/knick knack shops that offer more satisfying souvenir hunting.

Chinatown & Little India
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While it may seem strange that a city that is ethnically 70% Chinese still has an area that is designated “Chinatown”, the square mile south of the river that was designated the enclave for the Chinese minority in the Raffles Plan still is the hub of traditional life – but only just. Scarred by demolition, marred by building sites and encroached on by the central business district, too much of what remains in the area has been facelifted to look suspiciously perfect. By the mid twentieth century, the area had become rich with the cultural heritage of China, but the Singaporean authorities saw it more as an embarrassing slum ripe for redevelopment; large scale bulldozing and reorganizing of traditional shops into dull complexes and yet more malls had a catastrophic affect on the area. Only recently has the government been persuaded to try and preserve what remains, and a lot of this “preservation” has lost the character and atmosphere it must surely once have had. Some surviving nineteenth century buildings and traditional shops do remain and are quite interesting to wander around, however, all the more so when we visited as it was just a few days before the Lunar New Year, and the area was packed with colourful markets, hung with decoration, and buzzing with a sense of excitement.

The most interesting feature of Chinatown for me was the Buddhist Tooth Relic Temple on South Bridge Road, the area’s newest and flashiest mega temple. The temple is a living cultural monument housing what Buddhist leaders regard as the Sacred Buddha Tooth Relic in a magnificent Relic Stupa composed of 420kg of gold donated by devotees, over 200 rubies and 35 statues of Buddha. Every day the inner chamber is unveiled at stipulated timings in a ceremony conducted by resident monks, and the public can view the Relic Stupa. Entry to the temple is free, and for those not dressed conservatively enough, the monks provide shawls and scarves to wrap around yourself for the time you are inside. And what an inside it is. The temple is simply magnificent and I would strongly recommend other visitors to see it for themselves whilst exploring Chinatown.

The other main ethic quarter that still remains in Singapore is Little India – as the name suggests, this is the centre of the city state’s large Indian community. Situated north of the Colonial district, entering this part of the city feels like you have crossed over into another country, as the Chinese signs (almost) disappear, to be replaced with ones written in Tamil, Hindi and Bengali. Touring around this district, so suddenly and remarkably different from the rest of Singapore, is an assault on the senses – Indian pop music blares out into the street, and the air is heaving with the smell of incense and spices. Little India’s main attraction is the area itself, taking in the atmosphere of the town and browsing crowded shops (the arts belt around Buffalo Road was especially interesting, and you can see fortune tellers and traditional spice grinders elsewhere in the district), although the insistence of some shopkeepers who will stop you on the street and try to persuade you come into their premises does get a little tiring after a while. As a change from the shops, the impressive Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple on Serangoon Road – dedicated to the fearsome goddess Kali – is well worth a look. Little India’s oldest and busiest temple, it dates back to 1881, although much of the present structure was completed in 1986. The temple features a quite amazing gopurum (monumental tower) and an entrance door covered in bells that worshippers ring to ensure their prayers are answered. Entrance is free to visitors, but make sure you remove your shoes before going in.

Away from Downtown
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After several days of exploring the city, we longed to get away from the downtown area and see more of the island. Locals recommended the East Coast Park to us, Singapore’s largest National Park, which stretches in a long narrow strip along 15km of coastline between the eastern edge of the city centre and the airport. The park is highly popular with Singaporeans as a way to get out of the city, and on weekends and holidays is it common to see a lot of tents stretched along the park as people who live in small high-rise apartments seek fresh air and space on their days off. At first glance at the map, the park does not seem all that promising, given it is squeezed in between a motorway and a major shipping channel. This has not stopped the local authorities making the maximum use of this space, however; imported white sand has created a small artificial beach (complete with palm trees) along the edge of the park, and trees have been grown on the other side to cut off the noise and sound of the road from park users. The park is (as you would expect in Singapore) scrupulously clean, well-run and frequently patrolled by wardens in golf buggies, and offers an impressive array of facilities, from shaded seating areas to shower blocks, barbeque pits, miniature golf, skate parks, tennis courts, running paths, fishing areas and water sports. Being on the coast, the park benefits from a cooling sea breeze, and hiring a bicycle or rollerblades for a couple of hours to explore some of the coastline before eating in one of the many beach-side cafes or seafood restaurants that the park offers is a pleasant way to spend a day (and after a while you don’t notice the container ships that much).

If the park is not quite exciting enough for you, then you can head south of the city to Sentosa Island; meaning “tranquillity” in Malay, it is ironically now the most built up of all the small islands surrounding Singapore. Linked to the city by a short causeway and cable car, Sentosa, has over recent years become Singapore’s playground island, offering visitors hotels, spas, resorts, golf courses, sporting facilities, beaches and a range of tourist attractions to make the most of the five million people who visit it annually. When we visited, a lot of the island was a building site for the new Universal Studios theme park that is being built, but the rest of Sentosa offers a range of other attractions such as the Underwater World aquarium (which I wouldn’t recommend) to the well-presented WW2 fort at Siloso (which is excellent value for history enthusiasts), so there is lots on offer if are prepared to get there early and have a plan of action of what you want to visit.

To the north of the city centre, situated on the edge of the peaceful Seletar Reservoir is the highly popular Singapore Zoological Gardens. The gardens attract around 1.2 million visitors each year, a figure perhaps explained by the fact that this is one of the world’s few open zoos, where moats are preferred to cages wherever this is possible, giving the visitor a freer and less restricted view of the animals that are housed there – I have heard it said that this is the closest experience you will get to a safari without actually going on a safari, and after standing so close to animals such as leopards, white tigers and komodo dragons without sturdy bars between us, I think I will have to agree with that! The zoo is home to over 300 species of animal, and although it is not a cheap day out ($18 for adults, and absolutely everything else from activities to riding the tram around the zoo is extra) I felt this was money well spent for the experiences on offer. If you are not in hurry to return to the city, then it is well worth sticking around for the night safari, the world’s first nocturnal zoo, an experience that allows visitors to appreciate the behaviour of those animals that you would otherwise just see sleeping during the day (such as jackals, sloth bears, wolves and flying squirrels) – you can buy a joint zoo and night safari ticket for $32 per adult.

Practical Points
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When you are exploring Singapore, you should always bear in mind that you are in the tropics, just 85 miles north of the equator. The heat is just incredible; although I have often experienced temperatures in the early 30s C, never before have I felt 90% relative humidity along with it, and the affect is something like walking through a sauna. I found that this controlled our behaviour to a considerable extent; distances I wouldn’t think twice about walking in the UK would instead become bus rides, and when one part of the day was planned to explore an area on foot, another became a visit to an air-conditioned museum or restaurant to prevent heat exhaustion. Fortunately, one thing downtown Singapore is not short of is shopping malls, so wherever you happen to be walking around, it is very easy to get out of the sun, take a rest and find a cold drink. On a more practical note, this climate means you will be changing clothes an awful lot, so be prepared to pack extra or to pay laundry charges where you are staying.

Eating and drinking in Singapore is difficult, if only because you are overwhelmed with choice. Eating is something of a national hobby, so much so that the phrase “have you eaten?” often replaces “how are you?” as a greeting. Singapore, however, has no indigenous cuisine to boast of; instead, what you get is an amazing array of culinary offerings from around Asia (principally Chinese, but also Malaysian, Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese and Indian) as well as no shortage of Western food to choose from. While you will have no problem finding fast food places, cafes and fine dining to feed you, the quintessential Singaporean eating experience has to be the hawker centre. Hawker centres emerged from the 1950s onwards as the government’s answer to the hordes of unlicensed food hawkers who roamed the streets of the city – the vendors were grouped together in local centres where they could be carefully inspected for good food hygiene, and as a happy side effect mean you can get the ultimate in food court experiences. In a hawker centre, you are presented with several dozen small food and drink outlets surrounding a large area of communal seating – you simply pick a table, order what you want from as many stalls as you please, and the food is delivered to your table by the vendors when it is ready. Each stall has its food hygiene rating prominently displayed outside, and as long as you stick to the A rated stalls, it is an excellent way to eat – and very cheap. We visited the Newton Circus hawker centre on Scotts Road and had two cokes, two large cups of freshly squeezed fruit juice, a large dish of spicy chicken fried rice to share, and ten freshly cooked satay sticks for a mere $20. I would highly recommend trying satay in Singapore, it is something of an unofficial national dish and tastes simply wonderful – other good choices are fresh lime and pineapple juices, and clay pot chicken rice (or the fish head curry if you are feeling brave!). The dominance of the shopping mall in Singapore (apart from shopping being the other national hobby, shopping malls offer the chance to escape the heat of outside) also means that many really great restaurants are housed in malls – we especially liked Yantra in the Tanglin shopping mall for top notch Indian food and Osaka Town in the Raffles City shopping mall (North Bridge Road) for reasonably priced Japanese food. If you want something a little more indulgent, the famous champagne brunch at the Grand Hyatt hotel is worth booking a table for; for $128 per person you can sample all-you-can-eat gourmet food from a range of Western, Thai, Japanese and Chinese selections, with (and this is the bit I love) free flow of Mumm champagne, red and white wines, Tiger beer and mojitos.

Getting around Singapore by public transport is easy and inexpensive, so there is very little need to hire a car while in the city. The system is made up of MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) trains – which are like the tube but cheaper, cleaner and more efficient – and buses, but there are also a lot of easily available taxis that are inexpensive by UK standards. If you are going to be travelling around for more than a day or two, I would highly recommend buying an EZ Link Farecard from an MRT station or bus interchange, which makes travelling easier and slightly cheaper than paying by cash. The cards can be loaded with values between $10 and $100, and are swiped like an Oyster card both to get on and off the MRT and buses; any remaining credit when you leave the city can be reimbursed at any card outlet.

Concluding Thoughts
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Ditch the image of Singapore as dull and sterile – there is plenty to see, do, experience and eat, and I could have happily kept myself occupied for twice the length of my nine day visit without much difficulty. Sure, the streets are litter free, the trains run on time, everything is sparklingly clean and traffic jams are virtually non-existent, but that certainly doesn’t mean Singapore isn’t also vibrant, cosmopolitan and endlessly interesting too. Visiting the island was an amazing experience for me, which I hope I have managed to successfully convey, with the only real negative for me being the climate; if you are out and about a lot, the heat and humidity quickly becomes tiring and uncomfortable for those of us not used to it. One of the things that really stood out for me was how welcoming and polite the locals were, and I think I have been called “ma’am” more often in my time there than in the rest of my life put together! The city is a paradise for diners, and never before have I seen such abundant choices of food, with so much of it available at very reasonable prices. The Lion City has a lot to offer to visitors – dust down your sun screen, prime your taste buds and dive right into it!

Some Notes on Travelling to Singapore
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When to travel: Singapore is good to travel to all year round. Being practically on the equator, the weather is hot and humid all year round and gets fairly steady amounts of rainfall, although the wettest months are nominally November to January and the driest May to July. Having said that, we travelled in February when it managed to rain for a grand total of 3 minutes during the nine days we were there, and temperatures during the day ranged from 27 to 34 degrees C. In reality, though, there is little distinction between the seasons and the only other consideration of when to visit is the possibility of coinciding with a festival or event on the island.

How to get there: While it is possible to get to Singapore by land from Malaysia or ferry from Indonesia, most visitors will arrive by air into the vast, efficient and seriously well organised Changi airport on the east of the island. Direct flights from UK are widely available from major airlines (including the wonderful Singapore Airlines), and take around 13 hours direct. From Changi, the city centre is easily accessible via a short ride on the zippy MRT train (the airport has its own stop).

Time zone: Singapore is on Singapore Standard Time all year around, which is 8 hours ahead of GMT.

Currency: Singapore dollars, locally referred to as the “singdollar”, which is divided into 100 cents. When we travelled there was $2.1 to the pound.

Insurance: There are no reciprocal arrangements between Singapore and any other country to cover the cost of medical care, so it is essential that make sure you are covered by an appropriate insurance policy before you travel.

Useful websites: http://www.yoursingapore.com/
http://app.www.sg/
http://www.raffles.com/
http://www.acm.org.sg/home/
http://www.chijmes.com.sg/
http://www.btrts.org.sg/Index_Eng.html#
http://www.zoo.com.sg/
http://www.sentosa.com.sg/
http://www.ezlink.com.sg/index.jsp