Our sojourn began in Singapore, a country that I have wanted to visit for the past 25 years. Somehow, I never got around to that corner of the globe and when I did arrive there with my mother Edith, flying into Changi airport, I found that it was everything I had heard about and more. The airport is ablaze with color in the golden Italian marble flooring and walls and the pots and pots of purple orchids spilling over in abundant profusion.
This year, Changi airport (left) completes its 25th anniversary and celebrations extended into the creation of enhanced facilities for passengers that include free Internet access, showers and massages!
On the drive into the city along the East Coast Parkway, I felt as if I was traveling in one huge garden for the amount of greenery has to be seen to be believed! Highways in superb condition are lined with towering trees. Traffic jams are non-existent on this paradisiac island as the number of cars on the road is strictly regulated by exorbitant automobile taxes and the unrealistic cost of even the most modest vehicle. Only one in ten Singaporeans owns a car and most are required by law to keep them for no longer than five years so that the question of vehicular emission from old and crumbling vehicles does not contribute to air pollution. I realized in only a couple of days that if society seems so extraordinarily disciplined in Singapore, it is because throughout their lives, its citizens are governed by rules which include such things as instant death for drug pushers and users and heavy fines imposed for the possession of chewing gum or for littering. This explains the antiseptically clean streets from which truly one could quite easily eat a meal!
We settled into the Peninsula Excelsior Hotel on Coleman Street, just a step away from the busy Financial District. Within a couple of days, we learned the layout of the “downtown” area, characterized by the ubiquitous skyscrapers and the interesting architecture of the new Esplanade Building that resembles Singapore’s most famous fruit, the durian (which I found absolutely delicious—it is reminiscent of India’s jackfruit but has a sweeter, creamier flesh that just melted in my mouth). Of course, we caught a glimpse of Raffles Landing in the old Colonial District, posed for photographs at Merlion Park where the nation’s icon–half-lion-half-fish–guards the entrance to the Singapore River. Our drives around the city took us into the midst of bustling Chinatown where we visited the ornate Thian Hock Keng Chinese Temple, the Al-Abrar Mosque and the Sri Mariamman Hindu Temple. In just a few yards of urban space, we became aware of Singapore’s multi-ethnic and multi-religious community. Later visits to the hundred-year old St. Andrew’s Cathedral confirmed Singapore’s great diversity and the determination of its administration and its people to maintain harmony despite racial and cultural difference.
Dinners at beautiful Boat Quay and Clarke Quay introduced us to Singapore’s excellent restaurants and their unusual cuisine—for instance, we had our meal cooked before our eyes on hot stones that sizzled and spluttered mouth-watering juices around us as we feasted on salmon and steak on the banks of the Singapore River. Being fellow-foodies, my mother and I tried and tested some of Singapore’s best-known dishes at its famous Hawkers Centers and in the many food courts that dot its innumerable malls. My brother Roger, a frequent visitor to Singapore, recommended the Chilli Crab and the Char Kway Teow cooked up by Thye Hong at Newton Circus Hawkers Center which were to die for, the crab so huge that the two of us had trouble finishing it.
Of course, no gastronomic tour of Singapore would be complete without a visit to the famous Raffles Hotel, one of Asia’s oldest and most elegant, home to such writers as Joseph Conrad and Somerset Maugham, where we treated ourselves to a Singapore Sling (above left), the cocktail that was invented in its Long Bar. Listening to some fabulous live music that night, we sipped our Slings and reveled in Singapore’s well-known night life.
But it is not just urban delights that Singapore offers. Its natural pleasures are also rife and we enjoyed the trip to the Jurong Bird Park (right) where we walked through a Waterfall Aviary watching thousands of colorful birds feed as they serenaded our approach. I was fascinated by the Penguins on Parade as they waddled like young men in tuxedos on the rocks, dived into the water and swam elegantly in its depths. Aboard the air-conditioned Panorail train, we passed by a variety of birds that included bright pink Caribbean flamingos, pelicans and hawks of every kind including the American bald eagle. At the famous Night Safari, we drove around a zoo in dimmed lights on a slow mobile that took us past a variety of nocturnal animals from lions to hyenas with a python thrown in for good measure.
On another morning, we dallied in the National Orchid Gardens (left) where newly created varieties had been named for some of the world’s best-known people.
On another afternoon, we took the cable car from the heights of Mount Faber to Sentosa Island, a massive amusement park which includes everything–a performance of live dolphins at Dolphin Lagoon; an Underwater World that takes visitors into a tunnel surrounding them completely by creatures of the deep including the rare dugong; a completely awesome Wax Works Museum called “Images of Singapore” which recalls the history and diversity of this island nation from its founding by Sir Stamford Raffles (left) to its current avatar as one of the world’s most technologically advanced countries; the Carlsberg Tower which, on a clear day, offers views of the South China Seas and the shores of Indonesia; a laser lights show at a Musical Fountain (below).
Indeed, Singapore has found ways to attract, keep and bring tourists back panting for more, in the variety of its shopping possibilities, its palate-pleasing cuisine and the amount of endless experiences it offers every visitor. Since shopping was not on our list of priorities, we merely skimmed through the famous Orchard Road, one of the world’s best-known shopping districts, taking in the sights of massive billboards announcing Shopping Week in Singapore with a number of deals to lure easy spenders. We rode in the wonderful MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) subway system and found it clean, cheap, quick and simplicity itself to use. Everything is mechanized and runs like clockwork. Like any Western country, punctuality prompts the rhythms of daily life. By the end of our stay, I discovered that though life is governed by regulations in Singapore, these become a way of life for the people who no longer feel oppressed by their existence, but perhaps even grateful for them.