City guide
Everything you need to know about Singapore
Oftenan island of extremes, in Singapore you can sip cocktails in sumptuous surrounds or discover new craft beers at a hawker stall. You can see gleaming new steel buildings overshadowing timeworn Chinese temples redolent with incense. You can shop the labyrinthine commercial hub of Orchard Road for designer brands, or visit a tiny offshore island that seems lost in time. The Lion City is hard to categorise but easy to love.
GETTING AROUND
Singapore is simple to get around whether you jump on the extensive MRT rail system, hail one of the world’s cheapest (and most reliable) taxis, or grab a bus to just about anywhere. The island is also proud of its kilometres of covered walkways to protect residents from the frequent tropical downpours.
SIGHTS
Strolling Singapore’s harbour is a popular pastime where you can find Gardens By The Bay (gardensbythebay.com.sg), a neatly curated park that is home to huge greenhouses like the Cloud Forest, packed full of tropical plants.
The harbour is home to Marina Bay Sands (10 Bayfront Ave; marinabaysands. com ), the famous hotel, Skypark (with that rooftop infinity pool packed full of selfie takers), casino, theatre and high-end shops.
In the shadow of the hotel is Makansutra Gluttons Bay, a modern-day hawker market founded by food blogger and street food expert KF Seetoh. Each stall here has been handpicked by Seetoh for being the best at what they do and it is the place to indulge in a ‘greatest hits’ of Singaporean street food: chicken rice, Hokkien prawn mee (noodles) or the city-state’s famous chilli crab.
The Singapore Zoo (zoo.com.sg) is also a must, the free-range zoo sees monkeys swinging overhead, gets you inside a cage with sloths, bats and lemurs and the River Safari offers pandas and aquatic life.
SINGAPORE SPECIAL
Singapore’s hawker centres and coffee shops are the best bargain in town. This is street food Singapore-style where the stalls have a rating from A to C (most are As and Bs and very hygienic) and plates of food cost as little as a few dollars. Specialties include char kuay teow (fried noodles), bak kuh teh ( a peppery pork bone soup) or roti prata (Indian flatbread served with a curry sauce to dip it in). Try the app/website ‘Makansutra’ to find the most revered stalls, or just join the longest queues.
CULTURE VULTURE
The oldest museum in the city- state, the National Museum of Singapore (93 Stamford Road; nationalmuseum.sg) tells the story of Singapore’s nation building through exhibitions, art and video installations.
At the Peranakan Museum (39 Armenian St; peranakanmuseum. org.sg) visitors can learn about the way of life of the Peranakan people, a cultural mix of Chinese and Malay as well as other regional influences. The museum is set in an old school building from 1912 and offers an insight into early Peranakan lives with displays highlighting the ornate clothing, early furniture and ancestral portraits of the early straits Chinese.
DOING BUSINESS
Singapore’s central business district is located around the bustling skyscrapers of Raffles Place, named after Singapore’s founder, Sir Stamford Raffles. It has been the commercial centre since the 19th century and is home to most of the city’s businesses. You’ll find the restaurants of nearby Boat Quay
full to bursting with lunchtime meetings, or city workers grabbing a morning coffee at Australian coffee chain Dimbulah (30 Raffles Place, #01-31; dimbulahcoffee.com).
And it may be a cliche that Singapore is big on rules, but being tardy to a business meeting is frowned upon so make sure you are on time.
RETAIL THERAPY
The shopping strip of Orchard Road can see you lost for days in the tunnels, connected walkways and mega-malls but keep an eye out for local shops. Tangs department store (Tangs Plaza, Orchard Road;
ESCAPE
With less than 50 residents, who are outnumbered by the wild boars, the island of Pulau Ubin is a time capsule of how Singapore used to look. Known as ‘Singapore’s last kampong (village)’, you can take the 10-minute ferry across to the island from Changi where you will see locals cycling by with crabs tied to the front of their bikes and day trippers taking walking tours of the island’s lush vegetation. When you arrive back on the main island you are a short walk from the thriving Changi hawker centre – try the black carrot cake. tangs.com) does a strong line in local fashion brands.
Far East Plaza, off the main strip on Scotts Road, attracts a younger, hipper crowd in search of Asian designers and if you must go international, ION Orchard, shaped like a spaceship, is full of well- known upscale brands.
Island-wide, keep an eye out for Charles & Keith (charleskeith. com) stores, a footwear and handbag brand that was started by Singaporean siblings Charles and Keith Wong and is now world famous.
PILLOW TALK
With most of Raffles Hotel closed for a major refurbishment until the second quarter of 2018, get some new-school glamour at W Singapore on the tiny island of Sentosa (21 Ocean Way; wsingaporesentosacove.com). It features cutting-edge design and famous weekend pool parties.
Budget conscious or small business travellers will love Hotel Clover Jalan Sultan (33 Jalan Sultan; hotelclover.com), part of a local chain that celebrates heritage buildings and is walking distance from Singapore’s Arab Quarter.
Back at the luxury end, the So Sofitel (35 Robinson Road; accorhotels. com) fuses French style in a modern building that is located right near the central business district.
EATS
One of the hottest new openings of late is Atlas (Parkview Square, 600 North Bridge Road; atlasbar. sg) which revamped its menu in August to feature dishes like crispy prawn heads, cod skin and sawagani crab and wagyu beef knuckle steak. Chef Daniele Sperindio says the new dishes reflect the restaurant’s opulent art deco surrounds.
First timers to the island have to sample Singaporean chilli crab, check out Jumbo Seafood or No Signboard seafood, both of which have multiple outlets across the island.
For a taste of Singapore’s Indian heritage, Banana Leaf Apolo (48 Serangoon Road; thebananaleafapolo.com) in Little India is the best spot for a simple curry; the fish head curry is one of the country’s most underrated dishes.
Housed in a four-storey 1930’s shophouse, Potato Head Folk (36 Keong Saik Road; ptthead.com) is an Indonesian brand with an eye for whimsical design. This is a great place to eat, with Three Buns Dining Kitchen pumping out burgers like the Smokin’ B-Boy burger (beef patty, double-smoked cheese, beer and treacled cured bacon, and barbecue tomato sauce
and mayo).
WATERING HOLES
The city loves a good cocktail and is part of the worldwide craft beer revolution.
Junior The Pocket Bar by The Proof Collective (facebook.com/ JuniorThePocketBar) started as a pop-up bar, but now has a permanent base at 43 Tanjong Pagar Road. One of the original speakeasies, 28 Hong Street (28 Hong Street, Chinatown; 28hks. com) has no sign, just a light hanging over a yellow door. Head through an antechamber and you will find a dark and intimate space .
With boutique beers all the rage The 1925 (369 Jalan Besar; the1925.com.sg) is one of Singapore’s new microbreweries with homemade brews on tap like The Yellow Van. Or head to Druggists (119 Tyrwhitt Road; facebook.com/ DruggistsSG), a 23-tap craft beer bar that has a mosaic floor and constantly changing tap selection – the name comes from the Singapore Chinese Druggists Association who share the building.
Air Niugini flies from Port Moresby to Singapore five times a week. See airniugini.com.pg.