Gardener’s worldie
Barry Cooper basks in an eco-paradise in spectacular Singapore
Singapore? That’s the place to stretch your legs before going on to Australia, isn’t it? Where Formula One rocks up for a few days every September before revving off elsewhere?
While it serves a purpose for pit stops and petrolheads, the world’s only island city state is certainly worthy of a substantial stopover. With its melting pot of traditional cultures, spirited street life and mind-boggling eco-credentials, Singapore has a spark all of its own, making it a city to savour.
After arriving in Changi Airport, we met a chirpy tour guide who introduced himself as Toon-he.
“Cartoon and laugh, hehe,” was the way he described it, with a grin.
For him, this was something special too – we were his first tour group since before Covid. Like so many, it had turned his life upside down.
Toon-he was quick to show us that Singapore isn’t just its skyscrapers.
Anyone who does a Google Images search of the place will be met with a raft of shiny super towers and fancy high-rise hotels.
But this is a metropolis now regenerating itself and it is trying to do it as greenly as possible. Thousands of trees grow from the roofs of its buildings providing eco-systems in the sky. Crops grow in warehouses. Its water supply is recycled and pumped back into the taps of the five million residents occupying the 283 square miles that make up this city-state.
This urban nature concept is maximised at the Parkroyal Collection Pickering hotel, where I’m staying.
Plants in its tiered gardens cover twice the hotel’s floor area.
Open-sided corridors mean air-con is not necessary. The slender nature of the building allows natural light to