Time to Singapause
flood in. The hotel was also the first in Singapore to use recycled plastic as a building material to reduce the use of concrete. The combination of glass and greenery in buildings is all over the skyline and it’s all part of a bigger plan towards its “city in a garden” dream.
One of Singapore’s most iconic buildings actually helps to make it the more eco-friendly destination it is today. At Gardens by the Bay, in the shadow of the famous triple-towered Marina Bay Sands hotel, you can see a huge collection of unusual plants from all around the globe.
The largest greenhouse in the world, the Flower Dome, encases a mass of varieties. Next door is the Cloud Forest, featuring the world’s second tallest indoor waterfall.
Engineering wizardry enables the greenhouses to collect rainwater which flows through a cooling system connected to the “Supertrees”. Stretching up to 164ft, these giants at Supertree Grove are designed to provide shade in the day, disperse heat and harvest solar energy.
Watch these megastructures come alive when they star in a synchronised light and musical show at 7.45pm and 8.45pm every night. Nab the best view from the Observatory on the tallest tree and admire the twinkling lights reflected in Marina Bay. While Singapore is a renowned island destination, it also has 64 smaller surrounding islands offering tropical escapes away from the bustle of the city. We took a 15-minute bumboat ride from Changi Point Ferry Terminal over to Pulau Ubin, just off Singapore’s north-east coast.
We hired bikes from the main jetty and spent an afternoon traversing this four-square-mile island’s multitude of habitats, from seagrass lagoons to mangroves. Keep your eyes peeled for fiddler crabs, red junglefowl, mudskippers and macaws. Make sure you visit Singapore’s last-remaining kampong – a traditional village.
When it comes to getting around, Singapore is superb for green transport options. In the city there’s a dockless bicycle sharing scheme, which is around 50p for the first half an hour, then 3p for every minute after.
There are lots of cycle lanes in place already, but plans to build 800 miles of safe cycle routes will triple the current coverage by 2030.
There is also the Mass Rapid Transit system, or MRT, where the network map highlights the different cultures that have shaped the region.
Chinatown is a hive of activity with colourful shops, steam-filled restaurants and the famous hawker markets. A trip there cannot be
completed without a stop at Hawker Chan, the world’s first Michelin-starred Hawker restaurant. There you can get a plate of chicken, rice and all the accompaniments for £2.
Then there’s Little India, where on Sundays, the area comes alive with locals enjoying their day off, shopping, eating out and visiting the quite astonishing temples. A Singapore Tourist Pass, or STP, offers unlimited travel for £5.60 per day.
After all that pounding of those streets or pedalling, you may want to treat your tootsies to a little foot massage. With wall-to-wall reflexology shops in the shopping centres, each one usually full, caring for your feet seems to be a national pastime. It’s around £12 for an hour-long session which will make your whole body feel relaxed and revived and you will leave with a spring in your step.
If you want to take your wellbeing up a level, head to the Aramsa Spa, Singapore’s garden spa, set within the green space of Bishan public park, complete with resident otters. While the fitness fans clock up their daily step count or play football, spa goers enjoy the tranquillity of the 17 treatment rooms, garden courtyards and the outdoor showers and baths.
Food is all part of the fun in Singapore, but it doesn’t have a main speciality dish – more of a list of favourites. Try chicken and rice
in the hawker centres, whole chilli crab with garlic, chilli and tomato, fish head curry and laksa – rice noodles and prawns in spiced curried coconut soup.
Anyone who loves the starter of chicken satay will salivate over a trip to Boon Tat Street, aka Satay Street, behind the Lau Pa Sat hawker centre.
It’s basically a road closed off to traffic full of tables and chairs and a row of different stalls cooking various types of satay on outdoor barbecues. All claim to be the best. This is where Toon-he came into his own, of course he knew which one to visit. If you want to pay for the privilege go for the Michelin-starred Labyrinth, on Raffles Avenue. The taster menu, created by chef-owner LG Han, is £123 for 15 courses.
It features classics such as chilli crab ice-cream and rojak, a Malaysian spicy fruit salad served with 12 herbs grown by Edible Garden City, a 260-strong movement of urban gardens across Singapore.
The Coconut Club is another super-trendy place and its Nasi Lemak – the Singaporean classic of spiced chicken served with fragrant coconut rice, fried egg, anchovies, peanuts, cucumber and chilli sauce – is an art form.
Mavalli Tiffin Rooms, MTR for short, on Serangoon Road has been serving spectacular south Indian cuisine since 1924. Think veggie Indian tapas, packed with flavour, and you won’t be too far off.
Our final night was spent around the bay, its moody clouds and skyscrapers providing an almost gothic scene from our table at
Palm Beach restaurant. Signature dishes such as golden milk prawns and creamy crab and coco lobo – lobster served in a stock of lime, milk, chilli and milk – along with its waterside setting, will make your memories of Singapore all the more delicious.
It’s all part of a bigger plan towards Singapore’s city in a garden dream