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Story by Melanie Votaw
Images courtesy Melanie Votaw
If you’ve never been to Asia, Singapore is a great introduction to the continent. I think of it as “Asia Lite.” Yes, you’re in Asia, but English is universally spoken and written on signs. Some Asian cities have given me a bad case of culture shock, so there’s a lot to be said for a city that’s easily navigated on foot, by taxi, or public transport – even if I sometimes felt more like I was in Europe than Asia. (To make my life even easier during my visit to Asia, I rented an international cellular phone from TravelCell (http://www.travelcell.com), which was very reasonably priced and easy to use.)
The first thing I noted about Singapore is that it’s remarkably clean. Of course, the government is famously strict, so both street litter and the crime rate are low. On my drive from the airport, I noticed that even the highways are beautifully landscaped with palm trees and flowers lining the way. The second thing that caught my eye is that it’s much more culturally diverse than most cities in Asia. I saw people of almost every ethnic background, but Singapore’s main cultural influences are Chinese, Indian, and Malaysian.
I stayed at two hotels during my time in the city, and my first hotel was located within walking distance of Chinatown. The Amara Hotel (http://singapore.amarahotels.com/index.htm) was a pleasure from beginning to end. Newly renovated, the property maintains several restaurants and bars, including Silk Road, a Chinese restaurant complete with a tea pouring show. If you’ve never seen this, you’re in for a treat. The tea expert studied in China for three years and uses an excessively long spout to pour the tea in long streams from behind his back, over his head, and more without spilling or splattering it, even though he pulls the spout up sharply after each pour. It’s a 3,000-year old tradition that is very impressive and fun to watch, and he has 18 different shows that he performs certain nights of the week, one of which is called “Dragon Catch the Pearl.”
If you eat at Silk Road, order the Hunan-style pork (my mouth is watering just thinking about it.) If pork isn’t your favorite, there are other inspired possibilities, such as braised supreme shark’s fin soup in pumpkin with caviar. I also had a special tea called “Eight Treasure” and was told to move the herbs and nuts (yes, walnuts!) over to the side with the lid of the teacup. Purported to be especially medicinal for women, it was absolutely delicious.
I enjoyed some of Amara’s extra touches, such as the soft Chinese music playing in the hallways, the pillow menu, the self-service laundry facilities, and the room service breakfast menu, which offered continental, American, Chinese, Japanese, and healthy breakfast options. Since I stayed in an executive suite, I had breakfast on the special floor for execs. We “execs” were given private buffet service in a small area with the news playing on a large screen TV. I was greeted by name and served eggs to order at a small table while I sat on a cushy couch.
When I stepped out of the Amara, it was easy to find my way to Chinatown. I had such a great time strolling through the small streets lined with vendors that I wandered around for hours. Unlike some cities in Asia where the vendors are uncomfortably aggressive, the Singapore sellers were gracious when I said I’d “think about it.” The prices were very reasonable, and I walked away with a lot of unique gifts from silk pillow covers to a Chinese silk kimono to glass bottles with scenes painted on the inside. Don’t miss getting a super cheap foot or shoulder massage while you’re in Chinatown either!
My second hotel, the Pan Pacific (http://www.panpacific.com/singapore), gave me  a taste of the very commercial Marina Square area, which is central to upscale shopping and office buildings. The property’s 775 rooms and suites are newly renovated with flat screen TV’s, A.V. portals, and a cable wire kit for hooking up just about every digital device you own. The Roman drapes and sun filters on the windows are operated by remote control or a bedside table panel. (It’s hard to resist the urge to play with this.) Even the mini-bars are wi-fi automated. Every time you remove something from the refrigerator, your room is automatically charged. You don’t have to fill out a form, and you don’t have to worry about being charged for something after you’ve checked out. The hallways of each floor of the hotel are open, giving you a view of every floor  above you, and there are glass bubble elevators with a view of the city that is especially spectacular at night.
The Pan Pacific has several restaurants serving a variety of cuisines, including Japanese, Indian, and Italian. But it’s the  Chinese restaurant – Hai Tien Lo – that is the hotel’s showplace. Located high in the hotel’s tower, the circular restaurant offers panoramic views of the city and harbor. As luck would have it, I arrived in Singapore right at the beginning of Chinese New Year, so I was able to sample a special authentic holiday menu prepared by Hai Tien Lo’s award-winning chef, which included salmon sashimi yu sheng, a traditional salad that you toss at the table for good luck, and some sugary fruit sweets unlike anything I’d ever tasted. Dessert was another special New Year cake called custard nian gao.
 One evening, I had dinner at a restaurant called IndoChine (http://www.IndoChine-Group.com) in the Clarke Quay area (although IndoChine has two other locations in the city, one of which is called “Nude.”) The Clarke Quay location, which includes two restaurants and bars, is collectively called The Forbidden City and is the most creative restaurant property I’ve ever seen. First of all, it’s housed in one of the only two remaining traditional Chinese buildings left in Singapore. The entrance is lined with replicas of the terra cotta warriors, and you know you’re near the restaurant when you smell the jasmine  incense that always burns outside the doors. The first floor has a bar and a small elevated dance floor with aquariums underneath each. There is also a small ice bar where you can get vodka shots while sitting in a parka (which the restaurant provides) on an ice stool while leaning on an ice bar. In a city as hot as Singapore, this is a refreshing experience in more ways than one. If you’d rather stay where it’s warm, the outdoor bar serves exotic drinks using tropical fruit juices like passion fruit and lychee.
The upstairs restaurant called Madame Butterfly is funky with antique furniture (no two chairs are the same), Chinese silk cushions, and metallic, tiger-striped plates. The food is nouveau Chinese and includes dishes like stir-fried king prawns with lychee, jasmine flowers, and capsicum. The restaurant is located near The Cannery, an area of nightclubs, bars, and international restaurants, including The Clinic, a bar with waitresses in nurse uniforms and tables separated by hospital room curtains.
Singapore offers a wealth of things to do, and I feel like I only scratched the surface. I visited Little India and sampled both Indian and Malaysian cuisine at  small inexpensive restaurants on the street. I visited Singapore’s Botanic Gardens (http://www.sbg.org.sg), which are among the best in the world. Even after visiting numerous botanic gardens and rainforests across the globe, I had never seen many of these exotic plants that looked like they belong on another planet. The garden is free to visit, but you must pay a small fee for the large orchid garden – well worth the five Singapore dollars.
The Jurong Bird Park (http://www.birdpark.com/sg) is an excellent zoo filled exclusively with birds. I loved the chaos of the enormous aviary filled with free-flying parrots. It was almost the size of a football field. The Night Safari at Singapore’s zoo (http://www.nightsafari.com/sg) is not to be missed. They start with a funny show involving some of their animals (a few of which do tricks), followed by a train ride through the zoo to see nocturnal animals within a few feet of your seat.
If you like nature, make your way to the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve for the mangrove arboretum, where you’ll see fish, turtles, birds, and my favorite – the large monitor lizards. From a bridge on the grounds, you can see the skyline of Johore Bahru in Malaysia, which you can visit on a day trip if you like.
Singapore is a metropolitan and sophisticated city, and I have nothing but positive things to say about my experience there. I certainly understand why so many expatriates call it home. But if you forget for a moment that you’re in Asia, you’ll be reminded when you find yourself face to face with a family of macaque monkeys.
© May 2008 LuxuryWeb Magazine. All rights reserved.
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