Singaporeans used to joke that if they left the city-state for more than three months, they wouldn’t be able to recognise many familiar places on their return, so relentless was the pace of urbanisation. Although true to a certain extent, this has changed thanks to conservation efforts. If a building is of architectural or historical significance, the tendency is to restore it rather than replace it with a new-fangled one.
Evening boat tours on Singapore River.
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The results are apparent everywhere – in Chinatown, the Civic District, Kampung Glam, Little India and the old residential neighbourhoods. The gentrification of these places, apart from giving the city added charm, has also helped develop among Singaporeans a sense of their own history and a link with the past of their forefathers. This is appropriate, for Singapore remains largely carved up according to Stamford Raffles’s plans for the layout which he implemented in June 1819.
Chinatown’s night market.
Singapore Tourism Board
The colonial hub of the city, today’s Civic District, is still the heart of administration, as it was in Raffles’s time. The clamour of Chinatown and the hum of business in the Central Business District around Raffles Place have not diminished. The Muslim area of Kampung Glam, and the predominantly Hindu Little India, retain their ethnic feel. Chic Orchard Road is one of Asia’s premier shopping areas.
Singapore packs in quite a bit given its tiny size. Once you’ve covered the city centre, venture out to the suburbs, where residential boundaries have been pushed even further as former farming land and fishing villages have been replaced with suburban towns linked by highways. Here you’ll find tiny pockets of Singapore where time has stood still. Parks and beaches provide opportunity to unwind, and there are nature reserves to explore and local flora and fauna to discover. In the south of Singapore (besides Sentosa), there are a number of small islands such as Kusu, Lazarus and Hantu, with tranquil beaches and clear waters. The average visitor, say the statistics, spends four days in Singapore. This book is filled with ideas on how to extend your stay to a week or more – and still be sufficiently enthralled at the end of it.
On Pulau Ubin.
Singapore Tourism Board
