Singapore on the rise

Don't let the isle nation's reputation as a clean, safe and modern metropolis fool you -- it's fun there, too

STORY SUMMARY »

Where can you find an independent nation on an island about the size of Molokai, with a population of about 4.5 million?

The citizens are overwhelmingly ethnic Chinese, but most also speak and understand English. Its health standards are among the highest in the world, and its crime rate is one of the lowest. The country is also blessed with low unemployment and hosts about 8 million visitors a year.

The final clue: There are strictly enforced laws against speeding, littering, jaywalking and chewing gum.

The answer is Singapore, a popular tourist destination and one that a Hawaii-based travel writer says now features some of the most fun and safe experiences for visitors of any country in Asia.

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SINGAPORE » Here in Asia's "Lion City," it almost seems the only way to go these days is up.

Over the past half-century, this seemingly vertical nation/city, perpetually under construction, has often boasted the tallest this, the biggest that. And since the entire country exists on one 250-square-mile island, the only readily available real estate is up in the air.

I first saw Singapore in 1966, and returned a few times during the 1980s. During one of these visits, it was conducting a campaign against "killer litter," the tossing of broken television sets and other appliances out the windows of high-rise apartments.

In this well-regulated society, nonsense like this has apparently been eliminated. Singapore now lives up to its reputation as maintaining the neatest, cleanest, safest and most law-abiding country in Southeast Asia.

"Please tell people that it's not true that if you're caught with chewing gum, you'll be subject to a caning," one proud Singaporean tourism official told me.

Indeed, there is a law against selling gum, or importing it in commercial quantities, although the enforcement is somewhat more lenient than it when it was enacted back in 1992.

During the 1990s, I had a plan to move myself and my wife, Sara, from Hawaii to Singapore just for a few years. The idea was to have a headquarters where, like Hawaii, I was not afraid to drink the water, eat the food, breathe the air and walk the streets at night. I wanted to come home to Singapore in between various forays to some of the less salubrious parts of Asia.

Those plans did not come to pass, but it is still fun to come back to visit a place where the past is respected while modernity is equally embraced. Add to that an attractive, clean city which includes many green and growing acres winding within its walls.

THE LATEST EXCITEMENT in Singapore surrounds the world's largest Ferris wheel, whose massive form has been dominating the waterfront for the past few months. Dubbed the "Singapore Flyer," it is designed to carry merrymakers 540 feet into the air. Each of its 28 cylindrical air-conditioned cabins can hold as many as 35 people per round trip. And yes, it is higher, wider and handsomer than the ones in London and China.

The Singapore Flyer welcomed its first paying passengers on March 1, unfortunately too late for our late-January visit.

There are other ways to get up in the air in Singapore, though. These include a relatively sedate revolving tower, a tethered helium-filled balloon (the world's largest, of course) and even a bungee-cord affair that shoots thrill-seeking customers sky-high in a fraction of a second.

When the G-Max Reverse Bungy was given a permit to operate a few years ago, Singapore's prime minister said, "If we are to encourage a derring-do society, we must allow some risk-taking and a little excitement."

If those things are not tame enough, several tall buildings offer panoramic vistas of the city. My wife and I enjoyed a special Chinese New Year's lunch in the Hai-Tien-Lo (perhaps pronounced "high-then-low") restaurant at the top of the Pan Pacific Hotel. There was not enough altitude to produce a nosebleed, but it was fine for a breathtaking harbor view. (For many years the nearby Stamford was the tallest hotel in the world, at 73 stories, but it is now outclassed by a taller one in Dubai.)

ALONG WITH Hong Kong, Singapore was developed into an important Asian port by the British during the 19th century. Singapore has been independent since 1965, but unlike some other former colonies, it embraces its British heritage as much as it does all other ethnic groups, including Chinese, Indian and Malay. Chinese form the population majority at around 75 percent. But the language common to all is English.

Considerable reverence is given to Sir Stamford Raffles, the founder of modern Singapore. Two prominent statues of the man, known familiarly as the "white Raffles" (marble) and the "black Raffles" (bronze) are near the point on the Singapore River where he set foot in a simple Malay village back in 1819.

Raffles is also the name of Singapore's most famous hotel. Recently expanded, it now displays every cute piece of Victorian frou-frou anyone could think of. This Raffles looks more "authentic" today than it did when it opened in 1887.

One valid Raffles claim to fame is the Singapore sling, and you can suck up this pink gin drink right here where it was invented in the 1920s, long after Somerset Maugham and Rudyard Kipling bellied up to the bar.

British Singapore was conquered and occupied by the Japanese during World War II, and evidence of that period has been saved on adjoining Sentosa Island at Fort Siloso. Among the exhibits are two wax-figure representations of (a) the formal surrender of the British defenders to the conquerors, and (b) the subsequent official capitulation of the Japanese at the end of the war.

Many buildings representing the past have been preserved, even if their purpose has drastically changed. Examples: The massive British-built post office is now a luxury hotel.

And a once-sacred Chinese temple has been changed into a restaurant on Clarke Quay, a popular day-and-night dining and strolling area along the banks of the Singapore River.

Singapore also has maintained many small low-rise buildings from past periods. Besides the colorful, former warehouses along Clarke Quay, there are small "shop houses" and other individual businesses in Chinatown and Little India, many of them whose owner-families live in the rooms upstairs.

OUR MOST memorable experience was at a Singapore Zoo attraction called the "Night Safari."

Under the principle that many exotic animals are only active during the nighttime, the Night Safari provides a method to visit them after dark. Most areas are lit only with a few very low-watt bulbs, not much brighter than moonlight.

Many animals are observed in much more close-up conditions than would be possible in daylight. Flash photography is prohibited, so safari-goers must rely solely on their memories of apparent close encounters with the leopards, bats, binturongs, flying squirrels, civets, otters, jackals, water buffalo, antelope, lions and many other creatures.

On our next trip, after we have a go-round on the new Singapore Flyer, we are resolved to again visit the delightful creatures of the Night Safari.

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If you go ...

To call from the United States, dial 011-65, plus the number.

» Currency: The Singapore dollar. The U.S. dollar is worth about SGD $1.40.

» Airlines: More than 70 international airlines land at Singapore's Changi Airport. Notable among them is Singapore Airlines, which offers nonstop service from New York and Los Angeles; www.singaporeair.com.

Hotels

Luxury ($200 and up)

» Pan Pacific: 7 Raffles Blvd., Marina Square, Singapore 039595; call 6336-8111; www.panpacific.com

» Raffles: 1 Beach Road, Singapore 189653; call 6337-1886; www.singapore.raffles.com

» The Fullerton: 1 Fullerton Square, Singapore 049178; call 6733-8388; www.preferredhotels.com

Modest

» Albert Court Hotel: 180 Albert St., Singapore 189971; call 6339-3939; www.albertcourt.com.sg ($150 and up)

» Chinatown Hotel: 12-16 Teck Lim Road (off Keong Saik Road) Singapore 088388; call 6225-5166; www.chinatownhotel.com ($80 and up)

» Royal India Hotel: 88 Syed Alwi Road No. 01-02, Singapore 207667; call 6297-7488; www.royalindiahotel.com ($40 and up)

Restaurants

» Hai-Tien-Lo Cantonese Restaurant: Pan Pacific Hotel, 7 Raffles Blvd., Singapore 039575; call 6826-8338; www.panpacific.com/en/singapore/restaurants_bars/Hai_Tien_Lo.html

» Banana Leaf Apollo: 54/56/58 Race Course Road, Singapore 218564; call 6293-8682

» Blue Ginger: 97 Tanjong Pagar Road, Singapore; call 6222-3928; www.theblueginger.com

» The Cliff Singapore: 2 Bukit Manis Road, Singapore 099891; call 6275-0331; www.thesentosa.com

More information

Contact Singapore Tourism Board, 1156 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10036; (212) 302-4861; e-mail newyork@stb.gov.sg; also at 5670 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036. Call (323) 677-0808, e-mail losangeles@stb.gov.sg; go online at www.stb.com.sg or www.visitsingapore.com.