Port of Import

The cab ride from Singapore’s efficient Changi Airport might give newcomers the impression that they’re entering a city endlessly having fun. A notice glued to the taxi window notes that official holidays incurring extra charges include New Year’s Day, Hari Raya Puasa (the Muslim festival that concludes Ramadan’s month of fasting), Deepavali (the Hindu “festival of lights”), Christmas Day, and Chinese New Year. So many celebrations, you think. So many cultures!But the truth is far less exotic. On my recent visit there, it wasn’t long before I found myself wondering: Is Singapore the most boring destination in Asia?Singapore’s grit, the cultural bacteria that keeps communities lively and changing, has been boiled and strained away. One of the resident Americans I visited there explained her take on it: “It’s like a pasteurized version of Asia.”This is mostly because of Singapore’s government, which gives new cause to examine the word “patrician.” In Singapore you notice the hand of the People’s Action Party wherever you go – if it isn’t specifically allowed, you’re probably not allowed to do it. The administration longs to create a beacon of Asian multicultural vitality, and the tiny country’s racial mix of Chinese, Malays, and Indians would seem to lead in that direction. But a true melting pot requires warmth and fire, and Singapore has neither.Even so, Singapore is an enduring economic success. The cluster of islands in the South China Sea that bears the name Republic of Singapore houses the busiest port in the world, with 18 million shipping containers’ worth of stuff passing through last year alone. This translates into comparative wealth – per capita income for 2003 was $21,230, according to the World Bank, a shade below Italy’s, at $21,560, and way above neighboring Malaysia, which weighed in at just $3,780.So the irony is that Singapore’s main appeal is that you feel rich, rather than comparatively poor, while you’re there. You feel a couple of significant notches up from your usual spot, in an environment really not much different from home, give or take the odd Hindu temple or bank of bougainvillea, and pleasantly free of starving children, beggars, homelessness, and unemployment. If you half-close your eyes, Singapore’s gleaming towers of glass and steel look a lot like the Time Warner complex at Columbus Circle, only nicer. And cheaper. The 40-minute cab ride from the airport costs around $14; a full manicure and pedicure will set you back $23.50; dinner out ranges from chicken and rice at $3, up to $35 in a swanky place, with wine. A night in a good hotel comes out as $117. And tax and tip are always included.Time to forget politics and go shopping, then. In Singapore, the air-conditioned malls are spotless cathedrals of consumerism (outside, it’s hot and humid pretty much all year round).The famous stretch along Orchard Road in Central Singapore is home to many malls, including the Tanglin Mall (163 Tanglin Road, Singapore 247933) and Shaw Centre (1 Scotts Road, Singapore 228208).You grind through an endless conjugation of familiar brand names – Gucci, Hugo Boss, Louis Vuitton – all at favorable prices, refreshed by frequent beauty and massage boutiques, and even Starbucks, to keep you up to the physical toll of Olympic-scale shopping. Then there are those cheap and plentiful cabs to take you and your bags back to your hotel, where you figure out how the heck you’re going to persuade the airline to take it all home for you.If you fancy something a touch more earthy, you can visit a “wet” market (so-called because the floors are hosed down), where you can buy groceries and flowers. They are all over the city, but one of the cutest is next to Holland Road Shopping Centre in Queenstown (211 Holland Avenue, Singapore 278967), where you can buy and try the full range of exotic fruit. Try a rambutan, which looks like a toddler’s scribble and tastes a little like lichee; or a mangosteen, one of nature’s more subtle and elegant gifts. The braver might try durian, the huge, smelly, spiky fruit that many locals mistakenly claim inspired the design of the city’s new arts center, the Esplanade. You can also get great Chinese reflexology and massage here, at Health Step (4A Lorong Mabong, Singapore 277672, 65-64685-243), where the staff have fingers of steel and speak good English. A package of three one-hour reflexology sessions costs $117, worth every penny.Downtown, the central business district (CBD) and Boat Quay areas together form the Colonial District. A walking tour around this area will lead you through touristy bustle and hubbub, especially at night. Stroll down Boat Quay to Clarke Quay (yet another modern shopping and restaurant complex), along the Singapore River toward the Southern tip of Singapore’s main island, and enjoy the sidewalk cafes and bars, buzzing motorized “bum boats” on the water, and a dazzling array of lights.You can take in two of Asia’s grandest hotels on the way – the famous 117-year-old Raffles (1 Beach Road, Singapore 18967, 65-6337-1886, rooms start at $300),which has had much of its character leeched out of it by an overenthusiastic refurbishment – and the Fullerton (1 Fullerton Square, Singapore 049178, 65-6733-8388, rooms start at $350), in the converted neoclassical old post office, facing grandly onto the river.There’s still a little genuine Asia to see. Little India and Chinatown warrant their own individual tours, preferably on foot. A stroll down Serangoon Road will take you to the gaudy, colorful Sri Veeramakaliamman and Sri Srinivasa Perumal temples. In between, you can stop in a cafe for a banana leaf curry, an Indian dinner ladled onto your own individual banana leaf on a tray. Or cut through to Race Course Road, which houses Muthu’s Curry (138 Race Course Road, 65-6296-9386), a high-fashion reincarnation of a once-modest cafe that became famous for its fish-head curry ($10), still excellent.Chinatown offers the largest most continuous area of 19th-century “shop-houses,” so-called because each one consists of a ground-floor shop with apartments above. These form charming rows for many blocks around Pagoda, Temple, and Smith streets. You can buy good Chinese silks at knock-down prices in the many shops, and 48 Pagoda Street houses the fascinating Chinatown Heritage Centre (entrance fee $5, 65-6325-2878), a museum dedicated to the tough history of Chinese immigration into Singapore, cleverly constructed inside a couple of shop houses.Another museum worth detouring for is the graceful and extensive Asian Civilisations Museum at 1 Empress Place (entrance fee $3, 65-6332-7798), a short walk across the river from the Fullerton. Here you are guided through hushed, grand halls full of multimedia presentations about tribal cultures and historical highlights.If all that is too stimulating for you, the place to really relax is Sentosa Island, lying to the south of the city and accessed by either road causeway or cable car (island entrance fee $3). Sentosa houses both the excellent aquarium at Underwater World (80 Siloso Road, entrance fee $10, 65-6275-0030) and, far more importantly, the gorgeous Spa Botanica (The Beaufort Hotel, Sentosa, 65-6371-1318). Here, you can pay a general fee for free range of the spa facilities ($20), which includes three swimming pools, two massage waterfalls, free mud and soak bath, robes, towels, and help-yourself tea. Treatments, which can be conducted in private cabins, start from $94 for a 90-minute steam bath and massage.From Sentosa, you can take a ferry out to two even smaller and more remote islands, Kusu and then St. John, the latter of which is a former cholera quarantine site, later a rehab center for opium addicts. Now it’s rather lovely, with barbecue facilities, changing huts, and a cute beach. Bring your own picnic and gaze back through the tropical haze at the city’s clearly visible skyscrapers. You’ll be forgiven for thinking that, gosh, it’s a long way to come for a good deal on a DVD player and a pair of designer shoes.

Port of Import

Port of Import

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