Singapore Encounter 2nd

Once sullenly wary of outsiders, Singapore is now screaming its name to the world. Once upon a time they stopped longhairs at the border, now theyre offering them big salaries to run digital animation labs. Once upon a time the city frowned on late nights, alcohol and wanton frivolity, now its one of the nightlife capitals of Asia.

Once upon a time in Singapore... The fairy tales still get told of social controls so obsessively, surreally punctilious they achieved global infamy. Yes, its still illegal to chew gum (without prescription!) and jaywalk, and yes the government still fusses, prods and badgers its citizens in every single aspect of their lives, but the Fine city has actually transcended the joke and become, yes, a fine city.

At the centre of it all, the Colonial District is its cultural heart, home to some of Asias most outstanding museums, some of its grandest Victorian architecture and, providing a spiky counterpoint, the unforgettable Esplanade theatre overlooking Marina Bay. Singapores economic lifeblood used to flow through that bay and up the river. Now the shadow of a new economy looms over it, as the giant Sands casino resort rises towards full completion, while a barrage has turned the bay into a reservoir that will be the centrepiece for the New Singapore: globally minded, affluent and fun.

Upstream, echoes of the past cling to the river bank, but the belch and clatter of bumboat commerce has given way to the belch and clatter of drinkers and diners, as businesspeople mingle with mall-weary tourists over a few sundowners before taking on some of the citys superb clubs and restaurants. And everywhere, from fancy French cuisine to the ubiquitous hawker stalls, is food, the one defining obsession that unites everyone, if only momentarily. Any visitor willing to throw themselves into this food paradise will find no quicker way into the soul of Singapore.

Another exciting night of live music in Singapore
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Many parts of Singapore have been trampled by shopping centres a process of mall-ification that has robbed entire areas of their sense of place. Little India is one of the happy exceptions and for our money there is nowhere in Singapore that matches it for street atmosphere, especially at night.

Little India teems with life its hard to believe youre just a few minutes from Orchard Rd and the greatest pleasure is wandering around to soak it all up: the countless places to eat, the gold shops filled with haggling families from India, the garland sellers, CD shops thumping bhangra and the dozens of smells, both good and bad. While many areas of the city die after dark, there always seems to be activity on the streets of Little India, which light up spectacularly in October for the Deepavali festival.

Serangoon Rd forms the spine of the district, but its the lanes on either side that warrant the most exploring. Next to the pungent wet market, hawker centre and 1st-floor sari shops of , Buffalo Rds open-air vegetable stalls bustle around the clock, spilling detritus onto the street as shoppers shuffle along the five-foot-ways lined with bags plump with okra, eggplants and more. Theres something refreshingly grubby and un-Singaporean about it all.

Race Course Rd is thick with food shops, including the famous .

At the other end of Serangoon Rd is the notorious , a 24-hour shopping behemoth crammed with every known retailable item on earth and, it sometimes seems, every person too.

Mustafa Centre, Little India
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It might seem strange to have a Chinatown in a city dominated by ethnic Chinese, but this district of narrow lanes and once-crumbling shophouses was the area Sir Stamford Raffles demarcated in his segregated Singapore town plan for the Chinese immigrants.

The area is still rich in history and the first stop for any new visitor should be the , which portrays the districts squalid past. Its hard to imagine, now that the renovators have swarmed all over the place and filled it with boutique hotels and fashionable restaurants. Pockets of old Chinatown still remain in streets such as Keong Saik Rd and Chinatown Complex.

Pagoda, Temple, Smith and Trengganu Sts are the tourist traps, riddled with market stalls (and a great night food market) and bookended by two important religious sites: the Hindu .

Cross South Bridge Rd and enter Club St, once home to many clan association headquarters, now a magnet for fashionable businesses and restaurants. Over the top of Ann Siang Hill are Amoy and Telok Ayer Sts, home of the , an area that heaves with lunching office workers during the day, but is almost deserted at night.

Thian Hock Keng Temple, Chinatown
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Orchard Rd was once a leafy boulevard lined with plantations (hence the name). These days, though, Singapores money doesnt grow on trees; its harvested in malls and nowhere do they grow more thickly than here. The sheer scale of this retail barrage can be oppressive and overwhelming, particularly for reluctant shoppers (in other words, men). On weekends and in holiday seasons, the pavements are often so packed that walking is reduced to a shuffle. But there are compensations for those who contemplate with horror a day of gasping at shoes and suffering lathers of indecision over dresses including the streets many wonderful opportunities for eating and, if youre there during Christmas, the breathtaking light displays.

Orchard Rd and its environs encompass many miniature worlds. Observe the expat wives comparing maid problems over cake at .

Paragon Shopping Centre along Orchard Road
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Sometimes the relentless development and redevelopment of Singapore can become tiresome, but not in the case of its world-class zoo and , which are forever being upgraded and always for the better. Whatever your opinion of zoos, it cant be denied that the Singapore Zoo has made an excellent job of keeping its animals as happy as possible.