The surprising side of Singapore

Niall McIlroy’s taste for the Lion City is renewed with the discovery of new attractions.
Niall McIlroy The Western Australia Yahoo News 2 Jun 15;

The Singapore Flyer, Sentosa and the great National Museum are all fantastic attractions — and more than worth flying fewer than five hours from Perth, as I’ve done on Scoot’s Dreamliner. But on this two-day visit, I’m not going to see any of these. Instead, I’m keen to find other surprises that lie below Singapore’s surface and how I can neatly fill a weekend away in the warmth.

DAY ONE

My first stop is a blast from the past rather than the face of the future. A 10-minute bumboat ride from the Changi Village Ferry ($S2.50, about $2.40), Pulau Ubin is not what I was expecting on a trip to the Lion City.

It’s not actually Singapore — well, not the main island anyway — and although I’m getting around on two wheels, it’s by bike, not tuktuk.

Talking of bikes, Pulau Ubin is a real change of gear. This 10sqkm blob of green is ensconced in the strait between the main island and peninsular Malaysia but it seems so much further away from the bustle of big-city Singapore. And after flying to the US and back in the preceding six days, I’m desperate to stretch my legs, so this is just what the doctor ordered.

Just off the jetty, in the village there’s a clutch of small shops with signs in Mandarin, selling ice-creams, soft drinks and beer. And that’s about as much development as there is. But for the shopkeepers, the island is largely uninhabited and there was uproar recently when someone suggested building an ATM.

A row of red bicycles stands in a rack: hire starts from just a few dollars and I roll out of the village between the Chinese Opera stage and the temple. Both are a rich red, said to ward away demons, but the rest of Pulau Ubin is very green indeed. The name means “granite island” and the rock was mined to build parts of Singapore. When it ran out in the 70s, the villagers left and their little wooden kampong houses stand abandoned.

There’s little sign of the quarrying either — the forest has swallowed up most of it but for a large emerald lake in one of the deepest pits.

With the wind in my face, it’s pleasant cycling among the verdant green of fruit-less durians, palms and banana trees along a dirt track. Crickets, birds and a crowing rooster are the only sounds I have for company until a plane takes off from nearby Changi, reminding me I’m only minutes from a big city.

Instead I feel like I’m in rural Indonesia or Malaysia, and that’s the beauty of it — this really feels like a secret little escape, although I’m told at weekends I wouldn’t be so lucky. As I pass the village chief’s clapboard house, his friendly black dog comes out to greet me. Native animals include wild boar (also tame), pythons (not so but harmless), monitor lizards and otters, but I don’t see any.

A towering common pulau tree shades the handful of tombstones — one of the Muslim cemeteries that scatter the island. Some eight storeys high, the tree is said to predate Sir Thomas Raffles’ colonisation of Singapore for the British in 1819.

I reach the Chek Jawa Wetlands, which are a rare example of what many parts of the Singapore coast were like before development. On the new boardwalk of the Mangrove Walk, I take the pleasant sloshing of the high tide in exchange for it obscuring the native seahorse, pipefish and sponge populations that live in this bay. There’s a good view, though, of the forest, mangroves and even out to Malaysia from the Jejawi Tower.

Back on mainland Singapore, The Coastal Settlement restaurant is housed in what locals call a “black and white” bungalow. This one is more colourful than that. There are two Morris Minors round the side; above them the wall is festooned with old office furniture, deckchairs and carousel horses. Inside, it’s just as eclectic: Vespas parked along the shelves beside waist-high wireless radios, while chandeliers and disco balls hang from the ceiling. The food’s really good, too; and well priced. I have tasty truffle fries ($S15), beef rendang ($S18) and a glass of Cape Mentelle ($S10).

You’d chalk up a lot of air miles and probably need a lot of inoculations to explore the Amazon, Mississippi, Congo, Nile, Ganges, Mekong and Yangtze, but I get the chance to “dip a toe in them all” — or reasonably close approximations anyway — at the River Safari.

The latest addition to the city’s great animal experiences, the River Safari opened next to the Singapore Zoo and the Night Safari last year and is a fantastic set-up of linked walk- through aquariums stocked with animals native to each river, some of them endangered.

So in the Mekong, I gaze into the eyes of a giant catfish which can weigh up to 350kg and of which there are only a few hundred in the wild, while in the Ganges I’m avoiding the look behind the bulbous snout of a huge Indian gharial.

The Amazon River Quest makes a real splash, particularly when our boat — which resembles a rollercoaster — is raised on to a platform and slides down some rapids into an ecosystem that resembles the river.

Thankfully there’s a good overhead commentary and the river is well signed, for in the quickest 10 minutes of my life I’m treated to a who’s who of Amazonian animals along the banks, from brown tufted capuchin monkeys to Caribbean flamingos and, most impressive of all, a pair of jaguars — not in the open air, of course.

A second boat ride circles the Upper Seletar Reservoir, which is rich in birdlife. Higher up on the banks are the white rhino, Asian elephants and giraffes of the neighbouring zoo and night safari.

Many visitors come to see panda pair Kai Kai and Jia Jia. I don’t catch sight of the latter, a female sadly shy of breeding, but inside his purpose-built gallery — which is kept from 16-24C — Kai Kai is full of beans, or possibly bamboo. I catch him lying on his front on a wooden bed before he disappears into his cave, only to re-emerge to relieve himself. Then he sits in the bough of a tree for all to see.

I reckon you’d need a full day at the zoo to take both boat rides and to spy all the animals you’ve never heard of, such as the perpetually pregnant manatee, or sea cow, which could teach Jia Jia a thing or two.

Singapore is spoilt for places to eat but I didn’t expect one of the tastiest and most enjoyable to be in the middle of the road. Every evening between 6pm and 1am, Boon Tat Street in the heart of the CBD is closed to traffic and instead is dotted with hundreds of plastic tables and chairs as people come to enjoy freshly cooked satay from the hawkers at Lau Pa Sat.

There are about 10 open-air satay stalls under the towering skyscrapers. We flag down a man in a Best Satay shirt from stalls seven and eight; he shows us to a table and takes our order. Minutes later he reappears carrying sizzling skewers of chicken, beef and mutton, a plate of onion and rice balls and little polystyrene bowls of satay.

I’m a satay fan and this is just fantastic — the meat is beautifully tender and the nut sauce has just the right viscosity, with a lovely subtle chilli bite at the back of the throat. The whole meal of 30 sticks between three comes to $S18 — I can see why it stops traffic.

DAY TWO

It’s said breakfast is the most important meal and for many Singaporeans it’s the sweetest. The dish of choice? A combination of crisp toast filled with kaya — coconut jam and runny egg — washed down with a cup of very sweet black coffee. On the Katong street behind my hotel, the Grand Mercure Roxy, Chee Mee Chin Confectionery is one of the best exponents of this delicacy and has served it up from an old-style coffee house for close to 70 years. I order my coffee black with a round of kaya toast. Thankfully, it’s not as runny as I remembered but it’s a little too sweet for my liking.

Singapore is showing its green side again this morning but this time I’m on the mainland at the Southern Ridges Walk. This linkage of parks sweeps around the southern end of the island, from the top of Mt Faber 9km north- west to Kent Ridge Park.

I cross the seven undulating curved-steel ribs of the Henderson Waves, Singapore’s highest pedestrian bridge, enjoying the cooler air and the views of the south of the city.

There’s another little world up here — most of the walk is on a raised platform that winds through the canopy between palms, ferns and thick green bamboo, amid tall, thin Medan berokok trees, weeping figs and red sandalwood. The siren of the cicada is a constant accompaniment, punctuated pleasantly by the rusty gate screech of Asian glossy starlings and the musical woop of a black-naped oriole. It’s so pleasant to be caught in the fold of this green curtain.

Even in the few years since I last visited, Chinatown has changed a lot. The main strip is now taken up with hawker stalls as well as restaurants in those great old shophouses that date back to colonial times. It’s all under a high glass canopy with a cooling system, so there’s good eating to be had rain, hail or shine. The surrounding area is a whirl of mercantilism; goldsmiths, markets, dim-sum restaurants, bars, tailors — very insistent they are, too — seed and nuts stalls, and even one that sells sausages.

What hasn’t changed is the religious harmony in Chinatown — the area has a Hindu temple, Malay mosque and the $S62 million Buddha Tooth Relic Temple, said to house part of one of Buddha’s teeth, which was found after the collapse of a Burmese stupa.

I lunch where the locals do at nearby Maxwell Food Centre, enjoying that Singapore speciality, chicken rice. It’s cheaper at Maxwell than on the main drag — just $S3.50 — and the rice, which is boiled in chicken stock and served with strips of meat, is very tasty.

A great way to cool off on a muggy Singapore evening is with a bumboat ride along Clarke Quay. Time it for after sunset as I have and there’s also the bonus kaleidoscope of bright city lights against a constantly changing sky as the boat wends between the skyscrapers that loom over Boat and Marina quays.

Having been in Seattle in the past week, I’d been spoilt for choice for great beers but the brews at Brewerkz are anything but pint-sized in terms of taste. The Brown ale is a winner but on the steep side at $S16 a pint.

I have a last but almost unreal look at the city from on high on the balcony at restaurant and bar Level 33. Perched in the wind, each skyscraper is a twinkling beacon in the black. Synchronised light shows play across the roofs of buildings and below it all is the flat liquid square of Marina Reservoir. It looks like science fiction but it is Singapore fact.

Muthu’s Curry at the heart of Little India has been serving up curries on banana leaves since 1969 and a feast of vegetable samosas, Peshwari naan and chicken dum biryani is a deliciously satisfying way to end a happy, contented couple of days that have passed all too quickly.

It’s lucky Singapore isn’t so far away. And after cycling, cuisine, river safaris, bumboats and brew, the only thing that wasn’t a surprise is that, once again, it was so much fun.

Niall McIlroy visited Singapore as a guest of Singapore Tourist Board, Scoot and Grand Mercure Roxy.

FACT FILE

Scoot flies daily from Perth to Singapore on its new 787 Dreamliner. The twin-aisle, wide-bodied plane has on-board wi-fi in both economy and premium cabin ScootBiz. Flights depart from Perth at 6.35pm with one-way fares from $149, including taxes. flyscoot.com.

Grand Mercure Roxy on Marine Parade, roughly equidistant between the airport and city, is a great base. A 32sqm king deluxe room is from $S260 ($248) including breakfast for one, taxes and internet. The hotel operates a complimentary shuttle to and from all terminals at Changi Airport between 6.30am and 2am. grandmercureroxy.com.sg or H3610@accor.com.