Medley of sights and smells

THERE’S NO accounting
for why people travel. Some
go halfway around the
world to climb a mountain
and others to watch a
sunset.

Ask people why they're going
to Singapore and they’re not
always sure. They might say the
shopping’s geod, or that it’s on
the itinerary along with Thailand,
Malaysia or Bali and they'll just
be dropping in.

This is not

hard to do as

Singapore has a showpiece airport

David
Wishart

TRAVEL TIPS

and air connections to most
places, including Vancouver.

According to the hard-working
tourist board, 11,468 visitors ar-
rive in Singapore every day, many
of them via Singapore Airlines,
whose busy route structure and
sheer size dictates that a healthy
chunk of the tourists to the region
will fly through Singapore.

As a result, the typical tourist
who intends to spend a week of
the beaches in Penang or take a
cail trip into Thailand will also
stop off in Singapore for two or
three days.

I first went to Singapore from
Malacca. We travelled to the
border by communal taxi and
shared another cab to Raffles,
which 13 years ago was a fading
but very real reminder of
Singapore’s colorful history.

It was this history that drew me
there. As a boy I had marvelled at
the pluck and dash of Sir Stam-
ford Raffles, the British trader
who stepped ashore on a more or
less deserted island in 1819 and
decided that this would be his
base to challenge the Dutch hold
on the Spice Islands and the
gateway to China trade.

What my history books had not
mentioned was that Singapore had
been a trading centre called
Temasek in the {7th century and
600 years later got a new name,
Singapura, meaning ‘“‘Lion City.”’

This arose after a prince
reported seeing a beast that he
thought was a lion. It was proba-
bly a tiger, but the name stuck.

A fierce war a century later put
Singapore into decline, and then
Raffles sailed down from Penang.
His plan was to set up a factory,
which comes from the Portuguese

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feitorias, or trading stations and
workshops, but he had a greater
vision -—~ a free port.

Today Singapore is booming
with the brsiest seaport in the
world, 4 prosperous people,
high-tech industries and a surpris-
ing range of tourist attractions
such as Arab Street, Little India
and Chinatown.

In a day’s walk a visitor can
experience the most fascinating
medley of sights, tastes and
smells.

Then there’s the grand Arme-
nian Church, the handsome St.
Andrew’s Cathedral, noodies for
lunch and off to a bird singing
contest or to see crocodile wrestl-
ing.

My favorite evening is to have
an inexpensive open-air dinner at
the hawker-stall Satay Club, a
place to reflect on the energy of
Singaporeans and their success.

Along the way, they resisted
copying new states that tore down
Statues (beside the Bombay Zoo
there is a fine collection of de-
plinthed imperial figures) and
changing the names of streets.

Harare in Zimbabwe is now in
the embarrassing position of hav-
ing most of its main streets named
after Lenin, Stalin and Co.

Singapore stoutly carried on
with streets called Victoria,
Balmoral and Edinburgh, and
every Singaporean child learns to
respect Raffles as the man who
put the place on the map.

Today Raffles Hotel has
reopened after a total renovation.
What were 127 shabby rooms are
now 104 superb suites, and the
job has been done so well that few
romantics will be disappointed.
For example, the ceiling fans are
still there, but now there is air
conditioning as well. .

There is a fine new Billiard
Room Bar for lunch and the Tif-
fin Room does a curry buffet, but
it’s not hard to resist the tempta-
tion to part with $8 for a hokey
Singapore Sling.

The new museum is 2 great
browse, for the history of Raffles
Hotel closely mirrors the recent
past of this surprising city-state.

Yes, the shopping is good, and
Changi airport is a pleasure to

use, but if you like success stories
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