The Rough Guide to Singapore (Travel Guide with Free eBook)

Rough Guides

Description

World-renowned 'tell it like it is' guidebook

Discover Singapore with this comprehensive, entertaining, 'tell it like it is' Rough Guide, packed with comprehensive practical information and our experts' honest and independent recommendations.

Whether you plan to discover the historic ethnic enclave of Little India, enjoy a rooftop drink at Marina Bay Sands, indulge in an Orchard Road shopping spree or sample street food at bustling hawker centres, The Rough Guide to Singapore will help you discover the best places to explore, sleep, eat, drink and shop along the way.

Features of The Rough Guide to Singapore:
- Detailed regional coverage: provides in-depth practical information for each step of all kinds of trip, from intrepid off-the-beaten-track adventures, to chilled-out breaks in popular tourist areas. Regions covered include: The Colonial District, Little India, Chinatown, Marina Bay, Orchard Road, Northern Singapore, Eastern Singapore, Western Singapore, Sentosa.
- Honest independent reviews: written with Rough Guides' trademark blend of humour, honesty and expertise, and recommendations you can truly trust, our writers will help you get the most from your trip to Singapore.
- Meticulous mapping: always full-colour, with clearly numbered, colour-coded keys. Find your way around Arab Street's hip cafés and boutiques, the surviving nineteenth-century streets of Chinatown, and many more locations without needing to get online.
- Fabulous full-colour photography: features a richness of inspirational colour photography, including the colourful Botanic Gardens and the golden-domed Sultan Mosque.  
- Things not to miss: Rough Guides' rundown of Little India's, Chinatown's, Arab Street's and the Colonial District's best sights and top experiences.
- Itineraries: carefully planned routes will help you organise your trip, and inspire and inform your on-the-road experiences.
- Basics section: packed with essential pre-departure information including getting there, getting around, accommodation, food and drink, health, the media, festivals, sports and outdoor activities, culture and etiquette, shopping and more.
- Background information: comprehensive Contexts chapter provides fascinating insights into Singapore, with coverage of history, religion, ethnic groups, environment, wildlife and books.

About Rough Guides: Rough Guides have been inspiring travellers for over 35 years, with over 30 million copies sold globally. Synonymous with practical travel tips, quality writing and a trustworthy 'tell it like it is' ethos, the Rough Guides list includes more than 260 travel guides to 120+ destinations, gift-books and phrasebooks.

Sujets

• Southeast
• Travel
• Singapore
• Asia
• Singapour

Informations

• Publié par: Apa Publications
• Date de parution: 01 juillet 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 4
• EAN13: 9781789196214
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 34 Mo

Extrait

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CHINATOWN
Contents
INTRODUCTION
What to see
When to go
Things not to miss
Tailor-made trips
BASICS
Getting there
Arrival
Transport
The media
Health
Travel essentials
THE GUIDE
1 The Colonial District
2 Little India and Arab Street
3 Chinatown and the Financial District
4 Marina Bay
5 Orchard Road and the Botanic Gardens
6 Northern Singapore
7 Eastern Singapore
8 Western Singapore
9 Sentosa and the southern isles
LISTINGS
10 Accommodation
11 Eating
12 Drinking and nightlife
13 Entertainment and the arts
14 Festivals
15 Shopping
16 Kids’ Singapore
CONTEXTS
History
Religion
Books
Glossary
SMALL PRINT
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Introduction to
Singapore
“The handiest and most marvellous city I ever saw”, wrote the natural historian William Hornaday of Singapore in 1885, “ as well planned and carefully executed as though built entirely by one man. It is like a big desk, full of drawers and pigeonholes, where everything has its place, and can always be found in it.” This succinct appraisal seems apt even now, despite the tiny island’s transformation from an endearingly chaotic colonial port, one that embodied the exoticism of the East, into a pristine, futuristic shrine to consumerism. In the process, Singapore acquired a largely deserved reputation for soullessness, but these days the place has taken on a more relaxed and intriguing character, one that achieves a healthier balance between Westernized modernity and the city-state’s traditional cultures and street life.
The foundation for Singapore’s prosperity was its designation as a tax-free port by Sir Stamford Raffles, who set up a British trading post here in 1819. The port plays a key role in the economy to this day, though the island city-state now also thrives on high-tech industry, financial services and tourism, all bolstered by a super-efficient infrastructure. All these achievements were accompanied by a major dose of paternalism, with the populace accepting state interference in most aspects of life in exchange for levels of affluence that would have seemed unimaginable a couple of generations ago. Thus it is that since independence much of the population has been resettled from inner-city slums and rustic kampongs (villages) into new towns, and the city’s old quarters have seen historic buildings and streets bulldozed to make way for shopping malls. Even visitors will soon notice that this remains a country that neither knows how to sit still nor when it’s best leave things well alone: museums close to completely restyle their galleries, metro stations mushroom almost cheek by jowl, and migrant workers constantly attend to seemingly faultless footpaths and floral borders.
Yet although Singapore lacks much of the personality of some Southeast Asian cities, it has more than enough elegant temples, fragrant medicinal shops and imposing colonial and modern architecture to captivate visitors. Much of Singapore’s fascination springs from its multicultural population of around five-and-a-half million, predominantly Chinese, with significant Malay and Indian minorities (English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil are the official languages). This ethnic make-up can make a short walk across town feel like a hop from one country to another, and endows the island with a range of mouthwatering cuisines – a major highlight of any visit. The city also rejoices in a clutch of fine museums , plus a lively arts scene featuring no shortage of international talent and local creativity.

Top 5 dishes
Singapore has no national dish – but that’s because it has any number of dishes that could happily qualify for that title. It’s definitely worth sampling a few things beyond the predictable fried rice and noodle plates – here is our selection of five of the best things to try.
Satay A mainly Malay dish of mini-kebabs, barbecued over coals and eaten dipped in a peanut-based sauce, accompanied by glutinous rice cakes and cucumber and onion slices.
Fish-head curry Many Indian restaurants offer this fiery stew containing a large fish head – eyes and all; the cheeks are the best bits.
Chicken rice Widely available at hawker centres, this Hainanese Chinese speciality features steamed chicken served atop rice cooked in chicken stock, and is served with chicken consommé – simple but incredibly satisfying.
Chilli crab Whole crabs wok-fried and served in a thick gravy made with tomato, chilli, garlic and a little egg. It’s mainly served at seafood outlets, though some ordinary Chinese restaurants offer it too.
Laksa A Peranakan classic of rice noodles, prawns and other morsels steeped in a rich, spicy, curried coconut soup; not hard to find at hawker centres and food courts.

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What to see
Shaped like a diamond, Singapore’s main island is 42km from east to west and 23km from north to south, compact enough to explore in just a few days. The southern corner of the diamond is home to the main part of the city – “downtown”, or just “town” to locals – which centres on the Singapore River , the creek where Raffles first landed here in 1819. After a full day’s sightseeing, the riverside is undoubtedly the top place to unwind, lined with former warehouses that are now home to buzzing restaurants and bars.
The main draws for visitors are the city’s historic ethnic enclaves, particularly Little India , a couple of kilometres north of the river. Packed with gaudy Hindu temples, curry houses and stores selling exotic produce and spices, the district retains much of its original character, as does nearby Arab Street , dominated by the golden domes of the Sultan Mosque . South of the river, Chinatown is a little sanitized though it still has a number of appealing shrines, an immaculately restored Chinese mansion – the Baba House – plus a heritage centre documenting the hardships experienced by past generations of Chinese migrants to Singapore. Wherever you wander in these old quarters, you’ll see rows of the city’s characteristic shophouses , compact townhouse-like buildings that are the island’s traditional architectural hallmark.
Of course, the British left their distinctive imprint on the island as well, most visibly just north of the Singapore River in the Colonial District , It was around the grand Neoclassical buildings here and nearby – including the famed Raffles Hotel plus City Hall and the old Supreme Court, now jointly converted into Singapore’s lavish National Gallery – that the island’s British residents used to promenade. Also here are the National Museum , showcasing Singapore’s history and culture, and Fort Canning Hill , a lush park that’s home to a few historic remains. All these are somewhat upstaged, however, by the newest part of town, Marina Bay , built on reclaimed land around a man-made reservoir into which the Singapore River now drains. Around it are arrayed the three-towered Marina Bay Sands casino resort, the spiky-roofed Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay arts centre and Gardens by the Bay , with its two huge arch-shaped conservatories.
Nearly as modern as Marina Bay, but steeped in tradition as far as Singaporean consumerism is concerned is Orchard Road , a parade of shopping malls that begins just a few minutes’ walk inland from the Colonial District. Just beyond is the finest park on the whole island, the UNESCO-listed Botanic Gardens , featuring a little bit of everything that makes Singapore such a verdant city and a ravishing orchid section.

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CHINATOWN

Singlish
Singapore is the only country with an ethnic Chinese majority not to use Chinese as its main language of education and business. English enjoys that role – but here it’s often upstaged by the entertaining, though often baffling, Singlish , a mash-up of English together with the grammatical patterns and vocabulary of Chinese and Malay. Pronunciation is staccato, with final consonants often dropped, so “cheque book” would be rendered “che-boo”. In two-syllable words the second syllable is lengthened and stressed by a rise in pitch: ask a Singaporean what they’ve been doing, and you could be told “slee-PING”.
Conventional English syntax is twisted and wrung, and tenses and pronouns discarded. If you ask a Singaporean if they’ve ever seen a Harry Potter film, you might be answered “I ever see”, while enquiring whether they want to go out to buy something might yield “Go, come back already”. Responses are almost invariably reduced to their bare bones, with words often repeated for stress; ask a shopkeeper whether they have something in stock and you’ll hear “have, have”, or “got, got”.
Exclamations drawn from Malay and Hokkien Chinese complete this pidgin, the most ubiquitous being the Malay suffix “lah”, used to add emphasis to replies, as in: “Do you think we’ll get in for free?” “Cannot lah!” If Singlish has you totally confused, try raising your eyes to the heavens and crying “ay yor” (with a drop of tone on “yor”) – an expression of annoyance or exasperation.
Although lexicographers have recognized Singlish as a distinct variety of English and started adding its terms to mainstream dictionaries, in Singapore there is much official hand-wringing t