The nation of Singapore, the second smallest in Asia, has seen more than its fair share of makeovers. Having evolved from an obscure, sparsely populated island crawling with tigers to a scruffy port city in the 19th century, it transformed itself again after declaring independence from Malaysia in 1965 into what it is today: the squeaky-clean economic heavyweight of Southeast Asia. Its recent bold plan: to create an equatorial Las Vegas, where glamorous casinos, trendy bars, late-night discos, and outdoor restaurants aim to appeal to both residents (the country boasts the world’s highest percentage of millionaires) and visitors, who will hopefully feel enticed to linger longer.
1.MARINA BAY
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| MARINA BAY |
Two new glamorous resorts, combining hotels, entertainment, and casinos, lure both families and high rollers looking to risk a few colorful Singapore dollars. Designed by U.S.-based Moshe Safdie, the spectacular Marina Bay Sands stands right on the edge of the city and within easy walking distance of the financial center.
2.SAND SKY PARK
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| SAND SKY PARK INFINITY POOL |
It was an instant landmark when it opened in 2010, sweeping into the air with three futuristic 57-story hotel towers joined at the top by the Sands Sky Park, a cantilevered platform as big as three football fields. The aerial perch is home to some of the city’s trendiest restaurants, highlighted by Sky on 57, where native chef Justin Quek puts a modern twist on classic Singaporean dishes. You’ll find breathtaking 360-degree vistas at floating nightclubs, an observation deck, and an infinity swimming pool that is three times Olympic length and the longest elevated swimming pool in the world.
3.RESORTS WORLD SENTOSA
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| RESORTS WORLD SENTOSA |
Resorts World Sentosa sits closer to earth,blissfully isolated on a small,picturesque,and formerly sleepy island off southern Singapore, 10 minutes from downtown. With its massive aquarium, the region’s only Universal Studios and a maritime museum in the works, it prides itself on being the more family friendly of the two resorts. Both have a raft of celebrity chefs from across the world (from Mario Batali and Guy Savoy to Tetsuya Wakuda and Joël Robuchon) and more than 1,800 hotel rooms each. Pint-size as it may be, this citystate is out to make a splash.
4.Raffles Hotel
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| RAFFLES HOTEL |
Despite Singapore’s full-throttle thrust toward the future and determination to be the epitome of cool, visitors who have their fill of modernity can still glimpse prized vestiges of its colonial past amid the malls and cutting-edge hotels. Its dignified Singapore Cricket Club lies smack in the middle of the city. And Raffles, arguably the world’s bestknown hotel, is one of Singapore’s most iconic sites. With its landscaped palm and frangipani trees, magnificent white façade, and antiques-filled rooms with 14-foot ceilings, the place “stands for all the fables of the exotic East,” or so wrote Somerset Maugham. The impeccably renovated hotel was founded in 1887 and has only gotten better with age. Still a magnet for well-heeled travelers and the merely curious, it’s become as much a tourist attraction as it is a place to stay.
Maugham liked his Million Dollar Cocktail in the hotel’s Writers Bar (Joseph Conrad and Rudyard Kipling frequented this watering hole too), though most visitors today head for the Long Bar, where the Singapore Sling was invented in 1915; more than 2,000 of the sweet pink concoctions are made here daily and cost what you’d pay for a full meal at any of the city’s hawker centers.
5.Eastern & Oriental Express train
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Eastern & Oriental Express train
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Another remnant of more opulent times is the Eastern & Oriental Express train, evoking Asia’s colonial age with its small but elegant compartments, stewarded tea service, formal meals, and evening cocktails in the piano bar. The luxurious hotel-on-wheels travels from Singapore up the Malay Peninsula through rubber and palm plantations to Bangkok , with stops along the way—to take a trishaw ride through old Penang or a visit to the bridge over the River Kwai. Golden pagodas roll by your window as you travel through the dense, damp jungle. From the observation car, you’ll catch glimpses of country life: rice paddies dotted with toiling farmers, plows drawn by water buffalo, waving children from thatch-roofed villages. After making the 1,200-mile, 2-night journey, you’ll want to spend time in Bangkok, Thailand’s City of Angels. Then hop back onboard to experience a journey along one of the Eastern & Oriental Express’s other routes, such as the 7-day Epic Thailand run, which takes you from Bangkok through Thailand’s rural northeast region then up to Chiang Mai for temple touring and elephant rides.
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