I just got back from a little more than a week in Singapore. The city is large, but a week was almost too long to stay there as a visitor. (Living there would be another story.) Most of my last few days were spent at the pool. Still, I found a few gems that made the visit more than worthwhile.
The highlights:
- Hainanese Chicken Rice: This Singaporean specialty (originally from China’s Hainan Island) looks bland — it’s just boiled chicken served with rice and cucumbers. But the ginger-water combination in which the chicken is boiled — and the pepper and ginger added as condiments — give the dish a rich, soothing flavor.
- Asian Civilizations Museum: There’s no way that one visit is enough to absorb everything on display here. The museum attempts to cover all of Asia, with galleries about China, Vietnam, India, Malaysia, Indonesia and so on. One of the most interesting exhibits covered the history of Singapore, from before British colonization through the city-state’s independence and its efforts to clean up its environment.
- Chinatown Heritage Centre: If you’ve been to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum in New York, you can imagine what this is all about. A traditional Singaporean shophouse has been restored to show how it would have looked around the turn of the 20th century, when it was home to a small slice of Singapore’s population of Chinese immigrants. Each tiny cubicle-like room could have been home to an entire family, a group of housemaids or an opium den. In a connecting building, there is a series of well-done exhibits (presented in English and Chinese) on various aspects of the immigrant experience.
- Prologue Bookstore: I found this fabulous new independent boookstore on the fourth floor of the Ion shopping center on Orchard Road. It has an especially well-curated selection of books about Asia.
Pulau Ubin: Pulau Ubin is the place to go when you can’t take another minute in a mall or surrounded by skyscrapers. This small island, located near the airport, is accessible by boat (one of Singapore’s few bargains at $2.50). There’s no beach, but you can rent bikes or bring your own to explore the island greenery. It’s also a great place to learn how to ride a bike, if that should be something that you neglected to do as a young person. (That would be me.)
Chicken Rice at the Maxwell Road Food Center
The shophouse's communal kitchen and bathroom
Next: What’s overrated, and what I missed.
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