Lonely Planet Pocket Singapore , livre ebook

Contents

Plan Your Trip

Welcome to Singapore
Top Sights
Eating
Drinking & Nightlife
Shopping
For Kids
History & Culture
Entertainment
Tours
Festivals
Views & Vistas
Four Perfect Days
Need to Know
Singapore Neighbourhoods

Explore Singapore

Colonial District, the Quays & Marina Bay
Little India & Kampong Glam
Orchard Road
Holland Village, Dempsey Hill & the Botanic Gardens
West & Southwest Singapore
Sentosa Island
Chinatown & the CBD
Joo Chiat (Katong)

Worth a Trip

Singapore Zoo
Night Safari
Tiong Bahru
Geylang
Pulau Ubin

Survival Guide

Survival Guide
Before You Go
Arriving in Singapore
Getting Around
Essential Information
Language
Behind the Scenes
Our Writer
Welcome to Singapore
Smart, sharp and just a little sexy, Singapore is Southeast Asia’s unexpected ‘it kid’, subverting staid stereotypes with ambitious architecture, dynamic museums, celebrity chefs and hip boutiques. Spike it with smoky temples, gut-rumble-inducing food markets and pockets of steamy jungle, and you’ll find that Asia’s former wallflower is a much more intriguing bloom than you ever gave it credit for.

Marina Bay | FIFTYMM99/GETTY IMAGES ©
Singapore Top Sights

1 Asian Civilisations Museum
Magnificent collection of pan-Asian treasures.

SAIKO3P/SHUTTERSTOCK ©

Singapore Top Sights

1 Gardens by the Bay
Singapore’s high-tech futuristic garden.

FUUTAMIN/SHUTTERSTOCK ©

Singapore Top Sights

1 National Gallery Singapore
World’s leading collection of Southeast Asian art.

SUHAIMI ABDULLAH/GETTY IMAGES ©

Singapore Top Sights

1 Singapore Zoo
A world-class tropical wonderland.

VOLODYMYR GOINYK/HUTTERSTOCK ©

Singapore Top Sights

1 Night Safari
An exciting nocturnal adventure.

WILDLIFE RESERVES SINGAPORE ©

Singapore Top Sights

1 Singapore Botanic Gardens
Spectacular gardens.

JUSTHAVEALOOK/GETTY © IMAGES ©

Singapore Top Sights

1 Chinatown Heritage Centre
Step into the past.

RIA DE JONG/LONELY PLANET ©

Singapore Top Sights

1 Universal Studios
The city’s biggest, busiest amusement park.

UNIVERSAL STUDIOS SINGAPORE, RESORTS WORLD SENTOSA ©

Singapore Top Sights

1 Southern Ridges
Singapore’s most picturesque jungle trek.

OLIVER FOERSTNER/GETTY IMAGES ©
Eating

Singaporeans are obsessed with makan (food), whether it’s talking incessantly about their last meal to feverishly posting about it online. From eye-wateringly priced cutting-edge fine dining to dirt-cheap mouth-watering hawker fare, Singapore’s cultural diversity has created one of the world’s most varied culinary landscapes.

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Hawker Grub
Hawker centres are usually standalone, open-air (or at least open-sided) structures with a raucous vibe and rows upon rows of food stalls peddling any number of local cuisines.
Often found in malls, food courts are basic-ally air-conditioned hawker centres with marginally higher prices, while coffeeshops, also called kopitiams, are open-shopfront cafes, usually with a handful of stalls.
Wherever you are just dive in and get ordering . Local wisdom suggests stalls with the longest queues are well worth the wait.

The Next Generation
As the older generation of hawkers barrel towards retirement, a new breed of innovative hawkers are taking up the challenge of dishing out great meals on the cheap. You’ll find everything from Japanese ramen and Mexican street food, both with Singaporean twists, to old-school British fare and flavour-hit traditional sock-brewed kopi (coffee).

Fancy Fare
Singapore’s restaurant scene is booming. From the ever-growing list of local and international celebrity-chef nosheries to a new breed of midrange eateries, delivering sharp, produce-driven menus in more relaxed settings, the options are endless. Clusters of big-hitters have transformed the areas around Chinatown’s Amoy St and Keong Saik Rd into dining ‘it’ spots.

Best New-Gen Hawkers
Timbre+ A hawker hub with food trucks, craft suds and live tunes.
A Noodle Story Ramen with a Singaporean twist in Chinatown.
Coffee Break Singapore kopi meets hipster flavours at this Chinatown drink stall.

Best Hawker Eats
Maxwell Food Centre Chinatown’s most tourist-friendly hawker centre.
Chinatown Complex The hard-core hawker experience.
Lau Pa Sat Worth a visit for its magnificent wrought-iron architecture alone.
Takashimaya Food Village A fabulous basement food hall on Orchard Rd.
Ya Kun Kaya Toast Historic hang-out serving Singapore’s best runny eggs and kaya (coconut jam) toast.

Best Fusion & Western
Neon Pigeon Japanese izakaya share plates in Keong Saik.
Cheek by Jowl Beautifully crafted seasonal Australian fare.
Super Loco Customs House Mexican street food with a killer Marina Bay Sands view.
Butcher Boy Wow-oh-wow Asian-inspired creations for meat lovers.

Best Celeb-Chef Hot Spots
National Kitchen by Violet Oon Much-loved Peranakan favourites from the Julia Childs of Singapore.
Odette Modern French from Gallic superstar Julien Royer.
Iggy’s Orchard Rd’s most desirable culinary address helmed by Aitor Jeronimo Orive.
Burnt Ends Extraordinary barbecued meats from Australian expat Dave Pynt.
Waku Ghin Refined Japanese by acclaimed chef Tetsuya Wakuda.

Drinking & Nightlife

From speakeasy cocktail bars to boutique beer stalls to artisan coffee roasters, Singapore is discovering the finer points of drinking. The clubbing scene is no less competent, with newcomers including a futuristic club in the clouds, a basement hot spot fit for the streets of Tokyo, and a techno refuge in Boat Quay.

BOAZ ROTTEM/ALAMY ©

Cut-Price Drinks
Singapore is an expensive city to drink in. A beer at most city bars will set you back between S$10 and S$18, with cocktails commonly ringing in between S$20 and S$30. That said, many bars offer decent happy-hour deals, typically stretching from around 5pm to 8pm, sometimes starting earlier and finishing later. Those who don’t mind plastic tables can always swill S$7 bottles of Tiger at the local hawker centre.

Kopi Culture
Single-origin beans and siphon brews may be all the rage among local hipsters, but Singapore’s old-school kopitiams (coffeeshops) deliver the real local deal. Before heading in, it’s a good idea to learn the lingo. Kopi means coffee with condensed milk, kopi-o is black coffee with sugar, while kopi-c gets you coffee with evaporated milk and sugar. If you need some cooling down, opt for a kopi-peng (iced coffee). Replace the word kopi with teh and you have the same variation for tea. One local tea concoction worth sipping is teh tarik – literally ‘pulled tea’ – a sweet spiced Indian tea.

Best Wine Bars
Ginett Buzzing bar pouring possibly the cheapest glass of French plonk in town.
Que Pasa Classy little wine bar with an Iberian vibe in heritage Emerald Hill Rd.

Best Cocktails
Tippling Club Boundary-pushing libations from the bar that raised the bar.
28 HongKong Street Passionate mixologists turning grog into greatness.
Native Surprising ingredients and clever twists in trendy Amoy St.
Manhattan Long-forgotten cocktails are given a new lease on life in this Orchard Rd heavyweight.

Best Clubs
Zouk A multivenue classic west of Robertson Quay.
Headquarters by the Council Thumping techno and house beats in this Boat Quay shophouse.
Taboo Hot bods and themed nights at Singapore’s classic gay club.

Best Beers
Level 33 The world’s highest craft brewery with a bird’s-eye view of Marina Bay below.
Smith Street Taps A rotating cast of craft suds in a Chinatown hawker centre.
Druggists Twenty-three taps pouring craft brews in trendy Jalan Besar.

Best Coffee
Chye Seng Huat Hardware Superlative espresso, filter coffee, on-site roasting and classes.
Nylon Coffee Roasters A small, mighty espresso bar and roaster in Everton Park.
Coffee Break Singapore kopi meets hipster flavours in this Amoy St hawker stall.

The Singapore Sling
Granted, it tastes like cough syrup, but there’s no denying the celebrity status of Singapore’s most famous drink. Created by Raffles Hotel barman Ngiam Tong Boon, the Singapore sling first hit the bar in 1915. The recipe, once a tightly held secret, has long been out and now many Singapore bars peddle a modern (read: more palatable) twist on the original.

Shopping

While its shopping scene might not match the edge of Hong Kong’s or Bangkok’s, Singapore is no retail slouch. Look beyond the malls and you’ll find everything from sharply curated local boutiques to vintage map peddlers and clued-in contemporary galleries.

SAM’S STUDIO/SHUTTERSTOCK ©

Retail Road Map
While mall-heavy Orchard Rd is Singapore’s retail queen, it’s only one of several retail hubs. For electronics, hit tech mall Sim Lim Square. Good places for antiques include Tanglin Shopping Centre, Dempsey Hill and Chinatown. For fabrics and textiles, scour Little India and Kampong Glam; the latter is also known for perfume traders and indie-cool Haji Lane. For independent fashion, design and books, explore Tiong Bahru.

Bagging a Bargain
While Singapore is no longer a cut-price electronics nirvana, it can offer savings. Know the price of things beforehand, then browse and compare. Ask vendors what they can do to sweeten the deal; at the very least, they should be able to throw in a camera case or memory cards. Sim Lim Square mall is known for its range and negotiable prices, though it’s also known for taking the uninitiated for a ride, not to mention for occasionally selling ‘new’ equipment that isn’t quite new: a quick internet search will bring up blacklisted businesses. The best deals are on computers and cameras, with prices often 20% lower than major stores.

Best for Design
Kapok Innovative threads and lifestyle objects at the National Design Centre.
Supermama Contemporary designer pieces with a Singaporean theme.
Bynd Artisan Handmade journals, leather travel acce