Discovering the Lion City
Peering over the rooftop pool deck of Marina Bay Sands, shopping up a storm on Haji Lane, or ogling at the supertrees in Gardens by the Bay, it’s almost impossible to imagine Singapore was little more than a fishing village just over a century ago.
Marina Bay
The fancy new gallery
Singapore’s lotus-shaped ArtScience Museum and Gillman Barracks, a colonial army base transformed into a contemporary arts space, are barely three years old between them, but Singapore has openened its biggest and best art space yet in late 2015. Housed in two of Singapore’s most iconic national monuments - City Hall and the former Supreme Court building - the National Gallery Singapore showcases the region’s largest collection of Southeast Asian and Singaporean art.
The fabulous food
Flavours from Malaysia, China, Indonesia, India and beyond collide to create the delicious hybrid cuisine Singapore has become famous for. And while the queues for Tian Tian chicken rice at Maxwell Road Hawker Centre show no signs of dwindling, there are some impressive new players on Singapore’s food scene. In recent years weekend brunch - served everywhere from Australian-style cafes (try Common Man Coffee in Robertson Quay) to the city’s top hotels (think gourmet buffets and free-flow champagne) - has become a religion, and celebrity restaurants are huge - including that of Gordon Ramsay.
Noodles with salted fish
The new green spaces
It’s difficult to name another world city that boasts as many eco-attractions as Singapore. Building on its portfolio of iconic parklands such as the Botanic Gardens and the sleepy jungles of Pulau Ubin, the city-state has given birth to several new awe-inspiring green spaces in recent years, from Gardens by the Bay (don’t miss the light show at 7.45pm and 8.45pm every evening) to the Southern Ridges, the Green Corridor to Singapore Zoo’s new River Safari.