Singapore Surprise

Is there any such thing as a perfect city. Perhaps not... but Singapore is as close as it gets to it, says Subhayu Mishra

On spartan bamboo panellation, as you enter Singapore Zoological Gardens, an old Cree Indian saying warns:

Only after the last tree has been cut down
Only after the last river has been poisoned
Only after the last fish has been caught
Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten.

View of Singapore Port

There is a visceral quality to the piece but what stuns me is the seriousness with which Singapore seems to take this foreboding. Lines of trees buttress a mixture of postmodern and futuristic buildings, seasonal flowers hedge pavements, roads run under footbridges draped with creepers and undulating lawns cushion the city skyline.

As we drive out of Changi airport (a 16-time winner of the best airport award), it dawns on me that this city doesn't need a night or starry lights to hide squalor from the eyes of arriving tourists. From little ideas we leave behind - like using step-on conveyor belts to cover distances inside Changi to technology for sky-bus transport, the city continues to hold our interest at every turn. Our cab driver is courteous to a fault, drives like a dream and spaces his words for us to decipher his English from the overlay of 'Singlish' he uses - a patois of English, Chinese, Malay and even Tamil. For starters, we are reminded to fasten seat belts, the air conditioning in the Toyota is quietly efficient and the driver keeps glancing at the LCD screen for passenger pick-ups along his route. We are glancing at the digital meter clocking away at dollar speed which does an unexplained hop and our cab driver is quick to notice - "that's the toll for the bridge."

Panoramic view of city's waterfront

The 'New Park Hotel' off Serangoon Road marks the border of Little India - a musty settlement of Tamils, Sikhs and Bangladeshis. This is pilgrimage for most Indians visiting Singapore. Laced with homesickness, they dig into chunky Tandoor chicken, tear apart chappatis and some even savour the poor imitation of fish curry and rice that Bangladeshis provide. But the major attraction on Serangoon Road is glitzy Mustafa's where shelves groan under the weight of global brands. Just panning across the width of any shelf hurts the eye. I settle for a Minolta binoculars with handy zoom and good field of view which has been a faithful companion through many journeys. My friend and I are unbranded travellers, and latch on to a tour operator who is taking out a clan of NRI Gujaratis to the epicentre of fun in all Singapore - Sentosa Island.

Merlion at Sentosa

We cross the bay high up on a ropeway strung between the World Trade Centre and Sentosa with great views of Singapore's busy port and many impressive structures scattered below. But even aerial views which are normally so impressive, putting in us the perspective of birds, fade out once we alight at Sentosa. This is a sea of green manicured to the last blade of grass with the Merlion - a fish-bodied, lion-headed roaring myth - rising out bluntly in concrete. The original water-spouting Merlion and a later-designed cub are at the Merlion Gardens. Legend has it that a Sumatran prince saw a lion; the fish obviously draws influence from "Temasek"- the old name for this bustling port-town by the sea. "Singa Pura" or Lion City saw Arab dhows and Portuguese battleships among Chinese junks and Indian vessels ploughing its waters with the riches of the medieval world. The Merlion recurs and reminds of the city - miniature Merlions, candy Merlions, jewellery Merlions, clock-mounted Merlions. It's like Benjamin-Buford Blue's family obsession with shrimps in the film - Forrest Gump - or Obelix's gluttony for boars. But you can escape the Merlion at Sentosa with its spread of entertainment. We marvel at "Sea-world"- an outsized aquarium scooping up myriad colors of sea. Fire colored jellyfish bloom and collapse, hammerhead sharks swim just over your heads in the glass-bottomed roof and you are thankful that electric eels are on the other side in this swim-fest. The depth and hues of colour on fishes is incredible and the dappled light in cavernous pathways gives it an uncanny underwater feel. We sit for the outlandish synchronized fountain show, admire what looks like the copy of a Roman patio and decide to rush our thrills at the virtual-reality auditorium. Little trains chug around the island and offer the best passing view of its green beauty and fair-skinned beaches. Sentosa is one of the 60-odd islands that, in one aerial picture I have seen, looks like a school of turtles sunning their carapaces in the tropical sun. In fact, we learn that 'Kusu' or 'Turtle' Island is baptised from a legend of a giant turtle which metamorphosed into an island, saving two shipwrecked sailors.

We discover a bit of this city by its waterfronts. There are boat rides for a sailor's view of the city, snorkeling and diving for adventure hunters and the Singapore river - which must be one of the cleanest rivers running inside any city - offers a spectacle of oriental and occidental profiles. While the Clarke Quay, Parliament House and Asian Civilisation Museum lend a colonial air, the Tan Si Chong Su Temple and Omar Kampong Melaka Mosque give an indigenous touch.

Singapore turned from a British colony to a self-governed country in 1959 and then to a Republic in 1965 and, like it is in the old quarters of our cities, we find pockets of colonial architecture juxtaposing quaintly with glass and granite. But the heritage is preserved; we don't encounter the straitjacketed nationalism nor the sloth that afflicts our Government.

World Trade Center

Squeaky-clean, streamlined trains zip across; even buses are uncharacteristically silent giving the city a countryside air. Small wonder that people love the mass transport system and advise us to use it all the time. Car prices are exorbitant (government duties ensure this) and together with enquiry counters and citizens encouraging use of mass transport, the air is clean and roads stay free. So when we step into the breath-taking Bukit Timah Nature Reserve - a swathe of tropical rain forest salvaged, alive and breathing right inside the city precincts, with more species of plants than what you can count across the entire North American continent, it seems just another extension of what the whole city reflects. My throwback is obviously the arm of the Aravali that snakes into Delhi but the then biodiversity of a rain forest can only be explored with a machete. The Singapore Zoological Gardens is the next surprise. This zoo, some say, is the first of its kind with natural barriers like trenches and water separating us from the animals. I see the endangered Red Panda with a 'tense presentiment of sorrow', a mammoth polar bear giving a full display of its size, orangutans in suspended stupor and indolent lions yawning into the sun. The Singapore Botanical Gardens is arranged thoughtfully - a blend of primary forest and flowerbeds and shrubbery with 4,000 species of flora. We visit the Jurong Bird Park which has around 600 species of birds - from the blazing Macaws to the unbelievably large Andean Condor. The Night Safari, alongside the Zoological Gardens, takes you though a similar landscape with a beautiful walk on a hanging bridge over the canopy of a rain forest. There are night-glow T-shirts but, effulgent as they may be, are expensive at 30 Singaporean dollars and in Singapore anyway there is no dearth of shopping.

In fact, this should be the biggest shopping hub outside of Hong Kong in all Southeast Asia. From street-side bargains in its ethnic quarters to the fabled Orchard Row where I can just stare at the upstart called money, there's something for every pocket. Hot spots like Tanglin Road which runs through Orchard Row right down to Marina Bay have actually been christened as Fifth Avenue, Champs Elysees and such drop-dead names of the West. We discover the Oriental flavour of shopping in quaint Chinatown where exquisite lampshades wash shopfronts in warm light. Laughing Buddhas jostle with grinning papier-mâché masks. “The Merlion with the thermometer is 4 dollars,” the old shopkeeper offers with a smile. Young studs in natty black on vrooming Kawasakis drown our conversation. "You get to know the city better on bicycles," suggests our shopkeeper, "you only have to sign up with a group that takes people around." Chinatown bustles with fortune-tellers, calligraphers and exotic weavers. Arab Street is the textile locale of Singapore. There is a heady hangover of flower essences (attars) over Indonesian batik, sarongs, silk and rosaries

We visit some patches of 'Singa Pura' at Changi village. It is a pastoral setting. Pulau Ubin has the traditional Kampong houses besides delectable seafood amid quiet beaches, temples and coconut-frond-laced breeze. A flavour of festivals adds colour - Chinese New Year, Vesak Day in May marking the Buddha's birth, the Dragon Boat Festival, the Chinese Festival of Hungry Ghosts and Thaipusam - a body piercing festival of Hindus. I can't help imagining the armies of office-goers shopping in the financial district around Raffles Place and Shenton Way against this cultural backdrop. If you have the time to mill in that crowd, there is a celebration of a different kind - a consumerism with pan-global moorings. We turn shoppers till our pockets empty; there are pleasant bargains to discover in the core of this financial district. For the real curio-curious and bargain hunters, however, the heartland perhaps offers the best deals. Places like Tampines and Bishan offer a local feel of shopping with affordable eateries offering a bewildering range of Singapore fare. Shops buzz with brisk business between noon and nine in the evening.

You can sense the gourmet in Singapore. 'Makan' or Malay for food is on everyone's lips. Cuisines have travelled from India and China among other countries. Little wonder because traditional sailing ships touched the port city with tea, sago, sugar, pepper, coriander, cloves and nutmeg. Traditions in cuisine are still preserved but now most places serve the popular palate. We found the self-serve food courts offering a spread of Chinese, Indian, Western and Thai cuisine. The Hainanese Chicken rice and the sweet-sour sauced chilli crabs are served straight from Heaven. Raffles Hotel is incidentally heaven in these parts - a period architecture of exquisite beauty that is, by far, the most doted place of stay. With Kipling, Conrad, Maugham and Chaplin once having relaxed under its high roofs and elegant fans, Raffles draws the spotlight away from the Sheratons, Hiltons and Meridiens.

I get talking to Fifi - our tour operator - who steadfastly refuses any food we offer. She is full of pride talking about her city in staccato English, "Sir Stamford Raffles created the blueprint of modern Singapore. This was in the years of colonial rule and republican independence. The Britishers needed a port for their fleet, to prevent the Dutch from advancing. The grand Raffles Hotel is named after him." In between are peppered Fifi's reminders not to throw litter, and stick to timings whenever we are unleashed to explore nooks and corners. "You can look for great discounts in the Strait Times. Please carry your passports everywhere. The luxury cruise on Starship Virgo leaves tomorrow. We still can get you on board at US$ 400 for a two-night, three-day cruise in seven-star luxury." Fifi mildly reprimands us for being slow, like she reprimands her kids at home. "Too naughty," she sighs, "like Indians. Come here and stay back without papers and visa. And then get relatives."

But then, the city is too much of a dream. A collective pride that very recently saw a Coca Cola advertisement in grafitti being pulled down because it sullied the pristine look of the city. People smile at the drop of a hat, help instinctively and seem to reflect the colour of this tropical paradise. In seven days, we don't hear a honk or see scrap of paper. Sans the alleys of Little India, of course.