February, 2018 | Postcards From Here and There

The Fullerton Hotel

There is no greater pleasure at the end of a long day of sightseeing than siting down in the bar of a grand hotel for a well made cocktail (or two). The Fullerton Hotel in Singapore is one such place. Following the closure of The Raffles Hotel for refurbishment until the middle of the year it is a good alternative place to go if you want to spend a little time in one of the city’s grand old buildings and it is a landmark on the Singapore waterfront.

The Fullerton did not actually become a hotel until 2001 but the building itself dates back to 1928. In the intervening time it has been home to various government departments, a General Post Office, the offices of the inland revenue and has even had a lighthouse on the roof.

Today cocktails are served in The Post Bar, once the area where you would buy stamps and carry out all other post office related business. There is even a red post box in the entrance. The area is spacious with an old charm that belies its modern transformation. There is even access to an outer terrace if you fancy relaxing with a drink in the warm evening air.

As for the cocktails, well I thoroughly enjoyed the Coconut El Presidente (rum, white vermouth, coconut juice, orange curaçao and grenadine). The good news is that during happy hour many cocktails are only 15SD. The extra good news is that happy hour is from 5pm until midnight on a Saturday. How good is that?

Singapore – Gardens by the Bay

The Gardens by the Bay, which opened in 2012, are botanical gardens for the twenty first century. Built on over 100 hectares of land reclaimed from the sea they are an ambitious attempt to bring a greater understanding of the importance and role of plants to our planet and their place in our cities. It was the aim to develop Singapore as a city in a garden. Despite such lofty ambitions the gardens have not lost any sense of the fun and magic that a area such as this should have.

Gardens by the Bay have grown to be the number one tourist attraction in Singapore attracting over 8 million visitors since opening. Having said that it doesn’t feel crowded when you visit, the whole experience is very well managed. Entrance to the gardens is free but if you want to visit the two giant conservatories then there is a charge of 28SD but if you can prove you flew with Singapore Airlines there is a 10% discount.

The two conservatories, The Flower Dome and The Cloud Forest are the two key attractions and are a must to visit. Both are wonders of construction, vast domes free of any obvious supporting column on view. They are at a comfortable temperature and are designed to have minimum environmental impact. Even if you don’t like walking round gardens I fail to see how you couldn’t be impressed by these wondrous creations. They are simply spectacular and well worth the entrance fee.

The Flower Dome concentrates on the Mediterranean and sub tropical climates are there are numerous ever changing displays of flowers all of which are displayed creatively. There are the most amazing olive trees which look like they have been there since time began, old and gnarly. London chef Jason Atherton even has a restaurant (Pollen) situated inside the dome.

The Cloud Forest is the smaller of the two domes and features mountainous tropical regions of the world. The central feature is a huge waterfall which you ascend by lift for some amazing views and then depend by a series of escalators through various exhibition spaces. This Cloud Forest mountain is clad in the most amazing display of plants such as ferns and epiphytes. The plants on view in here include rare orchids, insectivorous plants and pitcher plants.

The OCBC Skyway is an elevated walkway 22m up in the Super Tree Grove. A separate entrance fee is charged here (8SD). the walkway takes only around 10 minutes to complete but does afford some spectacular views not only of the gardens but the city itself. at night the whole are is illuminated with a sound and licht show. Tickets to the walkway are bought separately to the two domes as they sometimes need to close it if the weather isn’t suitable.

A visit to The Gardens by the Bay should be a must on anyones itinerary during a stay in Singapore. Trust me when I say this I’m a botanist if a somewhat reluctant gardener!

Singapore – the old and the new.

Singapore is a place of great contrast with new skyscrapers vying for space with old style colonial buildings. It makes for a remarkable skyline, especially at night when the buildings become almost a city wide art installation.

The Fullerton Hotel, (building opened in i928), is dwarfed by the financial buildings that make up the backdrop.

Singapore is one of the fastest growing cities in the world and is quite an amazing place. The tropical climate gives a temperature in the high twenties/low thirties but humidity is high and there is a rainy season between November and February but after the cold of a British winter I can put up with that.