Raffles Hotel, Singapore

Excerpt from The Finest Caravanserai East of Suez (1900-1920): 

"The news spread quickly along the great sea highways, recommended during dinner at the captain's table, discussed over cards in the smoking room, verified whilst exchanging travel notes on deck. Travelers who broke journey in Singapore could, at long last enjoy excellent hotel accommodation. At Raffles Hotel. Singapore had never seen anything like it, "Approaching from the seafront the appearance of the hotel, lit throughout by electricity, is exceedingly fine. It literally blazes into the darkness of the night." applauded the press in 1899."

As we pulled up to the grand white building stretching over two or three blocks of downtown Singapore, it was easy to envision the guests of a 100 years ago, all dressed up in their finest, having cocktails on the front porch or in the courtyard. Raffles very much reminds me of The Roosevelt in New Orleans; the same history, the same class, the same incredible architecture, just of a different style. The hotel is an interesting mix of British and Asian exquisite influence. As soon as you enter the lobby there is a grand double sided wood beam staircase that goes up three floors to a balcony overlooking the white marble floors and the white columns of the famous tea room and cigar bar. Our room was outside on the second floor with its own little veranda overlooking the courtyard fountain. The room itself looked like something out of a 1900's novel. It had dark, gleaming, hard wood floors, a formal foyer separating the entryway from the bedroom and antique English furniture everywhere. We spent as much time as we could exploring the hotel and even enjoyed one very infamous drink, the Singapore Sling, invented here at Raffles.

The last few days in Singapore, we spent time with our wonderfully, quirky and excessively happy tour guide, Susan. The first night, Susan took us on a night safari tour at the zoo with her driver Roger. As sweet as Susan was, Roger was a little scary! Imagine a paddy wagon van, completely refurbished in pink fur, with about a 3 foot long, glowing, hot pink, clear, plastic gear shift. Yes, go there with the mental images! In addition, Roger had various symbolic paraphernalia littered along the dashboard; lions, Buddha bobble heads and Jason's least favorite, the grim reaper, staring right at him with glowing eyes. Of course we snuck pictures from the back seat, but that was completely unnecessary since the image has been seared into both of of brains forever. The next day, Susan and a new driver, took us to tour the Gardens by the Bay and up along the northern coast to have lunch at an old colonial house that was renovated into a restaurant. Susan was an incredible guide, born and raised in Singapore, she was able to give us an answer to every question we asked. I was fascinated by the port that we kept passing. Historically, Singapore was developed because of its water front location thus making it an incredible port city. Having grown up on the Mississippi River, in a trade oriented family business, the size of Singapore's port amazed me. Susan said one ship comes into the port every seven minutes. That is absolutely incredible! As small as that little island of Singapore is they sure don't let that stop them from growing. They are constantly reclaiming land to continue building out into the sea. There is new construction everywhere to keep them up to date with the rest of the world. And they are encouraging even more expatriates to move to Singapore and experience the city they love. I am quite certain we will be back one day.