Singapore

Disaster. The new Canon G10 camera has gone missing. We have lost all the photos of Singapore apart from a few we took on the first evening. It’s not the end of the world, because we had not taken many photos in Singapore, but it somehow spoils the completeness of the pictorial saga. Never mind.

We had an enjoyable flight from Delhi. The arrival at Singapore is a serious culture shock: things in India have a tendency to be dirty, chaotic and obsolete; Singapore is clean, well organised and modern. This is sometimes taken to imply that Singapore has lost its soul, its cultural heritage, and that it is now boringly sterile and overtaken by its own commercialism.

But what cultural heritage did it ever have? Before Raffles founded the city in 1819 the island was more or less uninhabited, and virtually without history. British colonial rule did little to further the interests of the Asian people who came to live there. Only now are they establishing their own cultural heritage, guided by Lee Kwan Yew, who may have a particularly dictatorial brand of democracy, but who has managed to provide for this recently independent nation things that others can only dream about: health, wealth, economic success, law and order, a sense of nationhood and patriotism.

Much has changed since Peter’s family left the island in 1966. It is utterly unrecognisable; there is hardly one stone left on top of another from the colonial era. We went to see Peter’s old house at 256 Holland Road. It has been knocked down and another house built in its place.

Our original aim was to visit the State of Singapore Navy Museum, which, until recently, has contained an entire section about the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, from which the modern Navy was derived. Peter’s father was commanding officer at the time of independence, and the exhibition featured many photos and memorabilia of Captain R G Banks. Unfortunately, the Museum is closed at the moment, because it is being housed in new purpose-built premises in Changi, which are not yet ready.

We were afraid that there would be little else for us to do, but in the end we could have stayed several days longer. 

We visited the National Museum of Singapore, not to be missed if you want to get an understanding of the island’s development and the cultural identity of the modern Singaporeans. This museum is housed in one of the few buildings that survives from the colonial era, purpose-built as a museum and library in the late nineteenth century. Peter had last visited the building 43 years ago.

There are many other museums worth a visit.

We also went on a 10km hike through the jungle round the MacRitchie reservoir. There is now a Tree-Top Walk, which takes you through the jungle canopy on a suspension bridge. Interesting, but a little devoid of life.

A highlight was a Hindu procession on the first day of our stay, corresponding with the full moon. To celebrate the festival of Thaipusam, Hindu fakirs pierce their tongues, noses, cheeks and other parts of their bodies, carry huge heavy spiked structures on their shoulders, and walk through the quarter known as Little India, which is where our hotel was. (The delightfully named Fragrance Hotel.) It’s all very noisy and colourful. It lasted well into the night, and gave the impression more of a carnival than a religious procession.

We were pleasantly surprised by Singapore, thoroughly enjoyed our stay, and would recommend it to anyone coming to South-East Asia. Like us, come here for the culture, not for the shopping.