The tranquil allure of Singapore

The Lion City gets a big roar from tourists for being an urban wellness and food hub, writes Shobhana Sachidanand

Marina Bay Sands

The forced hiatus of the pandemic has been a great opportunity to change the things that didn’t work out for us. And while the pandemic transformed most industries, it was the travel industry that had to reimagine and reinvent tourism so as to stay relevant and also draw tourists back. It is no wonder that concepts like sustainability, responsible tourism and slow travel gained steam. With health being on everyone’s mind, there has also been an impetus on wellness and food which became essential to making travel plans post the pandemic.

Thanks to its reputation of being a safe city, Singapore has been a popular holiday destination for most travellers looking for a rejuvenating break. In the past two years, Singapore has focused on experiential opportunities and is now ready to hop onto the wellness tourism bandwagon. On an invitation from the Singapore Tourism Board, we got to explore this side of the city that is rich in its multi-racial and cultural heritage and has now more to offer in the wellness segment as well. Here’s a sneak peek into what’s on offer if you wish to explore a different side of Singapore.

Yoga by the Bay

For fitness enthusiasts, yoga on the SkyPark Observation Deck of Marina Bay Sands can be quite exhilarating at sunrise as the sights from the sky deck are breathtaking. The sky is indeed the limit when you stretch your limbs here!

Yours to experience

If you are looking to create your own signature perfume, Scentopia offers a scent-making workshop. The Wellness Sensorium, set up during the first-ever wellness festival recently, had different sensory therapies like sound and light therapy or the most therapeutic stone stacking exercise for adults and children to experience well within the city limits. If all else fails, do whatever floats your boat, quite literally, as even a float boat therapy of staying buoyant in 600 kg of Epsom salt to de-stress is an option.

Brass Lion Distillery

Learning on your mind?

If learning a new skill is on your agenda and gin gets your chin up, visit the Brass Lion Distillery which is heady and intoxicating for all the knowledge one can take away during the gin distillery tour conducted by co-founder Satish Vaswani who also runs the Gin School here.

On cruise

If you are on a cruise control holiday, head to Sentosa Cove where an hour-long speedboat ride gives you an enviable view of the city skyline and of the pristine white sand and turquoise blue water at Lazarus Island.

Food trails

Food has been an integral part of Singapore’s culture and the cornucopia of cuisines available here — which includes Chinese, Indonesian, Indian and Malay — stands testimony to that.

The best way to savour a meal is to head to Lau Pa Sat in the Central Business District to get a feel of the busy vibe of the city that enjoys its local fare on the go.

Or you can spend a leisurely day at the industrial vibe-exuding Southside Interim Market on Siloso Road for an open concept food hall by the waterside to catch up on the 4AM fare (an acronym that stands for the four stalls that rustle up delicious meals here).

Fine dining gets a new French quaint address in Claudine (housed in a former stained-glass chapel) on Dempsey Hill.

For vegan cocktails/mocktails with some scrumptious jackfruit tacos, head to award-winning mixologist Vijay Mudaliar’s Analogue where the concept of sustainability goes beyond the food and drink offerings and extends to the design of the venue too. Plastics and all things over-farmed are a big no here.

There’s also Yugi’s Elephant Room that perhaps addresses the proverbial elephant in the room who craves more cocktails/mocktails paired with poppadum snacks!

And if desserts melt your heart, then visit the Museum of Ice Cream to get swathed by all that’s pink and all that melts while you sample ice creams on the tour.

Kampong Glam

Ethnic enclave

If understanding the culture of the city gets you enthused, take a walking tour around Kampong Glam, a traditional Muslim settlement of Singapore that gives one a glimpse of the thriving Malay culture. From South-East Asia’s tallest Graffiti Wall to its buzzing Haji Lane that’s as colourful as it is aromatic, a walk through these artistic lanes offers a peek into the food scene of the city. Launched in 2021, this ‘Wall of Fame’ repurposes construction hoarding creatively to become a larger-than-life canvas for Singapore’s most iconic street artists. Once a maritime trade hub, Kampong Glam has become a historical and cultural attraction in the city centre. The Sultan Mosque, or Masjid Sultan, in the precincts of Kampong Glam, is a highlight of this walking trail. As you take a step closer to its doorstep and look up, the base of each golden dome is embellished with glass bottle ends. Back in the day, these were collections of the Sultan, donated by the lower-income Muslims who wished to contribute to the reconstruction of the mosque.

Jewel Changi Airport. PHOTOS BY AUTHOR

Changi is the jewel

Last, but not least, there’s barely anyone who wouldn’t mind missing their flight if they are at the Jewel Changi Airport or make the most of their time during an airport layover! Built around the rain vortex, the world’s tallest indoor waterfall and its surrounding indoor rainforest backdrop, there’s something that every traveller craves at airports and Changi ticks all the boxes as it’s also buzzing with the best offers for shoppers. With no pre-departure tests, on-arrival tests and quarantine required, Singapore sure has much to offer tourists during their easy-breezy vacation.