Why you should visit Singapore in 2012

by Jessica Festa on

There are many reasons Singapore makes a great travel destination, from unique architecture to rich cultural experiences to carefully prepared cuisine. In 2012, the Southeast Asian destination has even more reasons to visit, from exciting new restaurants to the opening of their first river-themed animal park. Here are some reasons to put Singapore on this year’s trip itinerary.

New cultural venues

In February, 2011, the ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands opened to the public as the first of its kind in Southeast Asia. First there is the architecture of the building (shown right), which is designed to look like a lotus flower in order to metaphorically welcome guests from all walks of life. The museum itself houses more than 50,000 square feet of exhibits for visitors to explore, helping them to better understand the connection between art and science.

The National Art Gallery in Singapore is undergoing a complete renovation and is being relocated to the center of the Civic District. The new visual arts venue will be housed in two adjacent heritage buildings: City Hall and the former Supreme Court building. It will be the largest of its kind in Singapore, and will “focus on the display, appreciation, promotion, research and study of Southeast Asian and Singaporean art, as well as play host to international art exhibitions”. The completed project should be done by the end of the year, and until then travelers can still visit the former National Art Gallery, which features an array of local and cultural works.Luxury shopping

Last September, Singapore unveiled their Louis Vuitton Island Maison to merge luxury shopping with art and architecture. As the brand’s first-ever island maison, the store’s interior is nautically themed and will also introduce cultural elements of the area into the design. Along with selling designer accessories, the venue will also feature a contemporary artwork tunnel as well as a bookstore housing works on art, culture, and design.

Tourists who want to shop should also take a stroll down Orchard Road. While expensive, it is the best in Singapore in terms of quality, choice, and how many shops are centered in one place. Even if you’re short on cash, it’s worth it to visit Orchard Road just to window browse and check out all of the diverse architecture. If you’re on a budget and want to buy something, check out the Far East Plaza, which is on Scotts Road in the Orchard Road District and is home to countless boutique shops and non-chain stores.

Outdoor leisure

In June, 2012, Singapore will be able to welcome visitors to the brand new Gardens by the Bay. The park, which is being constructed to be the “Central Park of Asia”, will encompass 250 acres of land in the Marina Bay District. The project is meant to align with the city’s vision of transforming into a giant garden. Some major attractions include the Heritage Gardens (shown right), the Flower Dome, Dragonfly Lake, Bay East Gardens, and Golden & Silver Gardens.

Asia’s first river-themed animal park

Scheduled to open very soon, River Safari Singapore will be the first river-themed animal park in Asia. Visitors will have the chance to take boat rides and get a close-up encounter with freshwater environments and animals. The goal of the park, which is a project of Wildlife Reserves Singapore, is to educate people on freshwater habitat conservation. Some of the experiences you can have include visiting the Amazon Sunken Forest (shown right) and meeting manatees and arapalmas, riding down the Mekong and seeing Long-tailed Macaques and giant catfish, floating down the sacred healing waters of the Ganges and spying ancient Indian Gharial and narrow-headed turtles, and more.

Unique properties

Last year, Singapore prepared for hotel expansion through many efforts. For instance, the well-known Shangri-La Rasa Sentosa Resort (shown right) underwent a $63 million renovation while new properties like the budget-friendly Ibis Singapore Novena and the luxurious Fullerton Bay Hotel opened their doors to guests.

And, expansions are continuing into this year. In August, 2012, visitors to Singapore will be able to stay at the brand new chic and trendy island resort, W Singapore Sentosa Cove, which will be the W Hotel’s first property in Singapore. Moreover, this year the Pan Pacific Hotel Group will be opening a brand new property that is planned to be one of the most eco-friendly hotel options in Asia, PARKROYAL on Pickering. The venue will feature energy and water regulation, solar-powered landscape lighting, and rainwater harvesting as well as lush skygardens, reflecting pools, and waterfalls. Around the hotel property, the landscape will hold a relaxing, tropical feel.

High quality food

Most people would agree that the number one reason to visit Singapore is the food. Even international food expert Anthony Bourdain has toted Singapore as being the most “foodie destination” in the world and has said that once you’ve had the food there “you can’t go back to the way you were before”. One excellent way to get a taste of the street food culture in Singapore, which is high-quality and authentic, is at a Hawker Centre. Here you will be able to sample an array of local cuisines that have undergone careful preparation, like Laksa (shown right), Beef Rendang, and Hainanese Chicken Rice for a good price.

Sinapore also has some excellent new restaurants that have just opened up. To help you experience the hawker food culture even further, there is The Food Republic Beer Garden. Here you can choose from 18 different push-cart stalls offering street food as well as experience live music until 1AM. What’s also great about this place is it’s housed in an old Tiger Beer lowry making it great choice for beer lovers and oenophiles.

There are also L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon and Joël Robuchon Restaurant at Resorts World Sentosa, both opened by Michelin star chef Joël Robuchon. The two restaurants are the chef’s first venture in Southeast Asia and give guests the opportunity to sample two unique fine-dining menus at the same resort.

[images via ArtScience Museum, Schristia, Gardens by the Bay, River Safari, Shangri-La Sentosa, Diane Bondareff]

Betelmania: how to chew betel nut in Burma

by David Farley on
In Burma, the streets are stained with red blotches, as if someone decided the pavement needed a more Jackson Pollock look. Walk down any lane in Yangon or Mandalay or anywhere that humans reside in this southeast Asian country, and you’ll see splotches of red on the street. I wondered if following these small red liquid pools would lead me to a hospital where I’d find some poor farmer who had had a bad run-in with a tractor. Or maybe it was that the Burmese needed a lesson in proper table saw safety. I began to wonder why there weren’t more amputees in Burma. But then I realized what I was really seeing. Saliva. Specifically, the saliva of betel nut chewers.

I have a proclivity for trying the local legal narcotic when I’m traveling. In Bolivia that meant chewing coca leaves. In Ethiopia it was chat or, as it’s more commonly known (where it’s chewed in Yemen), qat. In Amsterdam…well, you can figure out what I consumed there. I have to admit: I knew nothing of betel nut. Only that it made people’s teeth permanently red.

A guy I met who works for Intrepid Travel, a tour operator that recently began doing tours again in Myanmar, and he thought it was hilarious I had wanted to try it. He said I’d get slightly intoxicated from chewing betel. Betel also functions as a vermifuge–meaning it helps expel parasites–and an appetite suppressant.

As far as I knew, I had no parasites to expel and I was loving the food here so I didn’t necessarily need to cut down on my eating. But, for better or worse, I’ve always had a hard time turning down the local intoxicant. So when someone extended their hand to me–and that hand contained betel nut (see the photo above)–I couldn’t resist.

Sir James George Scott, a colonial-era chronicler of all things Burma, wrote, “No one can speak Burmese well till he chews betel.” I wasn’t necessarily out to learn Burmese during my week-and-a-half-long trip there (though I did somehow learn the word for “midget”). I was in Inle Lake, about 300 miles north of Yangon, a kind of decrepit looking southeast Asian-version of Venice; a town made of wood and water with canals flanked by rickety teak houses on stilts. I had hired a boat for a while–a deal at $10 for most of the day–to take me around the lake. We stopped at a place that makes herbal cigarettes. As a service to customers, they hand out complimentary food (think delicious tea leaf salad) and, it turns out, betel nut.

The boy rolling the nut held up a leaf, as if to offer. I nodded and he went to work. He slapped some white lime paste on the betel vine leaf and then came cloves, aniseed, and cardamom. Then he broke up some of the betel nuts and placed them with the rest of the party on the leaf. Finally, he opened up a jar and pinched out some tobacco that had been marinating in alcohol for days. He wrapped it up and handed it to me.

I popped the leaf in my mouth and commenced masticating. Immediately my mouth was incapacitated with saliva. I’d lean over the wood railing and spit into the water ten feet below a long stream of red liquid. The taste was bitter and the mint stung my tongue every so slightly. I stood there looking out over the golden temples that dot this town in the middle of the lake, my thoughts interrupted by having to lean over again and drizzle a stream of red saliva into the lake.


Constantly expelling red saliva didn’t make for the most fun narcotic I’ve ever tried in my life. On the boat ride back to the lake-side town I was staying in–having spit out the betel nut before getting onboard–I could feel a curious sensation. A slight tipsy feeling.

When I got back to shore, still a tad light headed from the betel, I didn’t necessarily want to speak Burmese–how could you with all that red saliva in your mouth? And my one word, “midget” (which I can no longer remember), only got me blank stares in return when I uttered it.

Or maybe it was the fact that I was a non Burmese with totally red, (fortunately temporarily) betel-stained teeth and lips that made me look like some kind of freak.

Exploring the street food in Singapore

by Jessica Festa on

Singapore is an island-nation in Southeast Asia that has a rich culture, especially when it comes to food. Their unique street food culture can be experienced in the numerous hawker centers: open-air food courts housing authentic, carefully prepared cuisine for a budget-friendly price. Sample delicious options like the local favorite Hainanese Chicken Rice (shown right), peanut sauce-laden satay skewers, mildly-spicy laksa soup, and the rainbow-colored desert, Ais kacang, made with ice and topped with beans, corn, fruit, and other delights.

International food expert Anthony Bourdain, the host of the Travel Channel’s No Reservations and The Layover, is a huge fan of Singaporean street food. At a recent event held at LAUT in New York, Bourdain described Singapore as one of the best “foodie destinations” in the world and explained how the culture is comprised of “incredible foods with individual personalities.”

He continued, saying, “I kind of lost my mind in Singapore. It ruined me from my previous life. When you’ve had laksa for breakfast there’s no going back. You’ll never eat Cheerios again. You can’t go back to the way you were before.”

For a better idea of Singapore street food culture, check out the gallery below.

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McDonald’s France promo pairs “baguette” burgers with famous cheeses

by Laurel Miller on

In a move that’s either sheer genius or…a sign of the Apocalypse, McDonald’s France is giving their cheeseburgers a serious makeover. From February 15th through March 27th, customers will be able to get their burgers on a baguette, with a choice of four different French cheeses–three of which are prestigious Protected Designation of Origin (PDO; formerly known in France as Appellation d’origine contrôlée, or AOC) products. These cheeses are under strict production guidelines and can only be made within a specific area in their region of origin. Ooh la la!

According to culture: the word on cheese (full disclosure: I’m a contributing editor), the cheese selection consists of Cantal, a buttery alpine style; Fourme d’Ambert, a creamy, spicy blue; Saint-Nectaire, an earthy semi-soft number, and “generic” chèvre, aka fresh goat cheese.

The cheesemonger/writer in me is thrilled to see something other than processed orange crap on a hamburger, and in France, I think this concept will fly. I don’t think America is ready for le gourmet burger with cheese yet, but it will be a great day when fast food actually consists of real food.

World’s only ski-up Starbucks open for business at Squaw Valley

by Laurel Miller on

Two days ago, while visiting my brother and his family in Lake Tahoe, my nephew uttered the words I’d hoped never to hear. “Starbucks just opened a ski-up window at Squaw’s Gold Coast mid-mountain complex!” he snorted, before pondering aloud how it was possible to ski with a triple venti Cinnamon Dolce Latte while wearing gloves and holding poles.

Truly, I think the world has enough Starbucks in it, and if you can’t get through a day of skiing without a fix, you just might have a problem. Not everyone feels that way, however, as reported on Eater.com today. Says Squaw Valley president and CEO Andy Wirth, “Nowhere else in the world can skiers and riders enjoy a delicious Starbucks coffee without missing a beat on the slopes.” My nephew might disagree with the logistics of that statement, but never underestimate the power of a Frappuccino habit.