East Eats West

Buddha Tooth Relic Temple Singapore

 Picture: One of the hundreds of buddhas at the Tooth Relic Temple in Singapore.

Asia has abundant with temples that are impressive. Newer temples are often just cheap copies of older designs. One notable exception is the 2007 inaugurated Buddha Tooth Relic Temple in Singapore. The temple is built with traditional and modern methods beautifully combined (it has two lifts). The main hall features the biggest silk brocade (wall carpet) in the world with a massive and shiny dragon in the centre. The temple is founded by volunteers and most of it is handmade by expert craftsmen from Myanmar, China, Japan, among others. The design is mainly of the Tang dynasty era and over 300kg of gold was used for all the ornaments inside. The Buddha's tooth in the temple comes from Myanmar. The temple is very tastefully done and displays hundreds of colorful Buddha statues that look classy and not gaudy, as many contemporary statues do. It is clearly worth visiting.

PS: Do not forget to pay a visit to the Lotus Heart Tea House on the 2nd floor and savour their vegetarian the spring rolls.

 

Singapore government wants more sex

Picture: Can we now have sex?

The small Asian city state Singapore is trying to reinvent itself in order to continue on its growth path. It is for example fostering arts with new theatres and museums; it is building two gigantic casinos and just hosted the first ever night-time Formula One race. Singapore has currently about 4.2 million inhabitants and it is the Singaporean government’s goal to grow this number to over 6m. Unfortunately the fertility rate with one child per woman is very low as Singaporeans probably prefer to work long hours than having kids (or sex). Therefore the government is trying to boost inhabitant numbers through immigration and the encouragement of coupling and mating. The government even put up an own agency with a dating website that tries to boost dating and all that comes with it. Quiet an explicit approach for a government that is very strict with its citizens.

Find a perfect Singaporean partner here: http://www.lovebyte.org.sg/web/ent_p_home.asp

Straits Kitchen

Picture: The Straits Kitchen food islands restaurant. I am very fond of the ‘food islands’ restaurant concept. Food islands are little kitchen where chefs prepare the dishes à la minute. It is a fusion of a food court and a buffet-type restaurant. One of my favourite examples is the Straits Kitchen Restaurant in the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Singapore. In a very warm and friendly environment all sorts of Asian cuisines are on offer. Yummy! Unfortunately we do not have it here in Switzerland!

If you are tired of big hotels in Singapore try the New Majestic Hotel

Picture: The most popular room at the New Majestic Hotel called Pussy Parlour.

The true charm of the New Majestic Hotel derives from the fact that an old and shabby hotel got transformed truly ingeniously into a stylish new designer hotel. Like the Scarlet Hotel it is located in Chinatown and consists of several combined ancient shop houses. This hotel is smaller than The Scarlet with its 30 designer rooms and excels in sheer cleverness of design: every single thing in each rooms has its clear purpose. Most rooms are designed by local arts people and designers and come in different flavours. Some rooms have an upstairs bedroom like in a tree-house, some feature outside bath-tubs and others have two bath-tubs prominently in the middle of the room. Clearly the most outrageous rooms are the boudoir-style Pussy Parlour room with a bold mix of colours and a neon-sign as well as the mirror room that is completely covered in mirrors (see picture below). I stayed in the Premium Garden Room that makes optimal use of limited space and features witty details as mirrors that enlarge the room and a hyper-modern shower. The bed can be retracted into the wall and has enough space beneath to store luggage. But the real attraction of the room is its outside bath-tub in a charming little setting.

Like The Scarlet Hotel I can highly recommend the New Majestic Hotel. If you feel like sumptuous boudoir-style, go for The Scarlet, the New Majestic clearly has the designer-edge.

Picture: The Premium Garden Room with outside bath-tub at the New Majestic Hotel.

http://www.newmajestichotel.com/

Deepavali in Singapore

Picture: Inside a Hindu Temple on Serangoon Road n Singapore.

The end of October Singapore is busy with festivals as the Hindus celebrate Deepavali (or Deevali) and the Muslim the end of Ramadan with Eid. Deepavali lets thousands of Hindus descend on Serangoon Road in Little India and celebrate the Festival of Light with candles, Henna, food and drinking.

The taxis in Singapore know where you are

Because of high road charges and high taxes on cars many Singaporeans rely on taxis and the 21’000 taxis are therefore a vital part of the transport system. With modern technology from GPS to computer taxi-allocation the efficiency of the system is constantly improved (unfortunately not the drivers driving skills). If you for example call for a taxi the system will remember your previous location according to your phone number. So next time you call the system will immediately propose your last location for pick-up. It even goes further: in case you call every Friday to be picked-up from work at the same location, the system will remember that also and propose each Friday to you to be picked-up after work. A truly smart system but never mind data protection.

If you are tired of big hotels in Singapore try The Scarlet Hotel

Picture: Swanky and opulent The Scarlet Hotel in Chinatown.

Four Seasons, Ritz-Carlton, The Fullerton, Shangri-la, do you know all those hotels in Singapore already? Well, if you want to stay in the trendy neighbourhood of Chinatown in style I can highly recommend The Scarlet Hotel on Erskine Road.

The Scarlett Hotel is one bold statement with rooms that offer uninhibited opulence and style and has won many awards, rightly so. The hotel offers 84 rooms in a row of 14 transformed shop houses. The rooms are designed in boudoir-style and seem to be an advertisement for Agent Provocateur Lingerie. Even though the rooms are not big they ooze charm and are cleverly designed and decorated. The hotel also has two nice restaurants, a sumptuous bar and a Jacuzzi with gym. The only down-side is the smallish windows, depending on the rooms. For lovers who seek the ultimate oomph factor I can highly recommend the Passion Suite with outdoor Jacuzzi and full rose petal and candle-light treatment: yummy!

Picture: The Passion Suite with outdoor jacuzzi.

http://www.thescarlet.com/

Burning ring of fire

Picture: Air-pollution not home-made in Singapore.

Each year huge parts of Java and Sumatra in Indonesia are burnt down in order to make way for farming and housing. The burning not only ravages the environment,it destroys a lot of forest in Indonesia and blankets Singapore with smoke. This year it has been particularly bad as the rain has not set in. The Singaporean government is fuming about this practice but a lack of will from the Indonesian side prevents a stop to this practice.

The ancient heart of Singapore revisited

Picture: an ancient street in Singapore with traditional shop houses.

Singapore has seen tremendous transformation from a seedy port town, bustling with drugs and hustlers, to a prosperous business centre. This transformation can also been seen in infrastructure where skyscrapers hug malls and vice versa. But there is still a taste of old Singapore around Chinatown. Around Club Street and Keong Saik Road the typical 18th and 19th century shop houses have stood the test of time and have in the last two years been refurbished into spas, boutiques, restaurants and advertising agencies. With two boutiques hotels, The Scarlet and the New Majestic Hotel, you can now even stay in style.

Flying with Swiss to Sinapore

I flew with Swiss business class via Bangkok to Singapore and I must say that the cabin staff was very efficient, attentive and the food was excellent. The only thing missing is the Asian smile (I still prefer Singapore Airlines)!