I never thought I’d ever say “I miss staying in a hotel” but when I got out of the car and was greeted by the doorman at Raffles Singapore, I felt almost weak at the knees. A wave of nostalgia overcame me as flashbacks of special hotel stays raced through my mind.
For example, that cold dark morning in Amsterdam last May when I decided to switch from the Grand Amrath to Hotel Pulitzer – arriving the night before, I had found the historic hotel too cold and dark for my tastes and felt I needed a burst of light and life, and found it in spades at the Pulitzer, and thoroughly enjoyed the personality and personal touches at the boutique hotel.
Which is why you may think it odd that I’d choose a historic hotel for my first staycation in Singapore but well, you and I know Raffles isn’t just any historic hotel. It is, as described by the late Lee Kuan Yew, “an iconic Grand Dame” and “it will remain grand only if it keeps up with the standards expected by customers in this day and age”.
He said that at the beginning of the 21st century – to keep up with the times, Raffles has had several facelifts in its 133-year history, and had just reopened in August 2019 after a two-year renovation. So it’s like old soul wrapped in a new skin.
Raffles also holds one particular memory for me. The last time I stayed there was in 1993 when Michael Jackson was also a “resident” – the King of Pop was holding his first (and last) concert in Singapore – and he waved to me from the balcony, white glove and all, and I nearly swooned.
Just as I was on the brink of doing as I walked into the lobby of Raffles and saw that famous staircase that leads to the suites – only “residents” are allowed up that staircase. Everyone else remains downstairs.
In the lobby, I heard the tinkling of tea cups and gentle murmurs – “high tea at Raffles” remains an institution for gentle women in Singapore. Some traditions just slip through time with nary a wrinkle.
I had thought it’d feel strange to stay in a hotel while at home in Singapore. Besides, Raffles is only about 5km from where I live so you could say it’s really part of my hood. Yet the minute I got into my suite, it felt like I had actually travelled somewhere, back in time and into another world.
As soon as the butler left – after he had explained how the suite worked; you use an iPad to control everything except for the curtains where you simply have to touch and swipe left or right with your hand – I jumped on the bed, rolled around in the soft, cool sheets, attacked the fruit basket, made tea, sat out on the balcony, and listened to the rustling leaves and chirping birds.
It truly felt like an oasis. Even though it is right in the city, the foliage cleverly obscures your views of the city skyline and if you sit back and let your mind wander, you feel like you could write any amount of prose – as many others have done, of course.
In the bookshop, I am told, Pico Iyer’s “This Could Be Home”, a collection of essays he wrote about “Raffles Hotel And The City of Tomorrow”, is selling well at this period. Even though I had met and interviewed him during one Singapore Writers’ Festival, I didn’t realise the role Singapore played in his life as a writer.
“In retrospect, perhaps it was Singapore that helped make me think I should become a real writer of books, even if, at first, only an unofficial writer-in-residence in this place of formal facades and rich interiors,” he wrote.
It was also the first place he brought his new bride from Kyoto all those years ago. It was her first flight out of East Asia and when Hiroko stepped into Raffles, she murmured “Little movie feeling”.
Another book that is selling well is “A Life Intertwined – Reminiscences of an Accidental Raffles Historian”. The author is Leslie Danker, who’s worked at the hotel since 1972 and is the first resident historian of the hotel. His book gives an account of the hotel’s life since 1887 and personal tales and snippets over his five decades of working in Raffles.
It would have been tempting to spend all my time reading in that super-comfortable suite but no, I wanted to see my city through a traveller’s eyes. Over three days and two nights, I walked the city’s streets, looking for the unfamiliar among the familiar.
If you love walking, Singapore is your kind of place. I did three extensive morning walks – towards the Singapore River and the different quays, around Marina Bay and Gardens By the Bay and another around the Esplanade and Kallang Riverside Park.
I visited the National Gallery. Other than the over-earnest staff who insist on explaining everything to you and over-rigid rules, this is always a pleasant space to spend time in. An exhibition called “An Exercise of Meaning In A Glitch Season” is a collection of works inspired by Covid – I am glad the virus which has grounded us has allowed at least our imaginations to take flight.
I particularly liked Kin Chui’s “Station 13010” – giant ants heading towards a giant QR code – which I felt summed up living with Covid really well.
I dined in one night at yi by Jereme Leung, the restaurant that serves classical Chinese cuisine with modern and ancient twists. One dish I ordered had 1,000-year-old aged turnip. Another night, I walked across to the Asian Civilisation Museum and had a highly civilized by-the-river dinner at Empress.
I also indulged my curiosity and visited the Aquaponics farm at the Fairmont where chef Robert Stirrup, the custodian, explained the inner workings of this rooftop vegetable and fish farm. It produces 150kg of vegetables a month, as well as fish such as tilapia and sea perch, for its restaurants. “We don’t buy lettuce anymore,” he says.
“Taste the rocket,” he urges me. I did. It’s intense, the way I imagine real rocket would taste like, unlike those we buy in supermarkets.
Of course, I had to have breakfast at Raffles, it’s part of the package. Sitting out in the courtyard, I observed my fellow staycationers. Expatriate families, local couples, local families – it was pretty full even on a Monday and Tuesday. I am told weekend packages are pretty much sold out but on weekdays, you can still grab a stay or two.
I wonder if I should bring my mother for the next stay – she loves her “nasi lemak” for breakfast – but I think she’d choke on the price, S$75 per head if it’s not part of the package. She’d point out to me, “Just down the road, it’s $1.50.”
It’s true, Raffles is surrounded by really good local food and you wonder how it competes but then we all know, you’re paying for the “experience” and the Raffles experience comes at a price you must be prepared to pay.
And let me tell you, there seems to be a lot of people prepared to pay for the experience – in a year when we in Singapore can’t travel abroad, we are spending at home. Even my most skeptical friends who laughed when I told them I was staying at Raffles – “why stay in an expensive hotel when you can stay at home” – are thinking twice.
Because even a two-night escape from home to which we’ve been confined for months can do wonders for the soul and imagination. As Joseph Roth, the Austrian novelist who made a habit of living out of a suitcase in the early 1900s , wrote, “The hotel that I love is situated in one of the great port cities … I celebrate my return to lobby and chandelier, porter and chambermaid.”
And … “I have only to open the window, and the world steps in.”
Since we can’t step out, well, open that hotel window and let the world step in.
