A liveried Sikh doorman.
Source: Supplied
The entrance to Raffles Hotel.
Source: Supplied
RAFFLES Hotel is one of those places of legend.
Everyone from Charlie Chaplin to Queen Elizabeth has stayed at the historic colonial-style hotel, once a popular hangout for writers and foreign correspondents and famed as the place where the Singapore Sling cocktail was invented.
So it is a treat to spend a night there during a brief stopover in Singapore.
The experience begins shortly after we land, when we are greeted at the airport by a luxury car with a Raffles Hotel flag at the front. A cool, wet white towel and a water bottle, shaped like a crystal, are waiting inside.
We drive down a wide boulevard lined with palm trees alongside the ocean on the way to the city.
Raffles is a place of classic elegance and opulence. We are welcomed by a doorman wearing a white military-style uniform and silk turban.
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We step inside to a large lobby with chandeliers, a grand piano and a grandfather clock. After checking in we are led to our room, which overlooks a courtyard full of tropical landscaped gardens.
Our room has two queen beds, a sitting room and a large bathroom with brass taps and light switches.
There is a ceiling fan as well as airconditioning and dark wooden floorboards with antique furniture hiding mod-cons such as TVs.
Named after Sir Stamford Raffles, who established the East India Company in Singapore in 1819, the hotel was opened by four Armenian brothers in 1887 as a 10-room bungalow.
The original building has been demolished and rebuilt, with various wings added over the years.
In the early days the dining room was in the main lobby and staff cleared away the tables after dinner so guests could dance; an event that is replicated each New Year’s Eve.
The 103-suite hotel now has 15 restaurants and bars, with a butler service for every guest.
There is a resident historian who has worked there for more than 40 years who will tell tales from the hotel’s history, such as the time a tiger escaped from a circus across the road in 1902 and was shot in the Bar and Billiard Room.
He will also walk you through the Hall of Fame; a corridor lined with black and white photos of famous people who have stayed there.
Bill Clinton, Elizabeth Taylor, Sting, Michael Bolton, Kofi Annan, Isabella Rossellini and royal couple William and Kate are among the faces, as well as the cast of the movie Paradise Road, which was partly filmed at Raffles.
The hotel was only spared during World War II because it was taken over by Japanese officials.
There is also a photo of barman Ngiam Tong Boon, who invented the Singapore Sling.
At the time it wasn’t acceptable for ladies to be seen drinking alcohol in public, so he created a pink cocktail that looked like a fruit punch, with a bit of gin added.
There are also 12 “personality suites” named after celebrities who have stayed there, which are kind of mini-museums with books and movies about them.
Raffles was gazetted as a national monument in the 1980s, when developers were circling.
It closed in 1989 for a two-year restoration in which the hotel doubled in size, with the new buildings constructed in the same architectural style as the original.
A stay at Raffles isn’t cheap, but if you want to experience a piece of history with old-world charm, it could be worth a splurge for at least one night on your next stopover.
The writer stayed as a guest of Raffles Hotel.
Go2 – SINGAPORE
Getting there: Singapore Airlines flies to Singapore. Ph 13 10 11 or see singaporeair.com
Staying there: Prices start at SGD1400 ($A1143) a night for courtyard rooms. Personality rooms cost SGD1600 a night. See raffles.com/singapore
More: yoursingapore.com
Charmed by the iconic Raffles Hotel in Singapore
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