Singapore discovers its wild side

Hotel horticulture: Every fourth floor of Singapore’s Parkroyal on Pickering is ringed by a lush green balcony. Photo: Dominic Lorrimer

Andrew Cornell

The triple-towered Marina Bay Sands casino, with its Jetsons-like architecture, is destined to be the symbol of Singapore for years to come.

But once a traveller has got over that spectacle and headed into the city proper, towards Chinatown, another, in many ways more interesting, building comes into view. What appears as a series of forest terraces, reflected in mirrored glass, turns out to be a brand new addition to the Singapore skyline.

Like Marina Bay, it is a hotel. But while Marina Bay is a hotel inside a casino, the Parkroyal on Pickering looks like a hotel inside a vertical garden.

Sixteen storeys high, every fourth floor is ringed by a lush green balcony. Reflected in the glass windows, they create the impression of a rainforest floating in the air – a reminder that Singapore is, after all, an equatorial island.

The Parkroyal, designed by award-winning architects WOHA, has 15,000 square metres of gardens, more than double the building’s land area. They are Singapore’s first “zero-energy” sky gardens, powered by solar energy cells, while energy and water conservation features include light, rain and motion sensors, as well as the use of rain harvesting and water recycling – a challenge in itself as the Singapore government owns the island’s rainwater.

And while Marina Bay and the newish Sentosa complex represent one particular evolution in Singapore’s thinking – founding father Lee Kuan Yew’s about-face on ever allowing casinos to be built – the Parkroyal on Pickering is a startling example of another, the championing of green credentials.

It seems odd that Singapore has only just cottoned on to the marketing value of what immediately impresses the visitor: just how verdant and green and fecund (botanically speaking: the island nation’s low birth rate is one of its challenges)the place is.

From the spectacular planting of rain trees and bougainvillea down the expressway from the airport, to the aptly named shopping strip Orchard Road, to the island’s surprisingly wild inland, Singapore actually lives up to its new promotional tag “City in a Garden”.

In our average 2.9 day stay in Singapore, we Australians come in on the expressway, shop in Orchard Road and maybe knock off a char kway teow at Newton Circus hawker market. We rarely think about cycling at dusk along the waterfront that expressway tracks, through manicured parks dotted with fantastic seafood restaurants. Nor heading five minutes up the road from ION Orchard shopping centre to the wonderful Singapore Botanic Gardens. And particularly not heading inland to some of Singapore’s spectacular forest walks.

Chaperoned by one of Singapore’s 10,000-odd guides – really worth considering – I consented to foregoing a day of air conditioning to head out into nature. My guide, Toon Hee (who’s also a professional juggler who busks in front of the Rolex shop along Orchard Rd) opened with the standard Singapore question: had I eaten enough? Hard not to, given Singapore hotels are world leaders in breakfast buffets, offering spreads to cater for not just Western tastes, but all manner of Asian and sub-continental proclivities – congee followed by dumplings, followed by string-hoppers, followed by biryani, followed by bespoke omelette, followed by tropical fruit …

We headed off to MacRitchie Reservoir and the tree-top walk, a picturesque albeit hilly ramble through forest alive with tropical insects, monitor lizards and cheeky monkeys. Given Singapore’s heat and humidity, such a walk is best done first thing in the morning. (While remembering you can probably be fined in Singapore for not eating breakfast first. Or indeed for not eating at least five times a day.)

This reservoir area has a range of walks but a common destination is the precipitous suspension bridge linking two peaks and offering panoramic views of the reservoir and the island. It’s less than two hours return, requiring just sturdy shoes and plenty of drinking water.

Back at the bottom, and given the elapsed time, obviously it was time to eat and Toon Hee had the perfect solution: ice kachang or ice cendol at the nearby Old School Delights café, one of a growing number of funky Singapore establishments catering to nostalgia for Singapore’s early days. These concoctions of shaved ice, intensely sweetened with palm sugar or condensed milk and flavoured with coconut, red beans or pandan, are a perfect restorative. As is draft Tiger beer.

Another 15 minutes and we were at Singapore’s beautiful Botanic Gardens, where the ponds and forest paths at least create the impression of coolness, even in the middle of the day. The orchid house is justly celebrated but just wandering around among some extraordinary tropical vegetation is refreshing. And there’s a sophisticated lunch spot, The Halia, because you’ll be hungry again.

After lunch, as the heat hits its peak, head to one of the social dividends of the new Marina Bay casino development, the Gardens by the Bay. While there are extensive outside grounds, still under development, it is the air conditioned conservatories, the Flower Dome and the Cloud Forest, that offer respite and wonder.

Of course, eating is also available, in a food hall that has attracted representatives of some popular Singapore establishments.

And as the afternoon cools down, head off to East Coast Parkway, rent a bike, and wind down with a casual ride in the evening breeze. Before eating again.

The author was a guest of Singapore Tourism Board and Singapore Airlines

Gardens by the Bay www.gardensbythebay.com.sg

Courtesy of the new casino development, these spectacular 100 or so hectares of new gardens house those much photographed Avatar-esque 16-storey “super trees” which harvest solar energy for the gardens and the two, climate-controlled conservatories. While the gardens are best in the cool of mornings or evenings, the botanical collections in the conservatories, one wet, one dry, are jaw-dropping, from 1000- year- old olives to splendidly grotesque cacti. There’s also a Singapore heritage garden.

Singapore Botanic Gardens
www.sbg.org.sg

Founded in 1859, the gardens include virgin rainforest and overgrown plantations, as well as manicured lawns and beds, and one of the world’s great orchid gardens with 600 species and hybrids. And being Singapore, there’s a wonderful restaurant serving modern fusion, perfect for brunch or lunch, just in case it’s been more than an hour since your last meal.

Bukit Timah Nature Reserve and MacRitchie Reservoir
www.nparks.gov.sg

Jungle trekking among remnant forest, plenty of monkeys, including Singapore’s highest point, the 164 metre Bukit Timah. The reservoir is Singapore’s first, built in 1867, and along with lots of walking trails – including a spectacular forest canopy swing bridge – there are also picnic grounds and canoeing. Most of the forest is secondary regrowth but still rich in fauna and flora while old rubber trees abound.

East Coast Park
www.nparks.gov.sg

Stretching along 15km of coastline between Changi airport and the city, very popular with locals for cycling, jogging, various sports (there’s a cable ski lake for example) and, in a massive shock, eating. An evening ride under coconut palms, casuarinas and ketapangs, on a rental bike is the perfect way to re-engage the appetite for black pepper crab.

Pulau Ubin
www.pulauubin.com.sg

A bit more of a trip, this island is promoted as an “authentic look into old Singapore”. The old plantation island still has Malay houses and quite an amazing array of eco-systems.

The Southern Ridges

Comprising Mount Faber Park, Telok Blangah Hill Park, Hort Park, Kent Ridge Park and Labrador Nature Reserve. There are nice walks offering panoramic views of the city, harbour and offshore to the Southern Islands.

Singapore discovers its wild side