Travel Report of Singapore (1) – Orchard Road and Tanjong Pagar

My nephew and his wife have emigrated to Singapore, and they have invited us to come visit before now. At the beginning of this year when anxiety about the covid pandemic ended and the activation of economic activity being more important began to spread, my sister and niece planned to go to Singapore and finally we went there in this Golden Week.

The airplane we used was an LCC in Singapore, Scoot. The departure was delayed about 2 hours, but we arrived at Singapore Changi Airport after about 6 hours without any troubles. The seat, about which we were anxious concerning ride quality before riding, was not so hard and so narrow. We use a taxi from the airport to our hotel because we arrived around midnight. When you use a taxi in Singapore, it is better to use an application for allocation of cars. When you input a pickup point and your destination in the application, a car comes for you in a minute. The taxi fare is about 250 to 410 yen for the starting fare (1 kilometer), and after that the fare is calculated using a meter. You can use the taxi cheaper than in Japan.

Orchard Road
Orchard road is a center of commerce in Singapore, where all sorts of shops and facilities including luxury hotels, high-class boutiques, department stores, shopping malls, local brand shops, discount shops, exclusive restaurants, inexpensive food centers, and amusement facilities are gathered. Not only tourists but also local people go shopping or go for amusement. There are many buildings whose shapes are unique, and so you must not get tired while walking about. Around the Orchard Station on MRT (underground railway), commercial facilities built recently dominate the area.

We used MRT from Orchard Station to Tanjong Pagar Station. The underground railway in Singapore is called “MRT” (an abbreviation of Mass Rapid Transit). In Singapore, you can ride on MRT using the touch function of a credit card or debit card. The fare is about 80 to 200 yen, which is much cheaper than that in Japan, and trains arrive every 5 to 7 minutes. However, please note that eating and drinking is prohibited in trains and station premises, and if you are found drinking or eating, you must pay a 500S$ (50,000 yen) fine.

Tanjong Pagar
Tanjong Pagar is an area where business districts (financial districts) are combined with residential sections. In that area, there are many supermarkets and retail shops necessary for daily life, restaurants, cafes and hawkers, and many successful foreigners including Japanese and Chinese also live there. This area close to China Town and HarbourFront (both are within walking distance), and it is also a good location for sightseeing. I hanged about the station.

Then, we went to China Town on foot. We saw Peranakan houses, Maxwell Chambers, HDB residences, and Jinrikisha Station, while walking.

The word “Peranakans” means descendants of a person with mixed blood of a Singaporean and a foreigner such as Chinese or Malaysian. They have created a culture of their own in which a Singaporean culture is combined with their root culture, such as Chinese, and further fused with a culture of a European country administering this country in former days. The Peranakan house is a building created by Peranakans, and is characterized by brilliant pastel colors and fine decorations.

The “HDB residence” is public housing suitable for Singaporeans, built by the Singapore Government. HDB is an abbreviation of “Housing Development Board.” The tower building behind the Peranakan houses is an HDB. Singaporeans can get comfortable residences at a reasonable rate through the help of the Government.

I was like “How big this hotel is!” but it’s a building of government agency, called “Maxwell Chambers Suites.”

Jinrikisha Station was once a place or station where Jinrikishas were gathered, but now a modern building including stylish cafes and shops.

Maxwell Hawker Center is a leading hawker center in Singapore. In Singapore, there were many street stalls (hawkers) and the hawkers had sanitation problems. In order to solve the sanitation problems, the Singapore Government collected the multiple hawkers and put them in one facility (a hawker center).