|
Lying almost on the
equator, Singapore is a thriving city-state that
has overcome its dearth of natural resources to
become one of the juggernaut economies of Asia.
In the crowded streets of Chinatown, fortune
tellers, calligraphers and temple worshippers are
still a part of everyday life. In Little India,
you can buy the best sari material, freshly
ground spices or a picture of your favourite
Hindu god. In the small shops of Arab St, the cry
of the imam can be heard from the nearby Sultan
Mosque.
Singapore may have traded in its rough-and-ready
opium dens and pearl luggers for towers of
concrete and glass, and its steamy rickshaw image
for hi-tech wizardry, but you can still recapture
the colonial era with a gin sling under the
languorous ceiling fans at Raffles Hotel. It is
this carefully stage-managed combination of
Western modernity and treasured Eastern and
colonial past that makes Singapore such an
accessible slice of Asia.
|
