F4
From low-key to the high life on Sentosa Island
singapore continued from F1
Then in February, after much anticipation, Resorts World Sen- tosa, a $4.4 billion project fea- turing four hotels, shops selling Cartier jewelry and Jimmy Choo shoes, and the country’s first ca- sino, opened its doors to a flood of gamblers and shoppers. How would the new Sentosa stack up against the old Sento- sa? I decided to investigate.
Sentosa as a tourist attraction is a fairly recent concept. The is- land dates to at least the 14th century, when it appeared on early maps of the region. When British colonists arrived in Sin- gapore in the early 19th century, the island’s populace mostly made a living on the water, ei- ther from fishing or harvesting turtle eggs or by offering their services as navigators for ships, according to Timothy Barnard, an associate professor of history at the National University of Singapore.
At the time, the island was known as Pulau Blakang Mati, which means “Island of Death From Behind.” Some speculate that this was due to its shady reputation as a place where many of the trading ships that passed through the deep pas- sageway between it and main- land Singapore were raided. “It was a pirates’ lair,” said Barnard. But some historical records
indicate that the name may de- rive from a malaria outbreak that killed many residents in the 1840s, according to Sentosa Lei- sure Group, which manages de- velopment on the island. In 1972, the Singapore govern- ment decided to turn Blakang Mati into a tourist attraction and held a nationwide contest to come up with a new name. Sen- tosa, which means peace and tranquillity in Malay, was select- ed, the villagers were resettled to the mainland and the over-
haul began.
Still, Sentosa remained rela- tively low-key for many more years (although the Singapore government sentenced a politi- cal dissident, Chia Thye Poh, to house arrest on the island in the 1990s). It was accessible only by cable car and ferry until a cause- way for cars and buses was built in 1992, and a monorail system linking mainland Singapore to Sentosa opened in 2007. Since the opening of the ca- sino resort, not far from a giant statue of the Merlion, a half-fish, half-lion that is something of a Singaporean mascot, this cause- way has often been filled at peak hours and on weekends with cars headed for Sentosa. Within the first week of the new resort’s opening in February, the casino alone drew 149,000 visitors, ac- cording to an estimate by Re- sorts World Sentosa. When I walked into the casino
shortly after it opened, it was chaotic. Even in the middle of the afternoon on a weekday, throngs of people filled the mas- sive hall, snapping pictures as they milled around. In a bid to curb gambling among its own, the government has imposed a levy on Singapore citizens who want to gamble: It costs them about $70 just to enter the ca- sino for 24 hours. That hardly seemed a deterrent at the begin- ning, however: Late on the two weeknights I was there, the line to pay the entrance fee was doz- ens of people long, even close to midnight. And inside the casino, dozens of people were packed around each card table, with several piggybacking on those with seats and placing bets on their games as well.
Outside the casino, changes to the once quiet Sentosa continue. There’s a Hard Rock Hotel with a lobby bar overlooking a well- manicured pool area with pri- vate pavilions, each with its own wading pool, and a “beach” filled with soft white sand flown
Equator
Indian Ocean
CHARLES PERTWEE
Tourists pose for photos at the entrance to Singapore’s first casino, which drew 149,000 visitors in the week after its opening. If Singapore citizens want to gamble there, they must pay $70 for a 24-hour stay.
CHINA BURMA LAOS THAI. CAM. 0 MILES 600 BRUNEI
I N D O N E S I A MALAYSIA
SINGAPORE Jakarta
Johor Bahru
MALAYSIA
SINGAPORE Singapore
Sentosa Island
0 MILES GENE THORP/THE WASHINGTON POST
in from Perth, Australia, at a cost of more than $350,000. Re- nowned chef Joël Robuchon is slated to open three restaurants near the casino later this year. In the Hotel Michael, chef Susur Lee, who also has establishments in Washington (Zentan in the Donovan House hotel) and New York, runs a decent operation at Chinois by Susur Lee. The dishes are well-done high-end Chinese: A deliciously fresh marble goby fish was oh-so-lightly breaded and deep-fried. And the double- boiled shark’s fin soup — a dish I don’t generally seek out, for hu- mane reasons, but it was served as part of the $70 set menu I or- dered — came filled with more large slivers of fin than I’ve ever seen in any bowl of the soup. The Malaysia-based Genting Group, which built the resort, has poured significant effort into the design. Artwork by Botero and Salvador Dali looms large in the common areas between the
10 INDONESIA
Hong Kong
Manila PHILIPPINES TAIWAN Ocean Pac. DETAILS
GETTING THERE Qatar Airways has one-stop flights from Washington Dulles to Singapore with fares starting at $1,971 round trip.
WHERE TO STAY Capella Singapore 1 The Knolls 011-65-6377-8888
www.capellasingapore.com Luxury villas and suites on 30 quiet, tree-filled acres. Nightly rates from $398.
Hotel Michael 39 Artillery Ave. 01-65-6577-8899
www.rwsentosa.com A modern boutique hotel featuring rooms and fixtures designed by Michael Graves. Rooms from about $217.
WHERE TO EAT Bikini Bar
50 Siloso Beach, No. 01-05 011-65-6276-6070
www.bikinibar.net
Bar snacks such as grilled sausages and chicken wings right by the beach. Snacks start at $6.50.
Bob’s Bar 1 The Knolls
011-65-6591-5047
www.capellasingapore.com Outdoor cocktails in a sleek, modern setting surrounded by infinity pools and 19th-century trees. Cocktails from $11.50; tapas plates from about $4.
Chinois by Susur Lee 26 Sentosa Gateway, No. 02-142/143 011-65-6884-7888
chinois.com.sg Chinese fine dining by “Top Chef Masters” chef Susur Lee. Entrees from $14.50.
hotels. Smaller pieces by glass sculptor Dale Chihuly are scat- tered about. And the Hotel Mi- chael itself was designed by the whimsical Michael Graves, best known for the modern teakettles he created for Alessi. (Whimsy
Wave House Sentosa 36 Siloso Beach Walk 011-65-6377-3113
www.wavehousesentosa.com Cocktails and food served in a sandy beachside setting. Burgers from $9.25; tapas from about $7.
WHAT TO DO Butterfly Park & Insect Kingdom
At the Imbiah Lookout, next to the Imbiah station 011-65-6275-0013
www.sentosa.com.sg Small park where butterflies fly free; the collection of Southeast Asian insects is displayed in frames, not to worry. Admission $11.50 adults, $7.25 children.
Casino at Resorts World Sentosa 39 Artillery Ave. 011-65-6577-8899
www.rwsentosa.com
Games include such standards as slot machines and roulette; casino acts include comics who sing and joke in Chinese dialects Hokkien and Teochew.
Images of Singapore At the Imbiah Lookout, next to the Imbiah station 011-65-6275-0388
www.sentosa.com.sg The history of Singapore told through wax figures. Admission $7.25 adults; children about $5.
Universal Studios Sentosa 39 Artillery Ave. 011-65-6577-8899
www.rwsentosa.com Features include Shrek’s castle, roller coasters, a Jurassic Park section and a faux Hollywood Boulevard. Admission about $48 adults; children about $35.
INFORMATION
www.sentosa.com.sg
— C.L.T.
doesn’t always translate into practicality, however. An artistic- looking large teepee-shaped structure that covers the hotel lobby waiting area, for example, makes it impossible to spot peo- ple who might be waiting for you
KLMNO
SUNDAY, JULY 18, 2010
— and vice versa — unless you take the extra step of walking into the enclosed space.)
New Sentosa was looking very slick, but I wondered what rem- nants of the Sentosa I once knew remained. So I trekked to Siloso Beach to check out old Sentosa. Very little mars this rustic stretch of sand along the south- ern end of the island — well, ex- cept for the oil tankers and refin- eries dotting the ocean horizon. Rasa Sentosa, one of the island’s oldest hotels, offering scenic pools and outdoor bars, is perched in a quiet corner of the beach, a grand and impressive presence much like the Royal Ha- waiian Hotel on Waikiki Beach. A short walk away, a row of beachside bars and restaurants offer myriad low-key options to watch the sunset while sampling Singaporean Tiger beer. As I sipped cocktails of Moet & Chan- don and mango puree at the Wave House, Lady Gaga and Def Leppard blared from the speak- ers, providing an aggressive, South Beach-like soundtrack for the faux surfers tackling ma- chine-churned waves nearby. A few doors down, at the Bikini Bar, I spent a lovely, quiet hour watching the sun disappear as I snacked on a dish of perfectly grilled glazed chicken wings. Just as I was pondering the di-
chotomy of the two Sentosas — one old, idyllic and charming, the other new, big and loud — and wondering why the two we- ren’t quite converging, I hap- pened upon Capella. Located on top of a hill not far from Sentosa Cove, where multimillion-dollar mansions stand, the luxury hotel can be easy to miss. Blink and you might not see the little en- trance sign blanketed by trees. But wend your way up the hill, and an imposing colonial build- ing that the British military used for galas and balls in the late 1800s gradually appears, a gleaming ivory tower on a canvas of darkness. The place is so still, it feels as if you can hear the leaves rustling in the massive old trees, the gnarliest and grandest of which also date to Singapore’s colonial days. A path led me down to Bob’s Bar, an elegant and quiet outdoor area where the tables are spaced far enough apart so that your neighbors’ chatter is just a low, pleasant hum. But what’s unforgettable is the view: Before you are three brilliantly blue infinity pools shrouded by gently backlit trees, and above you, nothing but the night sky, thick and black, dotted with bright, tiny stars.
Sipping a whiskey to cap the
evening, I sat motionless, listen- ing to the rustling and looking up at the expanse, drinking in a reality without hubbub or neon city lights. This was a sliver of Singapore that I’d truly never ex- perienced. And it was quintes- sential Sentosa: a bit of old, a bit of new. Balancing the two, it seemed, was possible after all.
travel@washpost.com
Tan is a New York-based writer whose food memoir, “A Tiger in the Kitchen,” will be published by Hyperion in February 2011.
BED CHECK The hotel with the crosstown elevator by Andrea Sachs
At the Distrikt Hotel, a new boutique property in Manhattan, guests roam the city by elevator. Take, for instance, my abridged tour de Gotham: To reach my room on the 13th floor, I had to walk by “Central Park,” a patch of living greenery on the lobby wall, and ascend through floors labeled “Financial District,” “Lower East Side” and “Tribeca.” I detoured into “Midtown East” because of a panel misfire before returning south. According to my key card, I would be holed up in Distrikt, So- Ho; Address, 1301. Please inform my family and my mailman. Open since Feb. 1, the hotel in
Midtown West (floors 23-26 in Distriktland) fashions itself after its home town, creating a micro- cosmic Small Apple. For its theme, the 155-room property for- goes the easy route — campy, with Statue of Liberty torch lamps, or obvious, with black-and-white photos of odd architectural angles — for a more subtle, abstract ap- proach. “We wanted to be a New York hotel about New York. It’s about the neighborhoods and the con- trast of the grid versus nature,” said general manager Jennifer Rota. “It’s not in your face. You might not even get it until you talk to the front desk.” To be sure, many of the refer- ences were in the air space over my head. In the lobby, the tear- drop light fixtures hung at vary- ing heights replicate the skyline,
(“Harlem”) as well as more prosa- ic images: an outdoor jewelry ven- dor (“SoHo”), a graffiti-painted truck (“the Village”), sneakers dangling from a telephone wire (“Lower East Side”). “The first time I saw the mu-
rals, I thought, ‘These are inter- esting and very smart,’ ” said Alli- son Leake, a Toronto visitor who was sleeping in “the Village” dur- ing a girlfriends’ getaway. “Most people staying here are tourists, and this reminds them about what’s on every avenue or every area.”
ANDREA SACHS/THE WASHINGTON POST
Decor in the Distrikt Hotel evokes places or things in New York. DETAILS
Rota explained like a docent, and the white wall tiles echo the ones in Grand Central Station. The flower designed in lighter brick on the exterior facade and illumi- nated at night is the althea, which grew wild during the time of the New Amsterdam settlement; the (mis)spelling of the hotel’s moni- ker claims Dutch origins. Behind the check-in desk, a display of dark wood blocks resembles an avant-garde Lego assemblage but is actually a to-scale map of the city, with the hotel’s location rest- ing just above the head of an em- ployee named Lauren. Dancing on that fine line between ingen- ious and OCD is the attire of the men working reservations: a but- ton-down shirt with a square pat- tern (grid) paired with a green tie (nature).
Distrikt Hotel 342 W. 40th St. 888-444-5610
www.distrikthotel.com Nightly rates, $199-$359; packages available.
The 31 floors are named after 10 neighborhoods, one per three floors except for “Midtown West,” which accounts for four. (It was a math issue.) When the elevator door slides open, guests are greet- ed by an original collage of photo- graphs, a dizzying compilation of scenes from that particular ’hood. The artworks feature recogniz- able icons such as the Guggen- heim building (“Central Park”) and the Apollo Theater sign
Due to security, guests can only access their own floor, plus the two above and below. But if you want a tour of the collages, ask an employee or ride the elevator a lot, catching snatches as people load and unload. For personal viewing, each room features a framed detail of the artwork, a postcard of it and, during turndown, a chocolate wrapped in the print that, by this time, you can now re-create your- self and sell in SoHo. Despite its homage to Manhat- tan, Distrikt skips some common New Yorkisms: The guestrooms are not claustrophobic (198 to 243 square feet), noisy with street clatter (the windows are covered in glass that airports use to mute plane engines) or stratospherical- ly priced (from $199, though with a green promotion, I paid $139). “This feels exclusive,” said Liz
Blake, one of the Canadians. “We’re just wondering when they are going to jack the price up.”
sachsa@washpost.com
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