colours Get a taste of what it will be like when travel to Singapore can restart with Katie McGonagle’s guide
DESTINATIONS SINGAPORE | ASIA
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tepping into Singapore’s striking ArtScience Museum, it was as if the past 10 months had never
happened. Inside the lotus flower-shaped building, childish giggles filled the air as little ones bounded around with huge light-filled balls that changed colour each time they bounced off the floor. They gathered at tiny tables to draw their favourite sea creatures, then stared in awe as purple octopuses and rainbow- striped fish were projected across the walls in a larger-than-life undersea world, as if brought to life purely by the power of their imagination. The museum’s Future World exhibit combines the best of art and engineering in a place so exciting and inspiring that kids’ (and adults’) minds can’t help but be fired up with the spark of creativity. You can watch butterflies flit across the walls and flowers grow to the size of tall trees, walk through interactive displays where birds swoop and swirl around you or stroll through a space-like tunnel of starry lights, all the while forgetting about the realities of the pandemic outside. That’s not to say life hasn’t changed in
Singapore. Face masks are ubiquitous and obligatory everywhere, including outdoors, which can be uncomfortable given the heat and humidity; there are restrictions on gatherings; you must check in and out of every venue to comply with the city’s strict
track-and-trace rules; and borders remain closed to all but a handful of nations. Yet once British travellers are allowed to visit, some of those changes might work in its favour for clients who feel reassured to know how strictly Singapore has enforced its rules and how – once on-arrival testing is out of the way – they can still experience the melting-pot cultural mix of the Asian city-state.
TRAVEL SAFE My visit to attend hybrid travel conference TravelRevive at Marina Bay Sands, the first Covid-safe in-person travel event to be held in the region, looking at how the tourism sector can rebuild, was a taster of what the experience might be like once Singapore’s borders reopen to leisure travellers. Having been granted special permission to enter the country for the conference, the requirements were stringent but straightforward: a PCR test within 72 hours before departure, and another test on arrival at the airport (costing around £110), with a short quarantine in a hotel room at the Mandarin Oriental Singapore until the results arrived later that evening. I filled out an SG Arrival Card prior
to departure, listing where I’d been in the past 14 days, entered my details via the simple-to-use Safe Travel Concierge site, and downloaded the obligatory ²
travelweekly.co.uk
17 DECEMBER 2020
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